Opinions - How Long on Refrigerator Aged Raw Cryovac Packer Brisket???

[SonnyE]

I'm adventuresome. I say if it smells OK, and looks OK, cook it, OK?

The only thing I threw out without even tasting was a river carp I cooked once and it felt like a bag of diarrhea.
I just wanted to try cooking the thang.

That went into a campground trash can far, far away.
I was afraid to break the skin on it.

(Hey! If you don't want to smell what I throw away, don't drive the trash truck.)

[SonnyE]

Originally Posted by thirdeye

You really need to know the kill date, or pack date which are usually the same day, which is shown on the case. Without this you don't know if the meat is 4 days old or 40 days old when you buy it. A case of beef can stay in a 28° walk-in for quite a while. Sometimes when buying briskets, my Sam's store will have a case in the walk-in with 2 or 3 weeks of wet aging already on them so I'll only age them a week or so. Other times I'll get one with a week of aging, and I'll age another 30 days in my beer fridge which is around 30°.

Meat in the case does not come from the processor with a label, the meatcutters print a label when it's moved to the meat case. The reason the label shows a "use by" or "sell by" date is because most home refrigerators run about 40° and have a lot of traffic. It's a food safety move by the store to make sure the product stays fresh.

PS - ignore the label description, this really is a brisket....

Hey thirdeye, that has to be the coarsest ground beef I ever did see.
It looks like a single piece.
Did they just wave it at the grinder on the way to the label maker?

[thirdeye]

Originally Posted by SonnyE

Hey thirdeye, that has to be the coarsest ground beef I ever did see.
It looks like a single piece.
Did they just wave it at the grinder on the way to the label maker?

I didn't even notice that until several days later when someone was asking about brisket prices their area. I had them bring out 3 or 4 from the back, then got into a long conversation with the meat cutter about wet aging and 15 minutes later he took the one I picked and printed a label. I'm guessing I saved about $0.30 or $0.35 per pound.

[stijntje113]

I've got a different question. I had/have a Wagyu Brisket.
It was quite expensive, and when I opened the vacuum (after about a month after slaughter) it smelled very bad.
I saw a black spot on the side. I'm not sure how it came there the vacuum was still intact.
After removing the black spot, I noticed that was also where the smell was coming from. I removed the black spot and put it in a new vacuum bag.
I have put that in the fridge and after opening it after a week, it didn't smell bad.
I have now frozen it but I doubt if I should eat it.. What would you do?

[thirdeye]

Originally Posted by stijntje113

I've got a different question. I had/have a Wagyu Brisket.
It was quite expensive, and when I opened the vacuum (after about a month after slaughter) it smelled very bad.
I saw a black spot on the side. I'm not sure how it came there the vacuum was still intact.
After removing the black spot, I noticed that was also where the smell was coming from. I removed the black spot and put it in a new vacuum bag.
I have put that in the fridge and after opening it after a week, it didn't smell bad.
I have now frozen it but I doubt if I should eat it.. What would you do?

If it's a Snake River Farms brisket, I thought they were wet aged 30 days prior to freezing, but regardless this sounds questionable. Did this "spot" appear to be bruised flesh, did it appear like a tumor of sorts, or was it a bloody mass?

[stijntje113]

No, I live in the Netherlands. It was from a local farm and not frozen before.
It was not bloody, I think more bruised. (haven't made pictures)