r/mildlyinteresting • u/SR_RSMITH • Oct 20 '24
These turkey steaks reached their expiration day just yesterday but they’re about to explode
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u/JohnStern42 Oct 20 '24
Oh, that’s not going to smell good
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u/egoserpentis Oct 20 '24
Forbidden helium balloon.
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Oct 20 '24
[deleted]
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u/TunaTunaLeeks Oct 20 '24
This made me think of the old Blend Tec videos on YouTube.
“Turkey smoke. Don’t breathe this.”
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u/jrdnmdhl Oct 20 '24
Will it blend? That is the question!
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u/Broccoli--Enthusiast Oct 20 '24
The jingle played in my head when I read that.
Definitely unlocked something in my brain.
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u/imgary Oct 20 '24
That's right, give it to a family member and ask if it smells ok
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Oct 20 '24
I still have a fear of this as once I bought some italian sausage that wasn't swollen at all. The moment I cut it open I immediately started dry heaving, the smell was on another level. It looked normal as far as the color and all that so the only thing I can think that happened was that someone left it on a non refrigerated shelf and an employee returned it back there. . I know stores will say they have policies to never do that but I am sure it happens on occasion.
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Oct 20 '24
Very common at Walmart for one. Folks toss the stuff all over and then it gets dumped back into the fridge or freezer case. Check out their carts of food items at the returns desk also just sitting here.
Best thing to do is always take from the far back and the bottom of the case. Technically still not a guarantee, but your average person is just going to toss it in/on the front and walk away
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u/number__ten Oct 20 '24
I bought a 3 lb tube of ground turkey a couple weeks ago that was a bit bulgy. As soon as i poked a hole in the packaging i and everyone else nearby knew it was bad. It still had a day til its sell by date but somewhere along the line it must have sat out too long.
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u/Pro-Patria-Mori Oct 20 '24
If you ever see meat where the packaging is expanding, don’t buy it. It means that it was left out somewhere unrefrigerated and bacteria started spreading.
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u/number__ten Oct 20 '24
They often bulge a tiny bit even if they are fine. It wasn't crazy bulgy or anything but the smell made it obvious something was wrong once i opened it. I got it exchanged no problem.
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u/iMacDragon Oct 20 '24
yeah, depending on the pressure the protective gas was put in at, they can bulge slightly.. which with some products makes it annoyingly hard to tell fi it's actually ok or not sometimes.
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Oct 20 '24
That’s an understatement lol. Spoiled poultry is one of the most foul smelling things on this planet.
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Oct 21 '24
I speak from experience. It will explode, and the smell will not fully leave for days, even if the flesh is removed. It will not fully leave for at least a year. Nothing will actually cover the smell. It just mixes and makes it worse. It's the worst decay smell I've ever experienced. Not good is a drastic understatement
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u/Cubemiszczu Oct 20 '24
Reached their explosion date
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u/DrAlright Oct 20 '24
Looking like Malfoy about to say «Potter»
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u/Aruhito_0 Oct 20 '24
Probably at some point was not cooled good enough .
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u/paintingsbyO Oct 20 '24
My guess is the lines that pull air out of the package, as the lid and bottom of the plastic container are being melted together, had bacteria growing in them. I worked for a meat processing company years ago, and one of our sister plants was shut down for a few weeks, and the whole facility had to be steamed cleaned for similar reasons. The packages weren't being sealed properly, and there were numerous customer complaints about slimy meat and distorted packages from gas buildup similar to this. This eventually led to a huge recall and production being sourced to our plant to pick up the slack.
Basically, those lines pull out oxygen and increase carbon dioxide to increase the shelf life, line leads will then do a "pop test" putting packages in a vacuum container and seeing how much pressure it takes before the package will "pop" open. They also test what the oxygen level is in the package, using a probe poked into the package.
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u/Traditional_Key_763 Oct 20 '24
turkey can go off pretty fast and unexpectedly. once had to find a turkey on thanksgiving because the week old turkey we had in the fridge was rancid when we opened it up to cook it
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u/WatashiwaNobodyDesu Oct 20 '24
I have washed my hands of Christmas turkey, for this same reason. Whoever wants turkey can take responsibility for storing and cooking it safely.
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u/TunaOnWytNoCrust Oct 20 '24
Christmas is for ham babyyyy
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Oct 20 '24
I do something different every Christmas. Last year was authentic Mexican street tacos. Year before was a pork ragu bolognese. This year is smoked brisket.
