Hey everyone. There are so many types of dog food available in the market now that it’s hard to wrap your head around all of them.
For me, the most beloved among wet pet foods is pate. It has been used for centuries to make dog food enriching and interesting and is sometimes used as a standalone meal.
Pate is just French for paste, so it consists of a bunch of different foods like meat, vegetables, and grains mashed together in the form of a singular paste.
Here’s all you need to know about Pate dog food.
What is Pate Dog Food?
Pate dog food is wet food for dogs made by blending different ingredients as a thick paste. Pate dog food is usually packaged in cans and pouches.
1. Texture
Usually, pate has a consistency that is denser than toothpaste but less dense than sausages. It’s not quite a puree but not a paste; it’s pate.
You can also consider this a “loaf” since it comes in one big block, like meatloaf. Although, pate is also available in a spreadable paste form.
2. Origin
Pate is made by the French cooking technique called Charcuterie. The Charcuterie is the pates, terrains, and small goods you can create at home and put on your table. And pate means a pastry crust that surrounds a mixture of meat. But the term has come to mean pate means the meat mixture itself.
The meat mixture in a meat pate is ground pork, ground veal, spices, wines, and anything else that you would like to put into it, such as strips of veal, ham, or chicken livers.
3. Nutrition
The pate recipes are a great choice for dogs because they’re complete and balanced for all life stages. It means they’re good for puppies, senior dogs, and everything in between.
It is a high-calorie food for all the right reasons because all the ingredients you put into it are densely mixed together.
You have to have fat in the pate mixture to give it the lightness it’s supposed to have. Because the fat all cooks out when the pate cooks and leaves a sort of fat filaments, giving the mixture lightness.
It also has high-moisture content, and because we’ve all been feeding our pets dry kibble, we think it’s unnatural to have moisture in dog food which isn’t true.
What are Some uses of Pate in Dog Food?
Pate as a dog food has many uses, so I’ll talk you through some of those now.
1. Helps in Digestion
Often, digestion is the start of everything with a dog’s food and health. The better the dog’s stomachs are regulated, the better it can absorb nutrients. Many of these nutrients can lead a dog to a happier and healthier life. An aspect of pate that we love, from kibble to can, is that you can easily rotate to keep a good variety in your dog’s diet without worrying about upsetting their stomach.
2. Easy to Make
The ingredients are super inexpensive and easy to come by. You’ve got your base meats, your salts, and your binder. If you stick to the recipe on the meat, the salts, and the binder, you can get creative with your garnish, spice mix, and whatever you want to wrap around your pate.
3. Refill Bone Marrow
You can re-stuff a marrow bone. So once the dog’s eaten all the marrow out of here, you can use one of these treats, some of this pate, and you can pop it back in there and refreeze it to use another day again. It’s quite good fun for the dogs.
4. Use With Toys
We can use it in enrichment toys, such as a toy bone with textured pieces or a licky mat in one of their bowls. Take your piece of pate and then just squash it into the mat. You can also put it into the enrichment toy by getting your small pieces and stuffing them in. It encourages your puppy or dog to take some time and enjoy their treats without making too much mess at home.
5. Make Treats
We can also use a product like a cow hoof, which is quite hard. We can take our slice, stuff it in there, into the cow hoof, and if you can pack it in with some other products, like minced chicken, you can refreeze and give it as an enriching toy later on.
Chewing on something like this releases endorphins and makes them feel good. It doesn’t make too much of a mess, and I’ll also give this outside.
How to Make Pate for Your Dog at Home?
Today you’re going to make a really quick and delicious liver pate for your dogs. It’s always handy to have on hand in the refrigerator as a nice little treat.
Step 1
You’ll need half a pound of beef liver (you can also use chicken liver). Take the liver and sauté it in a tablespoon of butter. You can leave the meat a little pink because it’s fine for dogs to have raw meat, but it depends on what your dog likes, and you should do your research.
Step 2
Now you’ll need to add vegetables. It doesn’t need to be super small pieces because it’s cooked. We’ll mash it before adding it to the rest of the dog food anyway. And now, for the carrots: You don’t need to mash them, but you can cut them up kinda small to just throw them right into the dog food.
Once carrots and sweet potatoes are all chopped, you will cover these with water and then boil them until they’re soft.
Step 3
Now, you’ll add about half a teaspoon of garlic powder (adjust the amount to your liking). Garlic powder is good for your dogs as it repels fleas. Next, add about half a tablespoon to a tablespoon of rosemary. If you have fresh rosemary from your garden, it gives a nice grassy flavor that your dogs will love. One thing to note is that every dog is different. If your dog doesn’t eat anything green, adjust the ingredients accordingly. They shouldn’t suspect that they’re eating vegetables.
Step 4
Transfer the mixture to a food processor (you can also use a mixer, but the food processor works better to make it creamy). At this point, add a hard-boiled egg and a tablespoon of fresh parsley from your garden. Remember, fresh ingredients are always better. What you want to do is make it nice and creamy. Scrape the bowl down. And Voila!
Step 5
When your pate is done, please put it in another pan. You get a pan that will fit into it or a board like that. Put it on top and then weigh it down with a four-pound weight.
And you weigh it down because, as it’s cooled, you want to press it down to press out any air bubbles so that you’ll have a perfectly solid piece of meat with no holes. You don’t want it to look like a badly baked loaf of bread, right? Next, allow it to cool to room temperature.
And as you press it down, you’ll notice that quite a bit of fat comes out from here, and that’s why you want to put it in another pan. And when it’s perfectly cool, you then refrigerate it.
Step 6
And what I do is put it in one of the little Tupperware containers. It’s always wise to label any treats you have for your pet in the refrigerator. You don’t want one of your kids to come home, spread it on a cracker, and say, “Hey, Mom, this is really good! Which store did you get it at?” And then you have to break it to them that they’re eating the dog’s treats. That’s never good.
Step 7
Now it’s time to refrigerate for three to four days. I recommend about a tablespoon at a feeding, either for a treat or you can mix it in with their kibble. It’s just a great, great little recipe.
There are also some important reasons to feed homemade or fresh dog food. Dogs fed a homemade diet using high-quality foods from their owners, as opposed to commercial pet food, had a life expectancy of 32 months longer. That is almost three years!
Conclusion
Let’s face it, dogs can have touchy stomachs, and for those severe cases, for dogs that have a hard time, pate can be beneficial to help with both. Dogs love them, and it often doesn’t create an upset stomach. It’s perfect for rotation and can care for every dog, from puppy to senior. Dogs love having the extra treat in their bowl.
Ankita is a passionate pet lover and head of content at Pet Food Brands. With her extensive knowledge and research, she provides pet owners with top-quality information on dog food and nutrition. Her dedication to improving the lives of dogs makes her a leading voice in the industry.
