Is is normal for venison to stink?

[Sherri in MI]

Our frig smells very bad as of last night, like bad broccoli or brussel srpouts, but there are none in the frig.  My husband did, however, take a chub of ground venison out of the freezer last night (it's been in there a year and a half) and I suspect it is that.  He said it's normal for it to smell that way.  I'm worried it's not safe to eat.  My dh can eat what he wants, but I don't want my son eating it and getting sick, especially since he is leaving for a week long trip tomorrow.  I'm just not going to risk it, but I am wondering is it normal for it to stink?  Does venison in the freezer have a shelf life in terms of food safety?  My thought is if any food stinks, it's not safe.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

 

[madteaparty]

I don't know, but I will say i am someone who takes liberties with refrigeration; even I would not eat stinky meat. I discovered that was my hard line when I tossed so much organic Costco chicken that had a bad smell.

Soup left overnight on stove, no problem, reboil and eat. There's just something about stinky raw meat...I'm not saying it's rational here.

[plansrme]

I have venison and elk in my freezer, and when properly thawed, they do not stink but ever so slightly more than beef, even when they've been in there for over a year.  Even then, it's not a "stink up your fridge" smell, but if you stick your nose on it, it smells stronger than beef.  Not bad, really, just meatier.  Could there be blood pooling out of the meat, and the blood is what you're smelling?  I am with you on not eating stinky meat, ever (and I have a very sensitive nose), but I've sometimes thrown away the packaging from beef or chicken, rinsed the meat and found that the spoiled smell was only in the packaging.  It might be hard to do that with ground meat, though.

 

Now, if you have a freezer full of oh, let's say, elk, and your freezer door gets left open an inch or so for days, you will walk into your house one fine Friday afternoon and think someone died in it.  But that's another post!

[Critterfixer]

To me, venison does stink. I never thought of it as all that sulfurous. But it is stinky.

[MomtoCandJ]

It does have a stronger smell than beef but I wouldn't call it stinky....

[TracyP]

I wouldn't call it stinky, but it is stronger than beef. My mom HATES venison and cannot stomach grass fed beef because of the slightly gamey smell. I have even seen her gag when cooking hamburger because of the smell, and I couldn't smell a darn thing except deliciousness. I think this can be subjective, so it is hard to know for sure. If your dh thinks it is okay, I would probably defer to him.

 

Usually you do want to eat frozen meat within a year, but I have eaten older beef and venison. Both do get even "gamier" smelling the longer they have been stored, but I have never seen them actually go bad.

[kbutton]

Sometimes it does stink. We ate venison growing up, and some deer were very smelly, and others were not. I think it had a lot to do with their diet, as well as the sex and age of the deer (my dad accidentally misjudged the size of a deer once, and it was quite small and young--it was the tastiest deer ever!). Oddly enough, after we cooked the meat, one deer might taste a bit different than others, but the cooked meat didn't taste bad, even when the deer was smelly.

 

Some people prefer to age their venison in the fridge for a couple of days before cooking it (the butcher doesn't usually hang the meat for a while like they do with beef before processing). I do NOT care for meat like this. Give me smelly venison, but make it fresh. ;-)

 

[Catwoman]

I would throw it away if it's stinky. I wouldn't take the chance that it may have gone bad.

[BlsdMama]

It does have a stronger smell than beef but I wouldn't call it stinky....

This.

 

I wouldn't categorize it as stinky, just a stronger raw meat smell.

 

ETA: That said, I'm used to "corn-fed" Iowa deer.  We had a friend of family give us a mule deer buck once - one package and I will NEVER EVER touch that stuff again.  I couldn't even eat it in chili.  Ugh.

[Katy]

If you're away from the corn growing region, and this was a larger buck, I'm sorry to say it's normal for it to have a weird, strong, gamey smell and taste.

 

There's a difference between gamey and rotten though.  Is the texture off?  Is it slimey?

 

Are you in the few days before your period or could you be pregnant and more sensitive to smells?  Do you have an unusually sensitive nose?

 

You might want to put it in a chili or stew to mask the flavor.  Or just skip it and make your DH eat it.

[RegGuheert]

Does venison in the freezer have a shelf life in terms of food safety?

 

The answer depends on the temperature of the freezer.  Was it a so-called "deep-freeze" or was it in the freezer attached to your refrigerator?  If it was in a deep-freeze (-10F to -20F), I would expect it to be OK after 18 months (but not much longer).  If it was in the freezer attached to your refrigerator for that long, I would absolutely throw it out.

[kbutton]

Onions and tomato products also help with the gamey flavor, assuming the meat is okay and just strong tasting or smelling. And (real) maple syrup on venison that has been slice and fried in butter...unbeatable.

[Melissa in Australia]

it has a stronger smell than other meats, and even when cooking can give off a strong gamey smell.

[Ausmumof3]

It doesn't really stink, but may have a slightly different smell. Apparently there are some glands that need to be carefully avoided when butchering so if it isn't off but it has a strange smell I would suspect someone hadn't done a great job of that.

[Catwoman]

Soooooo..... did you eat it?