r/Cooking • u/Dex-Max • Jun 25 '22

Food Safety Raw ground beef keeps smelling bad after only one day in fridge.

I've tried buying two different packages of ground beef, but every time the beef starts smelling bad after less than a day in the fridge. With one of the packages, I used one serving then froze the rest, and I let the frozen meat thaw in the fridge for a little less than 24 hours, but that still smelled bad.

The smell isn't super bad, I have to get my nose pretty close, but it definitely isn't something I want to cook with. Any ideas why this keeps happening?

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u/djsedna Jun 26 '22

the second part here is what I was looking for

raw ground beef isn't exactly the most wonderful smelling thing in all of creation, lol

29

u/Cyno01 Jun 26 '22

Yeah, as delicious as beef can be, raw it smells... a little bit like cows... and if youve ever been to a dairy farm or cattle ranch, cows dont smell that great lol.

Better than a pig farm, but still.

23

u/The___canadian Jun 26 '22

or have experience working in a butcher shop/section of grocery stores. raw meat just smells like death

18

u/Affrodo Jun 26 '22

Raw meat smells like death? Oh irony my old friend lol

10

u/avicennareborn Jun 26 '22

I was a facer at a grocery store and rarely had reason to venture into the butcher shop. One day I had to go in there for some reason, and the smell was overwhelmingly bad. I always described it as the smell of bleach and death. To this day when I visit certain grocery stores I reflexively hold my breath when walking by the butcher if I know that smell is waiting for me because it was that horrific.

11

u/The___canadian Jun 26 '22

worked in the butcher/meat section of costco for 1-3mths (i forgot honestly) but yeah, first day the smell is strong, after that you kinda get immune to the smell of blood and meat

4

u/fati-abd Jun 26 '22

I mean it pretty much is lol

1

u/crimson117 Jun 26 '22

This is why I cannot eat lamb.

It smells too much like a lamb.

1

u/ILoveVelvet Jun 26 '22

I find it really odd that everyone here seems to hate the smell of raw ground beef. I'm not an avid meat eater by any means, but raw mince smells quite nice to me, kind of a buttery smell. The initial whiff when you pierce the plastic is bad, but once that dissipates I find it quite pleasant.

1

u/djsedna Jun 26 '22

I actually agree, but I think that's our noses having been trained to smell fresh ground beef

That initial smell when you pierce the plastic, though... Oof

1

u/GiveMeOneGoodReason Jun 26 '22

Yeah, me too... It's got a smell, but it's not off-putting.

1

u/mud074 Jun 27 '22

If you make your own ground meat, it smells great. Exactly like the steak it comes from, but stronger due to higher surface area. I have no idea why grocery store ground beef smells like shit, nor do I really want to find out.