A few days ago while grocery shopping we picked up a pack of pork chops. My husband (who is the primary chef in the family) always has big ideas about what to cook each week, but pork chops always fail to inspire him. So we were left with a big pack of pork chops and no desire to eat them. Enter our dehydrator: an item we requested at our wedding that sits largely unused. Then I had an idea. Pork chops + dehydrator = super cheap irresistible dog treats. In case you want to recreate what I did its super simple. Start with a pack of about 6 super thin pork chops. Try to trim off any excess fat (not terribly good for the dogs tummies). Slice the meat into small strips (say about 2 inches long) and lay them on the trays of the dehydrator. You can space them pretty close together because they will shrink in size. Turn the dehydrator temperature gauge to 160 degrees F, leave on for about 4-6 hours. Then just to make sure you have killed off any excess salmonella, pop the dried meat into a baking pan, throw it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 200 degrees F. 6 pork chops will produce a good size back of jerky. My dogs supervised the whole process and (as you can see from the photo above) were more than happy to test out the final result. The verdict: happy puppies!
The Stubborn Hound
An honest blog about life with big dogs
The Stubborn Hound 