Canning Dog Food From Offal

[baymule]

@Lazy Gardener i canned with a gas range, it was hard to get the temperature right. I had a canner with a dial gauge, not the weighted steam release kind. So I had to watch that dial! Now I have an All American canner, it has the dial gauge and the weighted steam release gauge. I put the electric burner on high, then put it on the next heat setting down. Electric range is easier than gas.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

The problem I had with the Mirro (with weights) was: it would never rock, or spin, or do the rhythmic steam release. It would either release a constant stream of steam. Or it would do nothing. There was absolutely no middle ground with that thing.

I never could cook with electric. With my current set up, i start the canner on the large front burner to get up to pressure. Then, I have to move the canner to the back burner, b/c the front burner can't be turned low enough. Now, we all know how heavy a full canner can be, and I suspect that it's not best practice to be lifting a full canner that's rocking along at 10# of pressure! But... that's what I must do.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Sounds like a plan. I'm always juggling. Love that big front burner. It's my go-to when I'm cooking anything in my cast iron, and to START almost everything. But, then... I must shift the pot/kettle/pan to an other burner to finish the job. I could retire a wealthy woman, if I designed a system that would easily and safely roll a heavy pot from front to back! It really wouldn't take much ingenuity to come up with such a system. It would need safety lock so that a pot wouldn't inadvertently go for a hike when you were not intending it to do so!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Dogs are gonna love it!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You do love your dogs to do that. I need to make up some more for my dogs - they're down to maybe six quarts. DH is the dog feeder around here. I make it - he feeds it!

I got tons of ham that was rejected by the food pantry...there was nothing wrong with it except that it arrived thawed out and they weren't allowed to distribute it if it wasn't frozen solid. I soaked it in water to try to get some of the salt out - dehydrated it - and powdered it with a blender. I'll mix it with some cooked rice to add to the dogs food. They'll probably only get it mixed in their feed a couple times a week as opposed to every day because I'm still concerned with the salt levels.

 

[baymule]

@frustratedearthmother I wonder if I could make powdered liver? Can you expound on your powdered ham a bit? Would it be better for me to cook the liver, then dehydrate it? What blender did you use? I have an old Vita-mix, with the stainless steel cannister. I bet it would do a good job.

Powdered might be easier to use, just measure and add water. It would take up a LOT LESS room too and space is an issue here. Please provide more details!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Lemme see.... I soaked the meat over night in a sink water to try and get some of the salt out (with a chunk of ice) to keep it good. Some of this meat was sliced really thin (think lunchmeat) and some of it was thicker (like a ham steak). You wouldn't need to do that with fresh liver.

At first I just put it in the dehydrator after soaking, but some of the bigger chunks were harder to dehydrate and as such, harder to powder because they were so large. I learned to cut the pieces smaller to help with both processes. I used my Bullet to powder it. It's the only blender I have, lol. I think you could do liver without any problems. Not sure if you would need to cook it first - but at my house I would. That's because my dogs (weirdos) don't do raw liver. They will literally look at me like I've lost my mind, lol. But I'm thinking that dehydrating it would basically "cook" it.

I haven't used any of my dehydrated/powderede meat yet just because I've been using up some other stuff I canned a while back first. My first experimental plan is to cook it up in some rice and see how it goes over with the dogs. Might try that today. Oh - I do keep mine in ziploc bags the freezer, just because I had the room. If I didn't I'd probably put it in canning jars and keep it in the pantry. Being dehydrated before storing it should keep just fine.

Experiment!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You're welcome! So today I put about a cup of the powdered meat in a pot of rice that I was cooking for the dogs. Dropped a few quail eggs in there too. They gave it two paws up!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

One of those jars would be a great start to chicken/rice soup. Just add veggies!

 

[Beekissed]

We ran out of canned offal for the dogs!! Oh no!! So we went to the slaughter house, Mr. Jim priced us beef lovers at 25 cents a pound! He had beeves coming in for slaughter, so we went back later and got 69 pounds for $17.25 YAY! One liver fills up a wash pan.

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So I cubed them up, simmered in big pots and canned 28 quarts, but one broke in the canner, so I got 27 quarts. Plus I froze 6 quart bags, raw. Got 4 quarts of broth that I put in the refrigerator. Dogs are over the moon with this stuff on their kibble!

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I’m going to get more and get a bunch canned up. Got to get more quart jars. I’d like a 2-3 month supply. One quart per day split 4 ways, I really love my dogs to do all this. LOL LOL

Wow!!! What a bargain!!!! I'd love to have an abbatoir somewhere near here so I could get some good deals like that. Think of the good nutrition your dogs are getting!! Amazing.