Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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A food dehydrator is an excellent appliance to use for dehydrating homemade dog treats.
Dog treats are typically crunchy with little moisture in the treat.
A food dehydrator is specifically designed to remove moisture from food to preserve it.
Removing moisture from food inhibits bacteria and microbial growth which ultimately spoils food.

Dried meats, or jerky, are treats pets love. :nod:

Making beef jerky for your dogs is easy and has some great advantages over commercial treats.
Made from very lean ground beef or ground sirloin, your dogs will love it better than typical commercial treats.
You don't need to add any preservatives to it, so your home made jerky will be better for your dogs.
To make jerky choose a lean cut of meat, trim off the excess fat, slice the meat into 1/4 inch strips and put into your food dehydrator.
Spread the meat on the food dehydrator trays, set temperature to 65C and dry for up to 6 hours or until the treats are hard and firm.


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Homemade dog treats by a food dehydrator are sure to get your dog’s attention !


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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Besides having a Ezidri Food Dehydrator ... you will need a weighing scale.

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Here are some different meat cuts suitable for dehydrating ...

I get my frozen beef supply from a meat stall in Marsiling Wet Market.
Will try to upload the address and photo of the shop ...
Open for business daily and their meat supplies are lean and less pricey. :thumbsup:

Besides frozen beef cut, they also have beef liver, beef lungs and beef tripes, of course all are frozen.


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LEG OF BEEF from Brazil, come nicely packed with date of slaughtering of the animal. Each pcs weight between 2-4Kg, selling at $9/Kg



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Frozen beef from Uruguay ... meat from here comes in smaller size ranging between 2-3Kg. Price at $9/Kg



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Beef Knuckle from New Zealand, this is the best cut for dehydrating use thought slightly more expensive ... selling at $10/Kg.
Each knuckle weight between 3 - 6 Kg.



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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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For beginners or if you simply do not like messing with raw meat ...
Another source of meat available in most super market like NTUC Finest ~ Chilled air-flown beef, mostly from Australia.
Of course these are very expensive compared to those from our local wet market.

One thing to note regarding dehydrating meat, only lean meats (with no fats or marbling) should be dehydrated. ...
Fat turns rancid and will spoil your meat. For this reason, do use lean meat or trim off as much fats as you can.


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Chilled Beef ~Eye Round from Australia selling at $24/Kg

Cost nearly 3 times more than frozen meat from our local wet market.
But the meat are much fresher and almost no preparation required.
Buy and dehydrate ... fast and very convenient.

You can ask the butcher for whole beef round and had them slice it thin for you.
I dehydrated some as it is to get bigger and chunkier bites for the boys.
Lay the meat on the dehydrating trays leaving some gap in between each piece,
Dehydrate at 65C for 6-8 hours or till meat is dry and crisp.

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Dehydrated meat will last at least two months if stored in a low humidity environment or up to a year if you use a vacuum sealer.
Moisture is the enemy of dried foods. Dried foods exposed to the air absorb the moisture in the air and become limp.
Moisture leads to bacteria growth and eventually food becomes moldy.
Always store dried foods in airtight containers, in a cool dry area away from direct sunlight.


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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Using the same meat cut from NTUC Finest, I made some into smaller treats.
Use a rolling pin and flatten the meat a little and cut into strips.
Dehydrate at 65C for 4-6 hours or till meat is dry.

Leave cool, packed and store in air-tight container.

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How do you know when food are dry ?

The best way to find out if a food is dry is through feel, touch it.
It will feel sticky, moist, leathery, or hard depending on what you are dehydrating.
When touching food for dryness, remember that they feel softer when they are warm.
Therefore, always leave the food cool for a few moments - either turn off the dehydrator or remove the drying tray.
If you are not sure if an item is sufficiently dry, it is better to over dry it somewhat than to under dry it.

If you are concerned about the safety of a dried food, you can freeze it.
The freezer will keep frozen any water remaining in the food, thus preventing spoilage.