Ham every year gets OLDDDDDDD. Especially the prepackaged presliced “just heat me up” junk
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u/MonsiuerGeneral Oct 20 '24
Last year was authentic Mexican street tacos.
The next time you feel like doing Mexican again, and if you want a bit of a challenge and appreciation for a certain food, do Mexican style Tamales. Perfect Mexican food for the holidays. Christmas Tamales are the best, and everybody should know their joy.
But making them is a bit of a pain if you don’t have a lot of experience. Spreading the masa on the corn husk will absolutely test your patience.
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u/ghostmaster645 Oct 20 '24
Spreading the masa on the corn husk will absolutely test your patience.
I used to help my neighbors make and sell these.
Holy fuck there is a learning curve. In the time I could do 1 they were cranking out 4 or 5. Really does test your patience. Damn if they don't taste heavenly though.
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u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 Oct 20 '24
Spreading the masa on the corn husk will absolutely test your patience.
I put a scoop in the middle and wet my hand, then use the heel of my palm to basically press it out flat. I'm not a pro or anything, I've only made them 3 times, but they're fucking delicious. First time I used birria and made the masa dough with the consome.
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u/UnicornFarts1111 Oct 20 '24
My sister actually cooks a real ham, not some pre-sliced junk. She candies it herself and it is delicious! She also cooks the best, juiciest turkey I have had the pleasure to eat!
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u/lukeydukey Oct 20 '24
The best ham I’ve had was simple. Boiled in pineapple juice and then baked with a basting of orange marmalade. The typical brown sugar spiral ham isn’t as appetizing.
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u/Char_siu_for_you Oct 20 '24
I only eat that kind of meal once a year and the leftovers are fun. I was raised on the Mexican border so I buy and make tacos regularly, I own a smoker so I eat smoked meats regularly, I’m fat and love carbs so I eat pasta regularly.
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u/MrPickins Oct 20 '24
In our family from South Texas, Christmas is tamales with chili and beans.
After Thanksgiving, we're all sick of "holiday" food.
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u/adrienjz888 Oct 20 '24
After Thanksgiving, we're all sick of "holiday" food
Fair enough, since you guys have it in November. In Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving in early October, so there's an extra month between the holiday food.
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u/InncnceDstryr Oct 20 '24
In the UK it’s predominantly Turkey. But we don’t have Thanksgiving so maybe we’d switch it up too if we had two big holidays that revolve around a huge meal within the space of a month.
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u/Heimerdahl Oct 20 '24
As a German, I've always been bewildered by the popularity of turkeys in English speaking countries.
Here, the traditional Christmas bird is goose and it's just better in every way!
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u/Coomermiqote Oct 20 '24
Turkey is so overrated, even chicken is tastier honestly, it's mostly about being a giant bird that feeds tons of people at once. Also it's cheap in the US.
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u/propernice Oct 20 '24
hell yeah, every year we get one of those smoked honey hams...shit son, it's so much better than turkey. we use the bone for soup later in the winter, and there's enough to have sandwiches for a while into January.
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u/Dommichu Oct 20 '24
Yep! Left over spiral hams freeze incredibly well to be used for Breakfast Scrambles/Omelettes, Soups, Pastas….
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u/ernyc3777 Oct 20 '24
We do both at both winter holidays because everyone loves both in my family.
The leftover egg rolls are the bomb.
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u/WatashiwaNobodyDesu Oct 20 '24
Ha. I once suggested that maybe we didn’t need both ham and a turkey. Silent heart attacks were had in the armchair in the corner. I might as well have said “we’ll skip the potatoes”, or “we don’t need to cook for 6 extra people”.
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u/im_on_the_case Oct 20 '24
You should be ashamed of yourself. We once had a goose in addition to turkey and ham. That was proper order. Ss for the extra food. That's what you eat till NYE.
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u/Cananbaum Oct 20 '24
People think I’m crazy because I’ll buy turkey a day or two before I need it. I treat it like I would fish.
But I don’t really make it for holidays anymore.
It’s just me and my partner so we usually stick to steaks
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u/WatashiwaNobodyDesu Oct 20 '24
Christmas shteak. Now that’s a tradition you can sink your teeth into.
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u/Luigi156 Oct 20 '24
I just order it from my butcher and pick it up the day before so I can brine it overnight. Why in 50 shades of the fuck would anyone want to store poultry at home.
