Hey, fellow pet lovers!
Today’s post is a super simple festive treat recipe for your four-legged friends. If you haven’t made your pet homemade treats before then don’t worry, as we have plenty of recipes to choose from at epoch.pet so head over to our Homemade Treat section to have a little look.
Let’s jump straight into today’s post!
Homemade Dehydrated Turkey & Cranberry Jerky 🦃
What you will need to make these delicious Christmas treats for your furry friend?
- A Chopping board (Non-essential).
- A large Mixing Bowl.
- A Sharp knife.
- Gloves if you mind getting your hands dirty.
- Scales (Non-essential)
- A Dehydrator.
- An airtight container to put your finished treats in.
- 100 grams of fresh cranberries.
- Raw minced turkey, I just used one packet which was 500 grams but you can do as much as you like as long as you have enough space in your dehydrator.
- A jerky Gun.
Step One; Sort out your Dehydrator & Trays
The first step is to sort your dehydrator and trays out and if you have followed any of my treat recipes before then you will already know that this is the always the first thing to do; so that when you’re ready to pipe your turkey jerky you can easily stick everything on your trays without having to wash your hands in between.
Step Two; Make The Cranberry Sauce
I only used a very small amount of Cranberries, just 100 grams as I couldn’t find much information about cranberries for our canine friends. However, cranberries are fine for them in moderation but you should stay away from buying dried cranberries as they can be filled with glucose syrup.
Also, make your own cranberry sauce and don’t use store-bought as it can also be filled with a myriad of nasties and have plenty of sugar in it to make it taste delicious. I literally used 100 grams of fresh cranberries, gave them a quick wash and then chucked them in a pan with a little bit of water, just enough to cover them. Then simply stick the pan on the hob and let it bubble away for ten to 15 minutes or until your cranberry sauce has thickened. I crushed my cranberries every now and then, to help the sauce form.
Step Three; Mix the Cranberry Sauce & Turkey
The next step is to mix your cranberry sauce and turkey mince together in a bowl. I actually didn’t use all of my sauce and added about three tablespoons to my 500-gram pack of turkey mince, so you really don’t need much. Simply mix it in well with your hands and once all combined it’s time to move onto the next step.
Step Four; Place The Turkey Mixture into the Jerky Gun
Now that you’ve placed your treat mixture into your jerky gun it’s time to pipe your treats out onto your dehydrator trays. You can make them as thick or as thin as you like, just remember that they will shrink to about 1/3rtd of their original size.
Step Five; Transfer Jerky To The Dehydrator Trays
The next step is super simple as all you have to do is transfer your jerky onto your dehydrator trays by neatly piping it out.
Step Six; Transport Trays To The Dehydrator
Your so close to having finished Christmas jerky for your lovely four-legged friends, the last thing to do is to stick your trays in the dehydrator to start the cooking process. Place all your turkey jerky into the dehydrator on its highest setting. We have an Excalibur nine-tray dehydrator and it has a set timer on so we can choose to leave it on for 24 hours or longer.
However, if you don’t have a timer then just keep checking on it but it will take at least 16 hours if not 24 depending on how thick your treats are. I take my turkey jerky off the non-stick Excalibur paper halfway through the cooking process to ensure all moisture has been removed. If you haven’t checked out my previous post which is a product review of Excalibur Dehydrator then head over ther& e after reading this to learn more.
Step Seven; Transfer Turkey & Cranberry Jerky To An Airtight Jar
Now you have tasty homemade Christmas treats for your canine friend, my girl Lily loves these but unfortunately, Nia cannot have Turkey so I made her a few cranberry and yoghurt frozen bones with the leftover sauce.
Thanks for reading today’s post and being a truly awesome pet parent to your canine or feline friend. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, I’ll be posting a short and sweet post, wishing you and your four-legged friends a wonderful Christmas and new year.
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