How do I cook chicken liver?

[SubstantialPraline]

Hello everyone! I'm new here. I started home cooking meals for my cats using EZComplete late last year. They're very picky, so we finally fully switched over in February 2021.
I want to start using Alnutrin as well, but I have a few questions. How do I cook chicken liver for cats? Do I need to rinse it beforehand, like human recipes recommend?
Do I calculate how much premix to use the same way I do for EZComplete (weigh the raw meat and calculate amount of EZComplete powder, cook the meat, portion the cooked meat and juices evenly, count the number of cooked portions, and divide the amount of EZComplete powder by the number of cooked portions)? Or do I calculate Alnutrin weight just based on the cooked weight?

Thank you all in advance!

 

[Tobermory]

Hi, S SubstantialPraline ! Welcome to TCS!

I feed raw not cooked, but Dr. Lisa Pierson, a vet who has made an extensive study of feline nutrition and who has a recipe many raw feeders use, cooks her chicken liver as follows:

The liver is cooked for about 20 minutes. ~10 minutes into the time, I stir/break up the liver to ensure even cooking throughout. I cook the liver more than the thighs because bacteria does not reside in the depths of the thigh meat but, instead, lives on the surface. The liver, on the other hand, has a higher chance of having bacterial contamination throughout.​

I don’t rinse the meat or the liver because I’ve read that it doesn’t remove the bacteria, it just spreads it around.

As to how to use the Alnutrin, I know you can use cooked meat with it, but for the “how to,” I’d email them directly for that info.

Lots of good info here at TCS for kitty lovers. I hope you spend some time looking around! And be sure to introduce yourself and your cat(s) here! New Cats on the Block

 

[Beholder]

Hello everyone! I'm new here. I started home cooking meals for my cats using EZComplete late last year. They're very picky, so we finally fully switched over in February 2021.
I want to start using Alnutrin as well, but I have a few questions. How do I cook chicken liver for cats? Do I need to rinse it beforehand, like human recipes recommend?
Do I calculate how much premix to use the same way I do for EZComplete (weigh the raw meat and calculate amount of EZComplete powder, cook the meat, portion the cooked meat and juices evenly, count the number of cooked portions, and divide the amount of EZComplete powder by the number of cooked portions)? Or do I calculate Alnutrin weight just based on the cooked weight?

Thank you all in advance!

I'm not sure where you are buying the liver, but I personally don't rinse it. I get mine from hare-today though.

When I was cooking the food I would take the liver and grind it up in my food processor, combine it with the meat and then cook it and add the Alnutrin after it was already cooked. Just so you know......cooking liver is one of the worst smells in the world IMO.

When adding the Alnutrin you do it based on the total weight of both the uncooked liver and meat. So as just a random example, if you had 4.5lb of meat and .5lb of liver, you're going to weigh the Alnutrin for 5lb. Also, make sure you are adding a source of omegas (fish oil) as well because Alnutrin does not have that.

When I was cooking meat I found it easier (but maybe more time consuming) to cook 1lb at a time. So basically I would premix the liver, heart (which you don't have to add), and the meat and weigh out .5lb portions and put them in individual containers that I got on amazon. They're kinda like fast food containers, but they were cheap and get the job done. I would then freeze all of them and just take a few out to thaw at one time. My cats seemed to like this more than when I tried freezing the cooked food and thawing it. Anyway, after cooking it I would put it in my food processor again (Morty likes a pate consistency) and mix it with the Alnutrin/water/omegas.

On the back of the package of Alnutrin they also explain how much to add. I was gonna send a picture, but I realized I only have the package meant for adding bone right now since we've moved back to raw. But I figured it may still be helpful for you so here it is.

Edit: I wanted to also add that Alnutrin does have a recipe for cooked meat on their website.
https://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/hydrogen's_gourmet_chicken_stew.pdf

 

[SubstantialPraline]

Thank you both so much! I'm buying the liver at my local Whole Foods for now. I'll likely start buying it from Hare Today too.

 

[Beholder]

Thank you both so much! I'm buying the liver at my local Whole Foods for now. I'll likely start buying it from Hare Today too.

No problem! Hare-Today is a really great resource if you have the freezer space. The shipping is cheapest if you buy 55lb of product at a time. They also do random coupons of you subscribe to the newsletter.

 

[Mailmans_Mom]

Just to add onto it, we humans rinse liver (or soak in milk) to remove the liver flavor. That means likely removing some amount of the nutrition as well, but I'm not sure if anyone's ever studied that specifically. For cats, I just bake the liver in the oven until it reaches temperature, no rinsing or prep beforehand. My oven is broken so the numbers I use won't help you. I think other people use a pressure cooker because it captures nearly 100% of the cooking liquid, which ensures you're retaining 100% of the minerals in the meat. Just make sure you allow it to depressurize on its own over time so you're not shooting all the good cooking liquid into the air.

My cats lick the pan afterwards, so they like the taste of straight liver. If your cats don't like it like that, then try soaking it. There is a lot of trial and error when it comes to feeding cats!