Pork Odor or What am I Smelling?

[Pog Mo Thoin]

In disclosure, I have a great sense of smell. I can generally pick out odors no one else can smell.

So I have done butts the traditional way and other ways. On several of them I smell a foul odor after they have been cooked. I know the meat was good going into the smoker and when it came out. We have eaten the meat and everyone liked it, no complaints, I just smell something off on about 15% of the butts. No one else can smell it.

A month or so ago I made two meat loafs (beef and sausage mix). I smoked one and froze the other. The first one was awesome. No identified odor. A couple days ago I smoked the second one and once again I smelled that foul odor after it was smoked. Nothing beforehand. No one else could smell the odor. It actually resembles a decomposition type odor to me. Gross.

Does anyone have any idea what I could be smelling on some of the meat? It always is with pork, never before being cooked. Always after it was cooked. Again, the meat was always done and tasted good. But the odor just about makes be puke. Looking to try to find an answer.

Thanks all

POG

 

[Gnarlbecue]

With pork butts, there are some glands that the butcher is supposed to remove that sometimes add an off flavor if not removed.

Pork sometimes has a "gamey" flavor from some suppliers. Maybe try a different source? Or talk to your butcher and make sure they are removing glands etc.

 

[SmokinAussie]

^^^ That's instantly where I was headed. The glands could be the issue. Secondly can you be sure you are sourcing female only pork.. You might simply have to start using a more expensive and reliable butcher.

 

[JIMSMOKES]

Can you smell it in your smoker or just after you have let it rest and are pulling it?

 

[viking72]

Boar hog

 

[ModelMaker]

Wood, pellets, charcoal, lump? If no smell going into cooker, but a smell coming out, I would suspect heat source, or cleanliness of the cooker.
Ed

 

[halfcocked]

Its not a boar hog if one meat loaf smells different from the other in the same mix. Though I have had boar and I never killed another after. Just sow or bar.

 

[Pog Mo Thoin]

Can you smell it in your smoker or just after you have let it rest and are pulling it?

With butts I start smelling it as they rest and it really comes on strong when being pulled. At one point I had to leave the room it was so nauseating for me. No one else could smell it. With the meat loaf, pretty similar. Did not smell it in the smoker, just when I started to slice it up.

 

[Gnarlbecue]

I am also sort of a "super taster" or super smeller. I can usually detect off smells and flavors that no one else really picks up on.

Your description of only smelling the off notes as you rest a pork butt, or start pulling it apart sounds familiar to me.

When i last experienced an unpleasant smell after a cook, I chalked it up to lower quality meat, or maybe sub optimal freshness, or even just a bad pig.

I have learned to stay away from cheaper suppliers, and only buy mid to top shelf stuff from grocery stores or butchers that I trust.

I think it's either poor butchery, or lower quality meat. Or maybe a freshness issue with your supplier.

Try a different source.

I haven't experienced the "pork funk" in a negative way since I stepped up from commodity grade pork, to the better quality stuff from better sources.

 

[Ylouder]

i cant eat most pork anymore, about 10 years ago i got real sensitive to its smell. i can now only eat cured bacon, and thats only rarely.

it just smells disgusting.

 

[frayedend]

I was doing some research on gland removal because of this thread. What I found was there is something called boar taint when males aren't castrated before sexual maturity. It has nothing to do with the glands from what I read. Could be this but only after cooking I can't be sure.

 

[SonVolt]

Have you had Covid? After regaining my sense of smell/taste in 2020 certain things still smell weird/foul. Cilantro, Cumin and Burning Wood still smell off 2 years later.

 

[Smoking Piney]

In my experience, cryovac meats can smell a little off when you first open them, but a rinse usually takes care of that.

I have never experienced any off putting scents cooking pork.

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

Eat beef.

 

[mchar69]

when males aren't castrated before sexual maturity.

That is definitely a thing with lamb, so I would not be surprised if it were the same with pork.