Pig head dog food recipe

by Jamie Shanks | Feb 7, 2012 | 0 comments

THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE REAL DOG FOOD

We often get pig heads.  Sometimes they come cut in half but often a whole head.  If you are not squeamish then they really are an ideal source of dog meat…lets face it…not so many years ago the components of a pig’s head was thought of as good human food.  I and my sisters certainly grew up eating it and the dogs got what we couldn’t/didn’t eat.  Brawn, tongue, cheeks, homemade haslet etc…if you haven’t had braised pig cheeks in a thick brown gravy with mash you have missed a real tasty dish and as a teenager coming home drunk (ish) lol…attacking the brawn and spreading it on toast with brown sauce?? wow…1970’s kebab lol!!!

Ingredients

1 pig head, several large potatoes, some carrots, bag of rice.  But you can instead chuck in any veg trimmings, barley or couscous you may have.

 

Method

BUTCHERED PIG HEAD

Wash the pigs head!

pig head in pot

Plunge in large saucepan of boiling water then boil until you can stick a skewer into cheeck area with ease (2 hours +)

boiled pigs head

Lift out of stock…now this stock will be very fatty…if your dog is healthy and has no eating fat problems like dogs with pancreatitis then…

RAW VEG TRIMMINGS

…add veg trimmings, rice or barley or couscous or pasta to stock and simmer for 15 mins. Today we are using chopped carrots, potatoes and rice!

Cook veg in stock

…If your dog cannot do fat…leave to cool remove solid fat from top then use the stock as previous (save that fat…brill for roast tatties!)

skinless pig's head

Once head has cooled strip off all the skin…we will come back to the skin in a moment!

PIG SKULL

Pick out all the meat…this is cheek area, brain (may have to crack the skull bone), tongue ( may have to force the jaws) and pick all the rest of the bones clean…

One average sized pigs head will give you about 20 portions of meat content.  We pay £1 for a head and once it picked down portion it up and remember this is high quality fat and meat and they don’t need the volume as if you was feeding from a tin…a dog about the size of a lab needs no more than 2  to 3 cooked ounces (about 100g).  Add the veggies etc etc from the stock so now you have say 20 portions of pig head meat and veg/rice/barley/couscous etc.  Add 1mug of cheap whole meal mixer to each dinner. So…5p for the meat/fat, 5p for the veg, 10p for the rice/barley etc and 10p for the mixer.  That’s just 30p to feed a Labrador size dog…compare that to balls in a bag or tinned meat with 80% water in it!!

 

AND THAT SKIN?

drying pig skin

Easy!! Next time you have the oven on place skin on the baking tray and bake it until crispy…pork cracking dog treats without the salt and additives! 🙂

How to store

As a general guide if meat protein is present in recipe then it will last around 3 to 5 days stored in a cool place.  If it has second class protein in it eg. cheese, lentils, eggs, etc, then they will store for about 10 days in a cool place. You can use cake tins lined with baking paper – greaseproof. If there is no meat or second class proteins present then it will last around 3 weeks before they go soft like human biscuits.

Buy the book!

These dog treat recipes are now available to buy in book on Amazon.   An ideal gift!
dog treat recipe book
raw pig ears

By Jamie Shanks

BDWS is owned and run by me, Jamie Shanks. I’ve been a professional dog walker since 2010. When I’m not walking dogs, I’m usually at home entertaining my three dogs and attending to five hens and my vegetable garden. 

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