Our family always had a dog – for short times more than one – when we lived on the farm. I doubt if my parents ever bought a bag of dog food at the store in their lives. They just didn’t do it.
Now don’t get me wrong. We didn’t feed the dogs at the table. They ate scraps and leftovers out of their own dish after the people ate. And outside -or barn – dogs got food in a dish in addition to a portion of milk twice a day. (Cats were all barn cats. They got a pan of very fresh, warm milk morning and evening. They hunted additional protein. Think rodent control.)
The first few years we lived on the farm we owned a German Shepard. (At the insistence of mother.) He was a house dog and took his duty of protecting my mother from strangers serious. He also was a large dog with an appetite to match.
Mother’s solution to feeding him became Dog Cake. We didn’t measure a lot with this recipe and things varied. But here are the basics.
Chicken mash — 1 quart
White flour –
Sugar
Baking powder
Bacon drippings
Eggs — the ones that could not be sold due to cracks, etc.
Milk or water
Pour into greased 9×13 pan and bake.
I’m sure I tried a few crumbs on occasion. I don’t remember the taste as either good or bad. Certainly nothing in here that would hurt me. And it was not near as dry as the Milkbone biscuit I ate on a dare years later.
