Was this meat off?

[Idontknowhatnametochoose]

I've cooked poussin loads of times and never had an issue until now.

I roasted one as usual and when cutting off the meat I noticed that the chest bone was absolutely black with presumably congealed blood.

The poussin was definitely fully cooked.

It put me off so I binned the whole thing- very reluctantly as I had prepared a roast but I didn't want to risk it.

Has this happened to anyone else? Do you know if it means it was off?

I hate wasting food so I want to be aware in case it happens again.

IME when meat is off it will have a very distinct smell which you would have noticed pre cooking
if it didn’t smell I would assume it was fine

Well that's the thing- it did smell a little different but I wouldn't say it was obvious. I noticed when I got it out the fridge and sniffed a couple of times, checked the date etc.

I don't have the best sense of smell though .

Hard to say without seeing the actual meat, but dark / black bones is usually caused by bone marrow haemorrhaging into the outer bone (particularly with fast-growing and younger birds like poussins) or injuries causing bone bruising occurring during rearing. If it had an offensive smell then probably better to throw out, but some meat does just smell gamier depending on how it was slaughtered and processed.

Thanks. It had a stronger smell than normal but not obvious enough to say it was definitely off. But when it came out black I binned it as the sight made me feel sick. What you said makes sense. I guess it might hsve been OK.

Ironically this was a sainsburys poussin and I've literally from next week booked a meat order from a UK farm going forwards!