Goose Jerky Dog Treats
Corey Mulhair at SPLIT REED
Presented by Browning Firearms
Reward your retriever with some treats directly sourced from his or her own hard work.
These goose jerky dog treats are great for field snacks during a slow moment on a hunt, rewards during training or even just to spoil your dog with at home. They are easy to make, great use for shot up birds, and last for a really long time.
What you’ll need:
Goose Breasts (4-8 breasts depending on batch size)
Sharp knife (filet or boning style is my preference)
Dehydrator
Geese aren’t exactly known for their table-fare, particularly Canada geese and Snow geese. That’s certainly not to say that they aren’t edible- in fact when prepared in the right ways, geese can be excellent eating. Specklebelly (white-fronted) geese are usually very good eating, and Snows and Canada geese can be as well. [In the future you’ll see more from Split Reed about how to prepare them in a number of ways.]
Today however, we’re going to talk about when you and your buddies have a great day- or even a lights out kind of season and have a whole mess of goose meat to make use of. If you’re a big fan of goose meat, maybe on the bbq or in a snack stick or jerky form, this recipe may not be up your alley; especially if you’re not used to shooting 20-60 a week or don’t feel like you have goose meat to spare for uses aside from human consumption. Goose hunting opportunity and success is a factor in folks taking advantage of turning geese into dog treats.
Some states have more liberal limits than others and allow for the idea of turning your quarry into dog treats more.. palatable. Consider Wyoming; where in some hunting zones you’re limited to 2-3 dark geese per day. Now take a state like North Dakota, where early season allows for the take of 15 honkers each day, and a regular season daily limit of 8. And for the record more often than not these are big honkers weighing around 9-12lbs each. If you’re freelancing Sask, you’re in the mecca of goose hunting and shooting 8 big geese a day isn’t uncommon.
After one of those full limit days, what are you going to do with your pile of geese? I usually use a couple for pastrami and a couple for jerky or snack sticks/sausage. The question gets a little deeper when you consider that sometimes half or more of the birds are shot to shit and don’t seem very fit for human consumption. Here’s where the Goose Jerky Dog Treat recipe earns its stripes.
Dog Jerky Treats
1. As usually prefaced for any kind of goose recipe, the first step is to shoot some geese dead.
2. Breast the birds out, making sure to remove the breast tenders as well. (Keep the legs too and try our confit goose legs/thigh recipe found here). I like to save the in-tact breasts for other recipes like my pastrami recipe, but it goes without saying that they make dog jerky treats just the same as the shot up breasts do.
*Optional- Soak the goose breasts in water or salt-water for a day or two to pull blood and off-flavors out. I haven’t had any dogs turn down my jerky treats, but have heard some are a little picky and a quick brine might help.
3. Slice the goose breasts abut 1/4” thick. I slice short ways cross the breast (with the grain) for easier slicing but going long ways (across the grain) works fine, it’s just a little tougher to keep the slices at a uniform thickness of about a quarter inch.
4. After slicing up 4-8 breasts (depending on your dehydrators capacity) it’s time to lay the slices down on the trays/racks. I try not to crowd the slices as they may stick together when dehydrating, but that’s not a real issue you need to be too concerned about. I have extra trays for my dehydrator so it’s no issue to add them as I lay strips to keep ample spacing between slices. Thus allows for better airflow and even drying.
5. My dehydrator has three settings: Low, Medium and High. Most dehydrators don’t have a temperature dial and you’ll find that many ‘High’ settings run somewhere between 150-175 degrees, which is perfect for this type of project. When you make jerky for human consumption you aim to retain moisture so that you can actually chew it. When making treats for your dog, you just want to make a pile of em and have them at the ready- so the aim is to pull all the moisture out and this happens best at higher temps.
Long story short, step 5 is to set the dehydrator, now full of strips, to high (or 160 degrees) and let it run for about 8 hours
6. You’ve done it. It’s that simple. Now you’ve got some wild sourced, high protein healthy and clean treats for your dog to enjoy. You’ve found a way to ethically use the shot up breasts (or totally fine breasts) that you may or may not have been wondering about. The question of what you’ll do with all your goose hunting success is slowly but surely being answered.
Storing the treats is as easy as piling them up in box and allowing them to be exposed to dry air to keep them moisture free, and allow any residual moisture to leave the strip. I use a small plastic container and I keep the lid off.
7. The final-final step is to reward your dog with his, and your, hard work. Treat em well, they’re only here for a while but to them you’re everything for the entire time they’re around.
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