# Freeze or use by date



## crazzycajun (May 2, 2019)

I know we have beat this to death, but Kroger had bogo on pork shoulder. I’m cooking two of these sat may 11,and these are dated May 5. First instinct is meat can’t tell time there’s no sense in freezing for 4 days then thawing in fridge for three days. Would even sweat it but having company for graduation and these are the guest of honor. I would cook then reheat but with my clan don’t think there would be anything to reheat. What would you do?


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## fivetricks (May 2, 2019)

If you want a bit of confidence in the subject, please look up/into "wet aging beef"

Once you see how long meat can be aged safely it should give you some peace of mind about 6 days.

The golden rule is, if it smells bad pitch it. If not, cook it


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## chef jimmyj (May 2, 2019)

Generally, an extra week in Sealed Cryovac is no issue. If Store Wrapped on trays or the package is leaking or full of air, it will spoil before you get to smoke them. Store in the back bottom shelf oF the least used refer you own. Keeping cold is good insurance. Unwrap a day or two out so you can have time to get replacements if spoiled. Give this meat a rinse and a heavy coat of your salty Rub. This will inhibit bacteria the remaining days...JJ


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## chopsaw (May 2, 2019)

crazzycajun said:


> What would you do?


I've had bad luck lately with cryovac'd butts and ribs on sale . So if you don't freeze or cook , make sure you open it up early ( like JJ said ) so you can get replacements if needed .


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## crazzycajun (May 3, 2019)

Thanks guys for the reassurance, chopsaw was it the smell or something else ? Same brand or vendor?


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## dr k (May 3, 2019)

Like JJ said you have a few days with pork when in its original cryovaced pkg from the processing plant but maybe pork loins have been dry aged, being lean but I wouldn't age pork since this more unsaturated fat compared to beef turns rancid quickly which is one of the main reasons it's cured. This is from themeatweeat.com:
Pork and lamb are slaughtered at a young age, which results in inherently tender meat. Therefore, pork and lamb are usually not aged but are processed the day following slaughter. Also, pork fat is more unsaturated than beef or lamb fat and thus is more subject to development of rancid ﬂavors unless promptly processed and packaged.


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## chopsaw (May 3, 2019)

Most of it was the smell , which don't always mean " bad " . I had a butt that the sell by was the day I bought it . Sat in fridge over nite . Next day the smell was strong . Let it air out a bit , wasn't getting any better . Also the surface was pretty slimy . After my daughter said " How many times you gonna smell that ? " I tossed it .

3 pack of ribs . Strong smell when opened . Washed off , still smelled . I was in the middle of cooking them , still smelled it , so those went in the trash .

Just some bad luck on those , don't remember the brand . I just bought 3 double packs that were boned and trimmed . They sat a couple days past the date and were fine .


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## noboundaries (May 3, 2019)

I buy meat on the "freeze or sell by" date all the time. A lot of the cryovac labels I've seen recently have changed to "sell by" only, or no date at all. I check the dateless labels packaging for no air and sealing integrity. Just picked up two cryovac, untrimmed spares this past Monday that had no date. I passed on several that had air in the sealed pak. In all the years I've bought ribs this way, I've only had one bad rack. 

The shelf in my fridge where I keep meat is low in the fridge and stays at 34F. I've had no problem buying meat on the package date, keeping it in the sealed pac until the weekend. The one bad rack was opened several days BEFORE the F or SB date.


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## dr k (May 3, 2019)

With whole cryovaced sub primal beef I usually ask for the box date since it's usually within 24 hours it was processed and go by that date and have it cooked or frozen before the wet aged 45 days. Usually not to wet age but for when I can get to it. I picked up a spare slab with tips and brisket bone attached last weekend with a sell by date of 5.15.19.  So there's a decent amount of time with pork if cryovaced when processed.  I've found pork loins and ribs with the packaging date on the cryo plastic. Sometimes you have to look close for the tiny purple print if it's there at all..


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