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"Off" Flavor from Baby Pork Leg?


tkassum

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Hello everyone

I bought a baby pig leg from my local independent butcher this week, which is a generally excellent and highly regarded institution. It looked wonderful but when I unwrapped it I noticed a slightly off flavor - sort of like a combination of formaldehyde and sweat.

I decided not to worry about it and instead went ahead with my recipe (a pork confit out of Keller's Under Pressure. The recipe involved putting the entire leg, skin on, in the water bath for 8 hours at 175 degrees. Afterwards, I took out the leg and dissected off the meat to make little pork cubes. I've attached a pic of what the final dish looked like, for your viewing pleasure.

The "off" flavor seemed concentrated in the skin and subcutaneous fat. It was so disconcerting for me that I ended up tossing the skin entirely and just turning the confited meat into a 'hash' of sorts.

The meal ended up okay but I wanted to get some thoughts and suggestions. Has anyone else had experiences like this with weird 'off' flavors from skin-on pork, especially baby pig? Any ideas on how to avoid? Things to request at the butcher?

Thanks

IMG_2687.JPG

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Some where in USDA literature is a section on how to determine if fish is fresh. The conclusion is that your nose is the best determiner of freshness. This also applies for other products. Your pork(I don't know exactly what the term 'baby' implies because I don't believe it exists in USDA standards which would give cause why you would continue using your source), was contaminated either thorgh a cleaning agent, which is more and more common as Hazards Analysis Standards has caused far better cleaning of processing stations and equipment but sometimes leaves a cleaning residue, or spoilage as evidenced by an ammonia smell. The third cause could be contamination during processing from intestinal waste or feces. This usually doesn't have an ammonia aspect. I suspect spoiled meat. In any event if it smells bad or off, take it back and don't use. Pork, whether suckling or 200# should smell fresh and clean.

'Boar Taint' comes from early in the 20th century when both female and boars were slaughtered and brought to market. It still persists as a term even though Boars are not brought to market any more for whole cuts.-Dick

Edited by budrichard (log)
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First, I'd have thrown it out (or better returned it) and most likely would not SV anything that might be slightly off, full heat and lots of spice would be my remedy if really in a bind. Like the medieval cooks :laugh:

Don't know about your cut, but I've had a pork tenderloin recently that was similar, just an off smell once I thawed it. I had frozen it immediately after buying, it was cryovaced at the processing plant (was from costco) and should not have had a chance to go bad. But it had an odd smell probably similar to yours. Also the outer layer of meat was somewhat grainy, not tight as usual. Since I had no plans for a costco run and it wasn't worth it money wise I just threw it out.

In your case, I'd definitely let the butcher know. I'd probably call and ask to speak to the manager or head butcher and describe this (instead of making everybody uncomfortable in the store with other customers) and see what he says. If it were me, I'd offer you a free replacement for sure. And next time I'd highly recommend not to use any meat that might be off, and especially not for low and slow cooking, be it SV or smoking or slow cooking.

All that aside, your dish looks wonderful!

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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In the past I have had "off" flavours in pork. One one memorable occasion I had ordered 3 cases of ribs in for an upcoming bbq. The ribs were brined, then spice rubbed, then smoked, then braised. When I sampled a bit I had a wierd flavour, like carbolic acid. Then it dawned on me, it tasted like the smell of Pine-sol or the equivelent. Called up my butcher and asked about his fridge cleaning procedure, and sure enough the fridge was swamped out with "detergent" a few days before my delivery.....

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