Treat Your Dog to Delicious Cuts of Meat
This article is all about supplementing kibble with cheap meat.
Buy the Cheaper Cuts Your Dog Prefers Anyway
Treat your dog to meals he’ll love by feeding him a little fresh meat. I suggest you match his portion of kibble one to one with roasted meat. This need not hurt your budget. What I’ve found is that cheaper cuts of beef, organ meat, pork and poultry all cost less than premium kibble. I’ve also found that my dog loves the cheaper cuts and organ meat at least as much as the premium cuts I cook for myself. I’ve found that roasting the meat releases fat and juice that you can mix with the kibble to make even kibble more palatable.
I believe the benefits extend far beyond the taste experience for your dog.
Below I’ll cover the details of what meats to look for, what you can expect to pay, and how to manage all the portions with a sensible routine or system.
Organ Meats My Dog Loves
I’ve cooked beef liver, kidneys and heart for my big dog. My dog seems to hang around the kitchen more attentively than usual when these dainties and delicacies are roasting in the oven.
The same applies to chicken livers, gizzards and hearts.
The good news is that beef organ meat still costs a mere $2 per pound, although you may have to shop around to find a butcher or meat counter that keeps organ meat on display. The price of chicken gizzards and hearts can be as little as $1.50 per pound. Oddly, chicken livers cost around $3.50 per pound, probably due to their popularity.
Benefits of Organ Meat
The clear benefits are taste, nutrition and low cost.
Organ meats are clearly delicious for the doggy taste palate. My dog will lick his bowl clean when I feed him cooked liver or kidney. I suspect that he relishes the cooked blood flavor.
I gather that there are a whole slew of nutritional benefits provided by organ meat. I’m not going to cover them here except to mention that organs are rich in B vitamins, fat soluble vitamins, and a host of other nutrients. The other point to mention is that there is quite a growing trend towards providing dogs with a raw organ meat diet. But I still haven’t sorted out the benefits of doing so. In fact, I’d be concerned about the hazards of uncooked organs. Perhaps you can comment on what I am missing, my dear reader, and set me right. Whether raw or cooked, there are tons of nutritional benefits.
The third benefit is that organ meats are usually priced far lower than even the cheapest cuts of regular beef, probably as a consequence of supply and demand.
Precautions
Nicole Cosgrove’s recent article in Dogster, “Organ Meat for Dogs: Vet-Verified Safety & Preparation Tips,” describes a few potential issues that may arise from enriching your dog’s diet with organ meat. The one that stands out for me is the risk of pancreatitis from feeding your dog a diet that’s too rich in fat. In fact, a local Newfiedoodle sibling to my dog recently suffered from a horrendous, life threatening bout of pancreatitis, but I’m not familiar with his dietary details. I suspect it was due to excess fat. A diet rich in fat will also cause steatorrhea, a form of diarrhea caused by excess dietary fat. Nicole warns that evels of fat (for example, from beef heart), vitamin A (from liver) and purine (from organ meats, in general) from organs can be problematic for your dog, depending on your dog’s breed, level of activity and health condition. Nicole recommends that you limit organ meat to ten percent of your dog’s diet and vary the type of organ. I always rotate through different organ meat and cheap cuts.
Cheaper Beef Cuts
To provide your dog with culinary variety, consider alternating portions of organ meats with the cheapest cuts of beef. I can assure you that your dog will savor the gristle and membranes of a cheap chunk of beef with the same relish as Waygu tenderloin, if not more so.
Generally you want to avoid the loin of the beef from where the choicest, most premium cuts are carved. Instead, get to know the cuts of beef from the rest of the steer. You’ll find delightfully lower prices for the skirt, flank, bottom, ribs, brisket, shank cuts and cheek meat. Again, stay clear of the loin cuts to save your budget.
Some cuts, such as cheek meat, may seem strange or unfamiliar, but are definitely worth trying out. I recently roasted a ¾ pound portion of cheek meat. While this chunk of flesh was rich in fat, gristle and tough connective tissue, it produced the loveliest aroma of roast beef while it cooked away in the oven. It smelled so good that I was tempted to sample it for myself. One day I shall.
Benefits of Cheaper Cuts of Beef
The three benefits of cheaper cuts for your dog are taste, texture and fat content. All the connective tissue in cheap cuts results in far more beefy flavor, when roasted. Next is the benefit of texture. No doubt all dogs love a thick juicy tender beef steak, just like you and I do. But they will most likely prefer the tough, gristly and chewy cuts that feature a lot more connective tissue. Indeed, they may prefer those cuts that give them the chance to rip and tear and really chew their food. In other words, the tougher cuts give your dog a chance to release his inner wolf when he eats. The fat content of cheaper cuts provides a third benefit – useful calories for your active dog to burn. But take care to not overfeed fat to your dog. You don’t want him to develop pancreatitis or other health issues associated with excess fat.
Affordable Beef Trimmings for Dogs
We recently purchased several portions of beef trimmings from a butchers shop and deli in the Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco. The beef trimmings, and morsels too small to sell, were packaged in large rolls and then frozen, for sale as pet food. It turns out you can buy small frozen chunks of about a pound or so for about $4 per pound. These portions are quite rich in fat, which can be skimmed off after cooking. Be sure to check with your local butcher or delicatessen for similar products.
Poultry
Add variety by rotating between cheap cuts, organ meat, pork and poultry.
Chicken leg quarters are probably the most cost effective cut. These are the thigh and drumstick portion. They’re rich in dark meat and connective tissue that dogs prefer. Be sure to completely debone them after cooking.
Affordable poultry organs for dogs include chicken hearts and gizzards. Chicken livers are a little more dearly priced, but still in range.
