Experiment: Beef Gone Bad

Hypothesis: Do not eat rotting meat.

I am not sure what is more a kick in the pants for Iraque, the idea of losing almost 300 meticais (the value of the meat), or losing 3 kilos of juicy, tender, we never eat it, prized possession, I am so manly, beef.

“The beef is rotting honey. Can we really eat it?”

“We will eat it.”

How did I end up with the three kilos of rotting beef that are now stinking up my freezer? (Who knew rotten meat still smelled once frozen?)

“They killed a cow in Madendere. I told someone to keep 3 kilos for me and now I’m catching a chapa to go pick it up. Do you want to come?” Iraque gasped with glee as he ran into my house.

“Um, ok, I guess so,” I responded.

I wasn’t so enthused about the beef, but pumped to buy some tangerines and bananas in the village of Madendere which about 10K north of Chidenguele, and seems to always be significantly more stocked than Chidenguele with the latest fruit in season.

But this is where the trouble began, because it was already 5:30pm, the sun was setting, and there was a serious lack of transport.

After many phone calls, failed attempts by Iraque’s meat hookup to send the 6.6 pound plastic bag of beef via chapa to Chidenguele, and our own inability to catch a car, a solution was reached.

“ Can you ask one of the little stores there to put the bag of meat in their freezer over night and we will get it in the morning.”

“Yes, the store says they can, no problem.”

I had been suggesting this solution for about 30 minutes, but of course the men couldn’t listen to my sensible reasoning. When will they learn…

And then the beef arrived via a student the next morning at 10am.

And it hadn’t been refrigerated.

I was in the bedroom, preparing myself mentally for the painful ritual of winter bathing in a drafty, outdoor, bath stall, when Iraque called me to the veranda.

“Honey come to see!”

What wonder could await me? The woman that sells fish? The man that sells honey? Some other mysterious delight?

Oh no, it was just a cooler with a big beef bone clothed in a few tidbits of meat, what appeared to be the cow’s butthole, and a train of flies following the rancid poo smell.

So here’s the crux of my experiment, if you cook it long enough, can you eat beef that’s gone bad?