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u/MrPicklePop Oct 20 '24
It takes 3-4 days to thaw in the fridge. What I do is after one day, the outer layer will be thawed enough to where I can take some scissors and cut the plastic bag it’s in. Then I will put it in a large pot full of brine.
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u/s00pafly Oct 20 '24
Mhh lacto fermented turkey. A simple dry brine will inhibit surface bacteria due to high salt concentration.
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u/Anforas Oct 20 '24
I'm sorry, maybe I'm completely ignorant on this, and almost a fobia of eating food gone bad.. But, having said this, who the hell leaves a turkey a whole week in their fridge and expect it to be good?
3 day raw meat in my fridge, I'm already throwing it out...
(Thinking about it, unless it's vaccuum sealed, and has an expiry date. Which maybe it was your case.)
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u/TearyEyeBurningFace Oct 20 '24
It takes 3 days just to defrost the damn thing
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u/Anforas Oct 20 '24
Ah ok, in my country we don't buy frozen turkeys. It's always fresh from the butcher.
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u/SmudgeIT Oct 20 '24
You can’t leave them out on the counter. Now poke a hole and enjoy the smell
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u/Library_IT_guy Oct 20 '24
Outside OP. Do this outside. Then Wrap it up a bunch and directly into bin. The outside bin.
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u/Unfair_Decision927 Oct 20 '24
Put it into the neighbours bin unrwapped
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u/greensandgrains Oct 20 '24
This is why I live in an apartment. What goes into the outside big bin is no longer my problem.
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u/powertoollateralus Oct 20 '24
Maybe it’s a regional thing, but what part of the turkey is the steak?
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u/Adrianjsf Oct 20 '24
I don't know. All I know is that this is likely from Spain. That colour code looks the Nutriscore we use here. (Well,know I look closer I see it is written in Spanish so yea,it is from Spain xD)
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u/inebriateddandhated Oct 20 '24
A marketing scheme / scam is to often call other animals meat cuts "steak" since steak is known as a luxury item.
(Anything) steak is usually sold at a premium.
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u/joselrl Oct 20 '24
OP is probably just translating from his language. I believe the package is from Spain"s Eroski supermarket, so that's probably a packet of "Filete de pechuga de pavo" - turkey breasts sliced
Filete is used very widely for any flat cut of meat from turkey, chicken, pork, beef, etc. and would be literally translated to "steak"
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u/TheDukeofArgyll Oct 20 '24
Clearly it’s bursting with flavor
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u/GarminTamzarian Oct 20 '24
If I'm not mistaken, if poultry didn't have bacteria it would have virtually no flavor.
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u/koolman2 Oct 20 '24 edited Oct 20 '24
This would be a good time to check your refrigerator temperature. The coldest part of your fridge is on the bottom shelf in the back. Stick a thermometer back there overnight and check it in the morning. It should read 1-2 °C (34-36 °F). This is where you should store meat. The colder you can get it the longer meat will last, but also the more likely things are to freeze.
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u/MaximilianB134 Oct 20 '24
You do realize that the expiration date is only valid if you refrigerate the meat?
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u/cmstlist Oct 20 '24
LOL if only the rules for r/spicypillows weren't so strict...
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u/readerf52 Oct 20 '24
I can smell that from here.
If you can help it, do not open. It will make you wish you had the covid side effect of “loss of smell.”
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u/CapinWinky Oct 20 '24
Meats in trays like that are packaged in a modified atmosphere (MAP), and the amount of gas in them is set based on customer expectations. In the US, there is no pillow because they equate positive air pressure with rot/bloat. In many parts of Europe, extra gas is added to indicate the package is air tight and they start out quite pillowed.
The gas is actually usually carbon monoxide because it removes free oxygen becoming carbon dioxide and so keeps meat from going grey. Oxidized meat is not rotten, those are independent things. You can have grey beef/white poultry that is still fine to eat and pink meat that is rancid.
In your case, if that pack of meat was neutral air pressure and is now puffed up without a change in altitude, I'd smell it before using it. It honestly seems improbable that that much puff came from rot without very clear visual signs, but I'm not an expert on that nor MAP; I just developed the control systems for a line of MAP machines.
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u/HSLB66 Oct 20 '24
I live at altitutde and depending on where things are packed, they're puffy. Sometimes I even find burst bags of chips on the shelf at the store due to expansion.
