Fishy pork

[lame username]

Just got some lovely grass-fed beef (1/2 calf, dry aged, vacuum packed) from a local CSA and waiting for our 1/2 pork. Learned he had a pork belly in the freezer. After agreeing to buy, he admitted it was near a year old but would sell it to me for $2.50 a pound. I was anxious to try "The Most Freaking Delicious Thing To Ever Come Out Of My Kitchen" by J. Kenji López-Alt http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/12/the-food-lab-deep-fried-sous-vide-36-hour-all-belly-porchetta.html. It was 22 lbs. of skin-on pork belly; vital for the recipe (difficult to find, I can only get skinless at my local Whole Foods), so I went for it. It was not vacuum sealed, and had some freezer burn, but I was desperate. Spent a half hour microplaning 12 cloves of garlic, etc., to cure two of the four square portions the belly was cut into. Meanwhile, my husband cut one of the squares into blocks and seared them. They smelled like fish. A piece "fell off" which we sampled. It tasted like fish. Crazily, he went ahead and simmered the blocks with a rub in ale for 4 hours, cut it into slices and fryed it after cooling in the fridge overnight. Almost damn good, but redolent of fish. I'd already rubbed and rolled 2 of the other pieces, so I plunged in and cured them, vacuum sealed in the fridge for 3 days and one is now about 12 hours into the Sous Vide bath. A sniff under the lid has no fishy smell, just cooking cured pork. We haven't died yet from trying the fishy pork on Sunday. Am I insane to finish the 36 hour Sous Vide time? I keep hoping that only one quarter of the belly was freezer burnt, or something. I tell myself, the Sous Vide bath would smell fishy if my laboriously created roll was tainted. I'm thinking I'll cut off a slice at the end of the Sous Vide time before investing in a couple quarts of peanut oil to deep fry the thing. But I REALLY want to try the most freaking delicious thing ever to come out of Kenji's kitchen. He's the guy who convinced me to buy a Sous Vide Supreme after trying his beer cooler hack. Any questions, any answers, anyone want a mint?

[tikidoc]

Ask the farmer about feed. Some feeds do have fish meal in them, which can give the meat an off flavor. Pork can also taste funny if it has "boar taint", which can happen with some breeds if they slaughtered later than usual. I would chat with the farmer before buying half a pig.

[lame username]

Thanks. Pooh, I've already paid half on deposit for the pork. Well, I'll have to chalk this up to a CSA learning experience.

[tikidoc]

Who knows, it may have been in the freezer with a bunch of fish too. I wouldn't panic yet. I would mention it to the farmer though.

[OliverB]

definitely mention it and I admire your adventurous spirit here! If I'd have pork that smells like fish it would be in the trash pretty quick :-)

As for pork belly in the future, if you have any Asian supermarkets in your area, they usually carry pork belly with skin on. You may also be able to order it from a butcher or good meat counter in a good market.

I've had the no skin problem with pork I got directly from the farm, Berkshire. Those are very hairy and they don't have the facility to scald and de-hair it, so it's always w/o skin. Unfortunately.

Edit to add: That recipe you link to now has ME in a panic of finding some pork belly NOW! Wow, that looks absolutely delicious!

Edited April 10, 2012 by OliverB (log)

[Shalmanese]

Any decent supplier, if you told them you got fishy smelling pork, would give you an immediate refund with no hesitation.

[lame username]

Edit to add: That recipe you link to now has ME in a panic of finding some pork belly NOW! Wow, that looks absolutely delicious!

Doesn't it! If this belly fails, I'll be on an emergency search for a replacement. I do have at least one large Asian market in town. Thanks for the tip.

[KennethT]

I wonder if the fishy smell was coming from a slight rancidity of the pork fat, since it was in the freezer for so long, effectively unwrapped?

[budrichard]

I would find another CSA. Anyone selling year olf freezer burnt product is nit someone I woukd deal with.

I NEVER eat anything that smells like fish including fish as that smell results from decomposition.

The reason it smells like fish can be varied and really nit worth ascertaining a root cause but shows a lacmk of

undrestanding of food safety. According to a Fede ral site on fish and how to tell freshness, your nose is the best ind indicator of freshness.

BTW What is a half calf dry sged beef? Never heard of such a thing?

I purchase my meat fresh, whole, half or Primals and either cut myself or have a processor I know cut and package. -Dick

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[Crouton]

I don't know what's going on, but i've been tasting really weird/off flavors in Pork Loin lately. I don't know if it's boar taint or not, but the last several times I've cooked a loin, the taste was way off. Like a VERY gamy/barn yard taste.

[JHeald]

Pork tends to take on the taste of the food that it eats. This is why some pork suppliers feed their animals things like apple cores and nuts. Pigs also eat a lot, and they need a fairly large amount of protein in their diet, so as another poster mentioned, fish meal was once very popular. Similar to how cows are often finished on grain to substantially increase their weight, pigs were once fed large amounts of fish (i.e. fish guts and trimmings) to bring them to market size. It was somewhere is Eastern Europe, where they had a lot of fish guts left over. Anyways, people didn't really like their pork tasting like fish, so it's not a common practice anymore. Unfortunately for you, fish meal is still a source of protein, and can be used for mr. piggy...

[OliverB]

very true that it tastes like what it eats! I got a piece of belly from my farmer, they had fed walnuts to finish the animals. It had a very distinct nut flavor, tasted like nothing I'd ever eaten before. Certainly not like bacon, but it was made like any other bacon. I could see using it in some special applications, but not for bacon and eggs or anything like that. Maybe they fed their animals something fishy?

[budrichard]

Abrief word abiut pork sold in the USA.

Much of tge Supermarket pork sold has been injected with a water/chemical soluvTion ostensibly to tatse better but its really to prolong shelf life and add water weight.

That may account for different smells.

I don't purchase any of this pork so I can't tell you.

Pork will take on the flavour of what the animal is finished on but in the US that is rarely anything other than standard feed.-Dick

[lame username]

BTW What is a half calf dry sged beef? Never heard of such a thing?

I purchase my meat fresh, whole, half or Primals and either cut myself or have a processor I know cut and package. -Dick

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My local processor will dry age before vacuum sealing and quick freezing.

The farmer did immediately refund my cost for the belly when I told him about it yesterday. I was waiting to see how the sous-vide belly turned out. I cut off a piece and seared it before commiting to the peanut oil deep fry. It didn't smell fishy, but it was a bit strange. I think it might have been from the fennel and star anise, but my husband said, "No, it's off, toss it". I'm going to try the asian grocery today.

[budrichard]

My local processor will dry age before vacuum sealing and quick freezing.

I don't believe either your processor is telling you the truth or you correctly understand what he is telling you.

All beef is hung for a period of time before processing but this is NOT dry aging, I'm not aware of anyone selling properly dry aged beef frozen, its kept as a whole primal and cut as required from the aging primal.

What is a "half calf"?

To me thats veal and not beef. -Dick