How long till the meat goes bad???

How long can you keep a little hog packed in an ice chest before the meat turns bad. I am draining the water daily and adding ice when needed. Just not sure how long I can keep doing this before it goes bad. Any help would be appreciated.

I kept one for 6 days with no problem. Ice it down asap so the temerature comes down quickly. Drain the water. Most of the time the blood and water start to smell before the meat does.

I don't have room in the freezer for him but he has been packed in ice for 2 weeks now and I'm kind of afraid to cook him. The water still has blood in it and smells fresh so I'm sure it's probably still alright. Just looking for someone to tell me I'm right. I will be done with my new smoker this weekend and he is going on it whole.

If it doesn't smell bad I wouldn't worry about it. Cut a piece of and fry it. If it stinks up the house it might be bad. lol Don't eat any of the organs though. They go bad pretty quick.

All the organs got left on the ground when we cleaned it (about an hour after it was shot)It's just a hollowed out carcass wrapped it piggie meat...

Maybe its just me but 2 weeks sounds excessvie. But I guess if its been iced the whole time it should be ok

Just take a piece out and smell it. If its bad you will know. As long as its been on ice it shouldn't have much of a smell. All the blood should have drained out if it been there that long. I've seen guys in south texas hang-em for weeks in the coolers.

I think the blood is still coming out of the entry wound. My bullet had already passed through a big sow when it hit this one. It mangled his little shoulder. He was a bloody mess. Like I said above, the water smells fine coming out and I figure that would start smelling first, right?

It will start out with kind of a buttermilk smell then gets worse. If it isn't smelling like sour milk it should be ok.

if you havent skinned it there might be a problem. They dont have the best aim when relieving themselves and they roll around in their own sh-t. I have shot some stinky hogs and I dont even let my skinning knife touch the meat for fear of contamination.

If it hasnt been skinned then that is a no eat hog for me.

If it is skinned then you are fast approaching the end in my opinion. I think it is better to prop up one end of the ice chest and open the drain stainding in the water is not good for it so if you just do that and keep it full of ice it is good to go. I like a week, 2 weeks is a long time to be dead and not frozen or preserved, I wouldnt hold out for the weekend if I was you.

matt

It should be good ..... Like most have said let your nose tell you.

Cook the entire pig, then cut two pieces off, give those to personal tasters (I like my in-laws) and if they are OK the next day invite your friends over.

Skinned?

As long as you skinned it (you haven't mentioned that), you've done everything else (kept on ice, adding ice, drain daily) for it to be just fine @ 2 weeks. 'Bacterial reproduction crowding' (which produces the bad toxins) occurs at 40degrees and up. Kept covered with ice, and not submerged in water - your fine.

I age bigger ones @ 2 weeks like this on purpose. good eating!

we skinned and gutted it the night I shot it. Then we covered it in salt and packed it in ice. I salted and iced again the next day and since then no more salt. Just Ice everyday and drain the water about twice a day. i actually pulled it out of the cooler last night and repacked with ice under it and noticed no smell at all. I think we are good to go. It will be on the cooker first thing Sunday Morning.

How'd this turn out?

Was wondering the same thing. Hope he's o.k.

He should be fine, like others have said just smell him & as long as the meat isn't turning brown/green he's fine. On that note....I once killed/cleaned/cooked a hog that had gang green real bad in the front shoulders. Meat was a foul green mush. I cut that pig in half, the hams & half of the loins still looked & smelled good so I cooked & ate every bit of it. I never got sick, but did develop a pretty annoying head twitch though lol. J/K on the head twitch, if it looks good & smells good then cook that sucker up. You'd know it if it was bad.

I process my deer and minimum time I ice and drain is 10 days but try to ice for 14 days when schedule allows, would think any game would have similar results. I do my best to have them gutted, skinned, rinsed off and iced down inside of two hours from kill. Works out fine and helps to get most of the blood out of the meat. Then I have a fridge in the barn that I put them in for a couple more days soaking in white vinegar and beef bouillion mix before I process out. Works for me should be fine if it doesnt have a rank smell to it.

Well XWIG...you still among the land of the living or green around the gills? Was the hog a hit or mess/miss?

Threw the pig on the smoker along with a 12lb brisket(gotta have a backup plan) The pig was pretty good. the ribs dried out a bit as expected but the loin and hams were really good. nobody got sick so I guess 3 weeks is not too long to keep a small pig on ice... What was left of the ribs tasted like what you would get at a BBQ joint ( and the rest of it didn't taste really gamey.Overall I would say it was a success but now I have about 8 lbs of brisket and another 5 lbs of pig leftover that is in my freezer... we will be having meat for a while... Thanks for the input guys.

\ Glad you got to enjoy it and ur new smoker!!

Glad it all worked out. Cold is key.