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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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In order to cut dehydrating time and also have less messy trays for washing after using ...
it is best to make sure meat are fully thaw before dehydrating.
Also, dab dry the meat using a kitchen towel.

The above pic is an example of half-thaw meat (bigger pcs in foreground) and fully de-froze meat (smaller pcs )
You get crispier bite with fully de-froze meat.


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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Out of convenience, I tried out another meat stall in Ang Mo Kio wet market.
The meat was not good. To be fair, I bought twice from him despite having to pay $2 more for each kg.
On both occasions ... the beef were not as good compared to the stall in Marsiling.
This is an example of marbled beef cuts, visible yellowish fats in the meat ...

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After dehydrating, visible oil stains were spotted on the jerky.
I had to soaked up the oil with a kitchen towel piece by piece.
If left as it is, meat will turned rancid and spoiled within days of storing.

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As this is going to be a long term "investment" for the good health of my Westies boys ...
I have to find alternative to using NTUC Finest ...
So the best answer will be our local wet market.
And of course there will be plenty of washing and slicing to be done.
Having good meat quality is also part and parcel of home dried jerky.

Jerky are stored away in the kitchen cabinet in air-tight container with zip-lock bag, away from direct sunlight.


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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Beef jerky requires no marinating if it's meant for the four legged friends, doggy treats !
However, you can use a bit of creativity and turn plain boring jerky into drooling treats for your beloved pet.

Here I have some chopped carrots ...
After laying the meat onto the dehydrating trays, use your fingers and dab some carrots onto each slices of beef evenly.
The carrot will stick onto the meat once it is dehydrated.

Nice to see ... Good to eat ! :thumbsup:

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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Dogs, especially senior dogs are generally lactose intolerant.
However, most dogs really like dairy products such as plain vanilla ice cream, plain yogurt, cheese, etc.

Scott & Junior can smell cheese from far and go crazy over it.
As long as you give them sparingly, they can make a good occasional treat.
Small bits of string cheese work great for training if you have a dairy-loving dog like mine.

Some dairy products can also be beneficial to dogs, such as plain yogurt which can be added to their food and helps with digestion.
The main concern with cheese is the amount of sodium content in it.

Here, I am using cheese for dogs which has reduced sodium.
There are several brands in the market, I have chosen Marujyo & Uekufu from Japan.
Selling at $6.70 (doggy friends) at 70g per packet.

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To make the beef jerky even more tempting ... am adding cheese as ingredients.

Peel open the transparent wrapper and diced up the cheese stick into small buttons.
Cut across and create tiny buttons ... slice as thin as you can so that it will stick and hold into position on the meat.

You may also create some fancy treat with cheese ...
Cut some into strips to be made into cheezy wraps.
Just half the cheese stick, and half it again and again to get 8 or more long strips.

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As before, slice beef thinly and lay onto dehydrating tray ...
Once completed, place 1-2 cheese button onto each slice of meat and press it on lightly.
And leave the rest of the work to the dehydrator.

Set temperature to 65C and dehydrate for 4-6 hours depending on thickness of meat cut.
The cheese buttons will stick onto the meat once meat is fully dehydrated.

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* Above left pic has been dehydrated for 2 hours and right pic is fully dehydrated.

Fully dehydrated meat should not feel sticky to touch.
Slightly crisp and can break into half with slight force ... the center should have no moisture and feel dry.

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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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These cheese wraps are as easy to make ...
Cut thin long strips of beef and wrapped it around the cheese stick.
Dehydrate at 65C for 4-6 hours and you get some nice cheezy wraps which no dog can resist !

Even the cheese is crispy once dehydrated and my dogs are loving it ~ woof woof !


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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Using another brand of cheese, DoggyMan Hello Cheese Stick !
Selling at $3.85 for a 72g packet, can be purchased from most pet store like PLC.

To make into cheese buttons or cheese sticks, you need to use plain cheese.
It will be good to use cheese for dog as it is low in salt content.