Consider buying a whole frozen turkey on sale at $1/pound. Take wastage into account. Bones et cetera may comprise half the bird, so that $1 per pound of bird yields $2/pound for the boneless meat. Also consider turkey necks as a dog food supplement.
Similarly, a whole chicken is typically $1.50 to $2 per pound, with up to 50% wastage.
What about retired tough old brooder hens? I haven’t found a source for these. Presumably they’re cheaper than young meat chickens.
Higher prices may rule out duck and geese for you. Bulk frozen duck sells for $5 per pound. Goose is even more expensive.
There may be a workaround, however. Once while on vacation in Northern Minnesota, I learned that a park ranger had partnered with a local dog sledder to cull the over populated snow geese. They ended up with a few dozen plump snow geese on their hands. They roasted them all and recovered the goose meat to feed a couple dozen hungry sled dogs. Essentially, it was free food for the sled teams. Note that the meat was quite rich and fatty, which means that it should be mixed with a fair amount of kibble, and a mashed roast vegetable, such as yam or carrot, to prevent loose stools.
Ground Meat
Ground meat, whether beef, turkey or pork, is convenient and usually quite cheap, typically $3 per pound in bulk plastic tubes. I buy it to provide a few more options to include in my dog’s meal rotation. It’s easy to cut or dispense into the right sized portions for the freezer. My dog is not as keen about ground meat as he is about cheek meat or kidney, but will gobble it up just the same.
Feeding Dogs Pork Liver and Kidneys
I haven’t yet found a source for pork organs, but I suspect they may sell at even lower prices than for bulk poultry.
Quantity to Feed Your Dog
How big a portion of meat to feed your dog depends on your dog’s age, energy level and caloric budget. You will have to find out the optimum portion size by trial and error and by checking with your vet. For a starting point, consider the following: My dog is a fairly high energy 95 pound three year old Newfiedoodle. He does best with a ¾ pound portion of meat (raw weight) that I cook and dice up and mix with 1-½ cups of premium kibble and 1 cup of cooked, mashed vegetables (carrot, yam or pumpkin cooked with the meat). I also blend in the juice released from the meat with the dry kibble. Scale these portions according to your own dog’s weight and energy level. By all means, trim away the fat before cooking and skim off the excess fat after cooking, to limit the amount of fat you feed your dog.
Cost/Price Targets to Beat
As far as I can tell, you’re going to pay something like $3 to $4 per pound for cheap cuts of beef and $2 per pound for organ meat that’s fit for human consumption. You’ll pay somewhat less for turkey and chicken meat, between $1 and $2 per pound. In fact, chicken leg quarters are probably the cheapest meat available. Pork can also be budget friendly at $3 per pound for even the premium cuts.
It helps to buy family packs or bulk packs to achieve these prices. It also helps to compare the different market grades of meat quality: When prime grade beef sells for $5, choice grade will typically sell for $3.50. Also consider shopping at grocery outlets, Costco, Food Maxx and Aldi. You may even get superior quality at affordable prices by buying from a local butcher or farmer.
If you do your homework, you can expect to pay less for the meats your dog loves than for premium kibble: $4 per pound for a large bag of Orijen Original.
$4/pound for cheap beef cuts, $3.50 for choice, $5 for prime
$2/pound for outrageously cheap beef cuts like cheek meat
$2/pound for beef organs – liver, kidney, heart and tripe, all edible
$3/pound for pork, e.g. butt roast, bulk pork tenderloin! $2.50 to $5 at Walmart
$2/pound for chicken (skinless boneless breasts) if you buy in bulk or family packs, $1/pound – leg quarters, including bones – works out to $1.50 per pound.
$3/pound ground beef, turkey, pork, lamb, although lam can be a lot more.
Compared these price targets to $4/pound for premium kibble (Orijen Original); $27/pound for bison tenderloin, and $33/pound for prime angus beef peeled tenderloin
Quick Prep System
We buy our cheap cuts in large packs from Food Maxx, aiming for portions of 6 pounds or more. Trial and error has shown us that ¾ pound portions (raw) make the ideal size for our 95 pound dog’s daily meal. We wrap the ¾ pound portion in wax paper, then package half a dozen of these wrapped portions in a single ZipLok freezer bag.
Frozen portions are fairly easy to unpack from the freezer bags. I remove the wax paper by running tap water over the portion until I can peel away from the meat. Then I place the portion in either a glass baking pan (e.g. Pyrex or Anchor Hocking) or a small ceramic casserole (e.g. Creuset) along with an equal portion of raw yam, carrots or pumpkin. I’ll then cover the pan or casserole with aluminum foil and place it in our oven set to 350F. Then I’ll set the timer to 90 minutes. 90 minutes at 350F is usually enough time to fully cook a solid ¾ pound chunk of meat directly from the freezer. If starting with thawed meat from the fridge, then 60 minutes at 350F will fully cook it.
Note that I do not add salt to the meat, nor do I attempt to trim off the fat or skim off any liquid fat after cooking. I do tend to peel the yams but my girlfriend will not.
After removing from the cooking vessel, I simply dice the meat and veggies into spoon sized chunks, and remove all bones (if any). I always reserve the fat and juice released by cooking the meat. I mix this with a cup or two of premium kibble (Origen for Big Dogs). Finally, I let everything cool down before mixing all the morsels together and serving.
I’ve made it a habit to put on airs by making a big deal of all the work and skill that went into this special meal as I serve it to my dog, including my best impression of a professional French chef. “As you can see, Monsieur, I ‘ave deglazed zee pan and reserved zee jus. And, but of course, zis particular cut has been expertly prepared to your personal, exacting specifications
Bon Appetit!
