yeah that makes sense. earlier in the year when we had to heavily budget groceries, we’d end up getting packages of precut beef strips and lower quality ground beef and some of the meals prepared with them by my partner’s mother were always really off. and yeah i think it’s absolutely because they weren’t seared if i understood this correctly.

another food-related one i’ve noticed: sometimes walking through the bread aisle, some types of tortillas seem to give off a strong stale smell as well. ETA: it’s probably cornmeal actually. wet cornmeal has a horrid smell.