With the same method as described in the previous post, you get some nice crispy beef jerky with cheese buttons.
However, the cheese fragrance is lighter for this brand as compared to cheese from Marujyo & Uekufu.

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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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DoggyMan flavored cheese triangles !

Selling at the same price as their cheese sticks ... this one comes in small triangular shape, good to use as training treats.
These are not plain cheese, comes in 3 flavouring of plain, tomatoes and carrots.
Notice the diced triangular cubes are powdery to feel ...

Using the same method ... the result was disappointing.
The cheese triangles did not stick onto the meat after meat were fully dehydrated.
It fell off as meat was lifted off dehydrating tray.
Likely due to flour being added to produce the cheese thus it did not hold into position like plain cheese did.

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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Twisties for Dog

Ingredients : Sweet Potatoes

Yes. That's all you need. Orange flesh sweet potatoes from Indonesia.

Remove skin, cut into smaller pieces and steamed sweet potatoes till soft.
Leave cool and mashed sweet potatoes using a fork.
It is very easy to mashed as the sweet potatoes is very soft when thoroughly cooked.

Use your palm and roll them into shape and lay them on dehydrating tray.
Make sure you leave some gap in between each sticks else it will stick together once dehydrated.

Set temperature to 55C and dehydrate for 6 hours.
You can also dehydrate together with the meat at 65C for 4 hours and reduce to 55C for another 2 hours or till it is fully dried.
Store in air-tight container away from direct sunlight ... it can last a month or more without refrigeration if fully dehydrated.
But my boys usaully finish up within days ... :sweatdrop:

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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Does the above 3 sweet potatoes look the same to you ?

Yes from the outside. No from the inside.
Left two sweet potatoes are orange flesh sweet potatoes, right one is yellow flesh sweet potatoes though all are from Indonesia.
Choose firm, medium-sized sweet potatoes that are tapered at both ends. Skin should be smooth without brown spots.

Always use a stainless steel knife when cutting a sweet potato.
Using a carbon blade will cause it to darken. When peeling, be sure to go deep enough to remove the hard layer beneath the skin.

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We are making some sweet potatoes chips for doggy ... a nice "chew chew" to kill boredom while paw parents are at work.

Steamed sweet potatoes, leave cool and cut into thick slices.
Dip your cutting knife into water to make slicing cooked sweet potatoes easier.
Set temperature to 55C and dehydrate for 6-8 hours or till fully dried.
Best to store dried sweet potato chews in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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French Fries for Dog

Ingredient : Sweet Potatoes

Yes ! That's all you need again. :p

There is several types of sweet potatoes being sold in our local wet market.
I am using purple skin sweet potatoes with yellow flesh from Japan.
Though slightly more expensive than those from Indonesia, these are sweeter and has a very nice yellowish hue once dehydrated.

Sweet potatoes need to be cook before it can be dehydrated to be made into different treats !
Uncooked sweet potatoes can cause indigestion to dogs.

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To make fries, skin of sweet potatoes need not be removed.
Just wash the sweet potatoes clean and steamed it whole.

Leave cool and cut sweet potatoes into long strips.
Arrange on dehydrating tray and dehydrate at 55C for 6-8 hours or till fully dried.

Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A, as well as fiber, protein, vitamin C, iron and calcium.
Store in air-tight container and keep in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.

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Re: Food Dehumidifier ~ Doggy Treats Making

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Sweet Potatoes Wraps

Great training treats for doggy ...

You will need some sweet potatoes, cut into strips and put into dehydrator 2 hours before hand.
Prepare some lean beef, cut into long thin strips ready for use.

Take out sweet potatoes strips and wrap it with beef strips.
Once all sweet potatoes wrapped up ... put it back into the dehydrator.
Dehydrate at 65C for 4-6 hours.
Leave cool before packing.

It's ok to over dehydrate but never under dehydrate.
Food not fully dried will turned moldy quickly.

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