Hi BatistaBabe:
What is boneless neckbone? This does not make sense to me. Neckbone implies that there are bones. I would throw this stuff away.
Neckbone is very popular in the south and some of the meat markets will debone it and sell as boneless neckbone. It is pork and used lots of times to flavor ruta begas, field peas, cabbage, butter beans etc. Thanks for the advice.
It's not the pork that smells odd...it's the rudabagas, kind of a cabbage odor? Put a few pinches of allspice in there and some chopped onion.
A little garlic powder would go a long way to making it smell better. It makes anything smell better.
Hi BatistaBabe:
I still say that boneles neckbone is an oxymoron. There is not enough meat on neckbones to make it worthwhile to take the meat off.
I grew up in the south, and we always cooked the neckbones for a long time. They go great with any number of vegatables. Collard greens, Lima beens, Field peas, and others.
I still say dump this stuff.
If meat smells funny, get rid of it. Rutabagas smell really bad while they cook, but they taste completely different than the cooking odor. Just put some butter on them after they are cooked. They don't need the meat to flavor them!
The very best part of neck bones is the flavor stored in the bone. That is why recipes call for cooking neck bones for a long time. We cook the neck bones in a crock pot for at least 8 hours. Cool, then pick the meat off, throw back in the Crockpot to season the sour kraut. Rutabagas could be substituted for sour kraut for a totally different taste. The meat must be fresh, not smelly! If you don't like the smell of the rutabagas cooking, put the crockpot outside! That is a good place to cook smelly foods that taste good.
I live in the south and I know people who eat neckbones because it is the only meat they can afford. They use it to flavor collard greens, turnip greens, black-eyed peas, etc. However, I agree that if the meat smells bad, throw it out.
There's an old expression in food safety "WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT". An "old" smell or "odd" smell usually means spoilage, and what you would be smelling is the bacteria formed by spoilage.
