Conker's Food Prep: Making the Meat Meals

Last time I posted about how I stock up. Today's post is how I go about making a meat meal for Conker.

The first step is to survey what you've got (animal products only, in this case) and make sure you have enough for X number of meals. What I have on hand is: Two (dissected)  pork shoulders, a whole chicken, a cut-up chicken, several turkey necks, beef scrap, other pork meat, beef and chicken liver, chicken and turkey gizzards and hearts, beef hearts, frozen and canned clams and oysters, ground beef, and a couple other items like beef ribs (not part of meals, those are "snacks").

Today I used: The cut-up chicken, beef scraps, livers, beef heart, poultry gizzards and hearts, other pork meat, frozen and canned mollusks.
I try to use the stuff I've had longer first so none of it gets too freezer burnt. Frozen meat keeps for a very long time if it's wrapped correctly. I tend to wrap mine loosely and sometimes air is still in the package. When I do that I need to use those items sooner rather than later or they will get burnt.

Once I know what I am going to use, I go online to Nutritiondata.com* and make up a recipe based off those items. I calculate out how much of what gives me X nutrients and if I need to add any extras (canned mollusks, in this case) or not. I do not calculate out every single meal but rather make a generalization of what I am going to use and go from there.
For example:

I always give them stupid names

I punch in the items and about how much I am going to use of each one into the recipe. Remember that this is generalizing. I won't make a separate recipe for a meal that used a wing instead of a leg unless the amounts are way different. I do make different ones for every protein, and if I mix two together (I almost always do). I save it, then to go "My Tracking" to see if it needs further tweaking.

The nutrient profile for "Chicky-Moo"

I enter the recipe (Add to tracking, My Recipes, pick the one I just made) in tracking and hit the "Save & Analyze" button. The next page is a breakdown of the nutrients and stuff. There's a lot of information there, but I usually skip down to the nutrition information section.
I try to get all the nutrients into the 110%-125% range, excluding a couple things like Vitamin A and some of the B's. Excess B's get pissed out and unless it's like, 50 times the amount they should get, they aren't much of a problem.
Once the meat recipe is where generally I want it, I stick in the grain meal as well and see how it comes out. If it's still messed up I will tweak it further.

Note: Thiamin, riboflavin, magnesium, manganese, and Vitamins D and E are low. These are taken care of with the grain meal, which is not entered in the picture above, and will be written about later.
Also, calcium is basically non-existent since Nutritiondata doesn't count bones. I use a couple online sources for determining calcium content of a given bone-in item and punch that into a "custom food" and add it when everything else is good.
Another Note: I do not normally feed beef, so the iron and zinc is a bit higher than "usual" in this example. That is adjusted by tweaking the clam and oyster content.

Once I am satisfied with the nutrient profile I grab the things I'm gonna use and stick them into a plastic box in the fridge. I partly thaw them overnight, then I get my big cutting board, scale, a bowl, knife, and meats out so I can make up some meals.

This makes roughly 9 meals with some leftovers here and there

Again I survey what I've got and grab any missing items. Then I set to work cutting and weighing out the bits and pieces I need for an individual meal.
Note: I have done this so many times I know how much of what I need to grab for X number of meals just by looking at it. I can also grab a pinch of clams or slice of liver without weighing and get it accurate almost every time. I still weigh them though, because I am OCD about that.

A 10 ounce can of clams is actually just 5.6 ounces

If I need to, I drain the canned mollusks and see how many I get. Each can, and brand, varies in how many ounces of mollusks you actually get.
Note:  The way I have these recipes set up, I need those mollusks. They contain important iron, zinc, and copper. I cannot leave them out, especially if I am using chicken since it's pretty devoid of those minerals.

Clam juice

I use the juice as a thinner for grain meals, or I rehydrate The Honest Kitchen with it. Sometimes I just give it as a fun drink. Don't throw it out, it's got good stuff in it.

Weighing the "vitals"

I've got a group of items I have dubbed "vitals", meaning I cannot leave them out. They are:
Liver: I mainly use beef liver. It supplies vitamin A, copper and some B's.
Heart: Not exactly vital, but good for taurine, some B's, and a bit of iron.
Canned oysters: Zinc, and a bit of copper.  .3 ounces of oyster is usually enough to top those off.
Canned clams: IRON! and B-12. Just .2 ounces of clams rounds out the iron needs nicely.
I used to use kidney as well, but I have not been able to get it for some months now.

Hacking

I only keep what is going into the current meal or two on the cutting board. This reduces clutter and accidentally putting something I'm not supposed to into a meal. Pictures is: Hacked chicken, beef scrap, beef liver and heart, and in the far upper right corner, the scale and some clams.
Once the proper amounts are weighed (give or take an ounce or so for meat, .1 ounce for other items) I dump them into a tupperware but don't stick them into the fridge just yet. When I am done with all the meals I look them over again to make sure they've got everything in them.

Meals with lids have been approved. No lids are being surveyed

Once I am satisfied that each tupperware had the right stuff in it, I stick on the lids and pack them into the freezer. I usually make 7-9 meals at a time, and sometimes they don't all go into a tupperware. I prefer to use tupperwares since they are reusable. Bags can only get 2-3 good uses out of them before they spring holes or get nasty.

Finished meals ready for the freezer

Anything that was not used is re-bagged and stuck back into the freezer. It's perfectly fine to thaw and re-freeze dog stuff a couple times. I don't completely thaw out pre-prepared meal stuff. I keep it in a semi-solid state so it's easier to cut up and doesn't take as long to thaw or re-freeze.

After that, I clean the cutting board, knife, and whatever else I used, and sanitize the entire counter for about three feet in every direction. This is partly due to Mom spazzing about raw chicken juice everywhere, and also because I don't want to leave a mess behind and annoy other people who want to use the kitchen.

If nobody is home during the meal construction, I will blare classical music quite loudly from my room (which is about 5 feet away from the kitchen). It makes a nice setting for hacking up dead animal parts.

Next time, on Conker's Food Prep: Making a Grain Meal.


* I have already entered in Conker's NRC numbers  into My Preferences on Nutritiondata. If you have not done that, you'll get general human numbers and your tracking won't be accurate for your dog. If you want me to write up how to do this, let me know, and I will.