What Happened to my Venison??

  • Am only a Monday Morn cook. Have cooked many “experimental” Anova Sous Vide recipes. Most come out very good and some not so good………but definitely still appealing. My 48 hr cook venison shanks has always been very good.

    Finally had a disaster and cannot figure out why. Tried to change up …added something different, sauerkraut and capers, to venison shanks and cooked at 130 for 50 hrs. Upon opening bag was almost knocked down by the terrible smell, seemingly of rotten meat. Bravely I tasted a piece and it was VERY tender and KIND of tasted OK…….but no one could possibly eat this with the smell it was reeking of. To the garbage can it went.

    So what happened???? Need advice from a REAL cook!

  • I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve by cooking venison for that long. I've done a number of venison fillets which are often given to me by a mate who is a hunter.

    They hang for a week or so before we sous vide them at 60c (140F) for a couple of hours and they are perfect.

    [LATER EDIT: see my post further below - low and slow shanks work]

    Big Green Egg - Asmoke Pellet Grill - Weber Kettle - Maximus Pizza Oven - Dragon Hibachi - Ziggy Portable - baby kamado - Grillz 2 burner - Cobb BBQ - Converted Gas Bottle Spit - Charbroil Grill2go - Anova sous vide - Digi Q controller - plus Tip Top Temp - Smokeware cap - Grill Grates

  • I've Googled venison shanks sous vide and I can see the results of that method now. I never considered doing venison like that but unlike the fillet, the shanks fall apart if cooked for a long time at low temps.

    Big Green Egg - Asmoke Pellet Grill - Weber Kettle - Maximus Pizza Oven - Dragon Hibachi - Ziggy Portable - baby kamado - Grillz 2 burner - Cobb BBQ - Converted Gas Bottle Spit - Charbroil Grill2go - Anova sous vide - Digi Q controller - plus Tip Top Temp - Smokeware cap - Grill Grates

  • While I believe it was the addition of the sauerkraut that gave it the rotten smell, I don't think it was fermenting again. That would have produced CO2, which would definitely be noticeable as the bag would have blown up.

    Cabbage contains sulphur. That there's your rotten smell I reckon.

    Dragon Kamado - Fornetto Razzo 18" - Akorn Jr - Pro-Smoke Offset

  • Its obviously something to do with the cabbage but I don't know why. Bomb's thoughts sound very plausible, he may well be on the money here.

    Can I ask why you added the cabbage?



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  • While I believe it was the addition of the sauerkraut that gave it the rotten smell, I don't think it was fermenting again. That would have produced CO2, which would definitely be noticeable as the bag would have blown up.

    Cabbage contains sulphur. That there's your rotten smell I reckon.

    My initial thought was the bad smell was likely the cabbage as well, as it tends to stink the longer it's cooked. As Bomb said, t's that sulfur that gives it the rotten egg smell. A quick look on the intermawebs confirms this.

    Quote from Dr Google

    When cabbage is cooked, the sulfur that it contains actually multiplies! The longer it is cooked, the more it multiplies. It is this sulfur smell that gives off the strong cooked cabbage odor.

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