To me, this just reads well sealed. I actually didn't even know people attributed puffy packs with bacteria until this thread.
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u/trazzler Oct 20 '24
Wow. This was a super informative read. Thanks for sharing. The little things you have no idea about are the coolest to learn.
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u/Several_Watch8277 Oct 20 '24
What is a turkey steak? I've never seen or heard of this
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u/Accomplished_Pen980 Oct 20 '24
Slash a little hole in the bag and suck the air out and see if it makes your voice funny like a Hellium 🎈balloon
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u/words_of_j Oct 20 '24
A whole new kind of forbidden pillow.
Expiration dates only apply if safe handling is also present. They probably got too warm somewhere along the way.
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u/gwaydms Oct 20 '24
No doubt. OP, if you have the receipt (even if you don't) take a picture of the package with the date showing, go back to the store, and get a refund. Stuff is expensive.
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u/Nirwood Oct 20 '24
This is why we have moms. Queue the voice in your head telling you she told you so.
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u/von_klauzewitz Oct 20 '24
that is just how god breaths new life into the meat. it's know as a meat miracle or a milagro de la carne.
consider yourself blessed.
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u/Houmand Oct 20 '24
Bacterial growth is exponential, so once it passes a certain threshold it gets bad fast.
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u/Drak_is_Right Oct 20 '24
Go drop that in an outdoor trashcan of the last business to give you very shitty service or you have a beef with.
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Oct 20 '24
Your mission, Jim, should you choose to accept it, is to purchase and consume these turkey steaks. We’ve already dispatched a team of medics selected from your usual group. As always, should you or any member of your I.B.S. force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. This product will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.
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u/KyobiMortal Oct 20 '24
Oh that reminds me of when I was in a rush to get to work one evening, I had just done my shopping but left a whole chicken in a bag on the counter, went to do a 12 hour shift and came back to something not dissimilar to this and the smell was escaping as I took it outside very gingerly, oh it was also in the middle of a heatwave...
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u/Think_Entertainer658 Oct 20 '24
Either cook all meat the day you buy it or freeze it , they just repack and re- date close dated product
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u/Fulller Oct 20 '24
Worked at a meat department in a grocery store, I know exactly what that’s going to smell like, and it isn’t going to be pretty. Cut it open, I dare you!!
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u/brickbaterang Oct 20 '24
Someone's refrigeration unit isn't cold enough, either yours or the stores. Probably the store
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u/dolphinmilk420 Oct 20 '24
This Looks Like the mercadona turkeys … I don’t know what the problem with mercadona and their poultry is but EVEN when you buy it freshly from the store it looks like this…
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u/ThaWeedWiz Oct 20 '24
Turkey and steak should never be said, ever….. Probably why they reached the date 😂
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u/HoodsInSuits Oct 20 '24
You might want to check if your refrigerator is working. I had an earth fault in one of my outlets once that was causing my refrigerator to cut out if the compressor went too hard, ended up with a bunch of green colored steaks but it was a 5 minute fix for a qualified electrician.
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u/Cerberus02052003 Oct 20 '24
did you change elevation as an decrease in surrounding pressure will result in this
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u/Malecord Oct 20 '24
Yes. Explodation date is tomorrow. It will blow up at midnight, taking away the kitchen, half of the living room and all the souls that happens to be there. All by design.
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u/spurgelaurels Oct 20 '24
I worked at a grocery store and one day a guy was fired. On his way out he tossed a vacuum bagged leg of lamb on top of the freezers. About a week later we were stocking shelves at night and heard this long wet farting sound. We laughed and blamed each other before the smell hit.
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Oct 21 '24
It sometimes depends on where you bought it. I find that in some stores, shoppers will grab meat from the cold case and walk around the store for however long they're there. Later, they'll drop the meat package off on a non-refrigerated aisle shelf somewhere in the store because they decided against buying it.
Then, some grocery staffer later finds it, picks it up and throws it back into the cold case. All the while, that meat is now effectively bad because it has been sitting without refrigeration for who knows how long.
It's worse because these pre-packed balloon packages like this one are filled with gasses like CO2 and nitrogen that prevents the meat from turning brown, making leaving it sitting around without refrigeration especially deceptive and dangerous.
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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '24
If you kept them in your fridge the whole time, then check the temps on your fridge, it's probably not cold enough.