Slow Cooker vs Pressure Cooker Showdown

Slow Cooker Dog Food Recipe versus Pressure Cooker Dog Food Recipe

Do you love your slow cooker but wonder if a pressure cooker would be better for making dog food? You may already have an Instant Pot and are curious about how it stacks up against the slow cooker for this particular recipe. In this blog post, I'll compare both methods of making dog food using the same formula. Keep reading to find out which one comes out on top!

Making homemade dog food can benefit your pup since you can choose quality ingredients with the assurance, they are a safe and healthy option. Equally important is that the ingredients are balanced with additional calcium, vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, and Omega-3's. Proper homemade dog food preparation could make a massive difference in your pet’s health when balanced with these essential nutrients.

I created Holistic Vet Blend when I saw how many people stopped feeding commercial pet food after the massive recall in 2007 that killed thousands of pets. I frequently encountered people feeding their pets chicken and rice for years. They did so without adding calcium, vitamins, trace minerals, and taurine. The pets were surviving but not thriving, and I saw a huge need to help those who wanted to prepare their food. With homemade pet food, you can have peace of mind knowing where exactly the ingredients are coming from, so you don’t need to worry about over-processed or unhealthy ingredients.

Compare the Crock Pot with the Instant Pot Methods

The Crock Pot and Instant Pot offer an efficient cooking solution for your pet. The Instant Pot is a much faster option, cooking food in a fraction of the time it takes in the Crock Pot. However, when considering cost and convenience, the Crock Pot offers more bang for your buck and is a more convenient cooking method because you can set it up and leave it to do its thing.

Regarding safety, both cooking techniques provide similar levels of assurance regarding quality control; however, some worry about nutrient degradation with extended cooking times, suggesting that the Instant Pot may be a better option for pets with sensitive dietary needs.

Whether you have an Instant Pot or a slow cooker, these wholesome ingredients come together in under an hour. All you need is chicken thighs, carrots, kale, and brown rice- easy enough to find in any grocery store. Prep time could take as little as 10 minutes to cut up the carrots and kale. For a slow cooker version, combine the ingredients (in order of the chicken first) and let cook for 3 to 4 hours on a low setting. For the pressure cooker version, sauté chicken on the “saute” setting for about 5 minutes and then add all other ingredients before putting it on high pressure for 30 minutes. Now both methods will yield a delicious meal your pup will love in no time! If you're looking for a way to make healthy, homemade dog food, try this recipe!

 

Preparation in the Slow Cooker/Crock Pot:

      1-3. Follow steps one to 3 above adding the ingredients to the slow cooker.

      4. Cook on high for 5 hours.

      3. Break up the chicken thighs and disperse through the recipe.

      5. Allow the recipe to cool.

      6. Break up the chicken thighs and disperse through the recipe.

      7. Add HVB premix and omega-3 fatty acids. Mix well.

      8. Freeze what you do not use in 4 days.

What recipe won with the pets?

When I offered the two recipes side by side my dogs loved both of them.

So what did I think?

With the time-saving convenience of pressure cooking, it's no wonder that more people are involved in creating home-cooked meals for their furry friends. However, there is a big difference between preparing food in a Crock Pot versus an Instant Pot. Let's look at the pros and cons:

Slow cooker pros:

• "Fix it and Forget it". Off to work and come home to a warm meal and a house that smells delightful.
• Meats come out very tender
• Economical to make a large meal to feed many

 

Pressure cooker pros:

• Cook faster
• Cook more efficiently using very little power.
• Although they both require liquid, the pressure cooker requires less liquid.
• Cook certain time-consuming foods can be made in a snap: risotto, squashes, steam vegetables in minutes, can cook other foods that the slow cooker cannot such as hard-boiled eggs in just a few minutes.
• Food tastes better to me, but I'm not sure what my pets.
• It can function as both a pressure cooker and a slow cooker. Some models even have an air fryer function. These functions could potentially save you a lot of space in your kitchen if you don't want both a slow cooker and a pressure cooker.
• I like that I don't have to use as much liquid in the Instant Pot and my recipes aren't as "mushy"
• Has functions such as a sauté' functions to brown meat before cooking.
• There are so many amazing cookbooks out there for preparing healthy, homemade meals in a snap.

 

Check out:

The Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook by Jeffrey Eisner 

The Lighter Step by Step Instant Pot Cookbook by Jeffrey Eisner 

America's Test Kitchen Mediterranean Instant Pot 

These cookbooks are game changers, and the food is outstanding! Stay tuned for more recipes coming.

Pressure cooker cons:

• There are so many buttons on it you feel like you need an operator's license to use it. There's a learning curve but you really only need to know a few functions for most recipes.
• Fear of pressure cooking is real! The first time you imagine this cartoon character watching the pressure build and worrying that each little sound means something horrible is going to unfold. Truth be told, if my oven hadn't failed at the beginning of the pandemic and parts were indefinitely available to fix it, I never would have brought it out of the garage and dusted it off.
• It's more expensive than a slow cooker.
• You need to make sure there is sufficient water to pressure cook. Ingredients like sweet potatoes, rice, or pasta need to be layered on top of the recipe so they do not cause you to get the dreaded "Burn" alert. By the way, this is the worst thing that I've seen with my instant pot. It says "BURN" and it's usually because I put something like sweet potatoes on the bottom of the pot and they absorbed the water in the recipe. This is easily remedied by adding more water to the recipe and making sure that the potatoes, pasta, or rice that you added has adequate water. I also layer sweet potatoes over the other.
• There's a learning curve but once you have mastered the few functions that you really need than you won't look back!

 

In conclusion, the Crock and Instant Pot are excellent tools for making homemade dog food. Not only do they make it easier to control your pet’s diet and reduce waste, but these methods can also provide cost savings compared to store-bought commercial options. The variations in cooking times between the two approaches may offer pros and cons to either process depending on your lifestyle; however, both ways are effective at ensuring you provide quality nutrition for your furry friend. Consider investing in a slow or pressure cooker if you don't already own one. Check out the Holistic Vet Channel on YouTube for more tips on making homemade dog food and other holistic health tips for pets.