Importance of Cooling Fresh Homemade Dog Food

• The Reasons Why Warm And Hot Foods Taste Better
  
• Tips For Cooling Fresh Meals When Using ChefPaw
  
• Final Thoughts
  

Without a doubt, one of the greatest feelings in the world is watching your dog come running with excitement when they catch you cooking them a fresh homemade meal. This can especially be the case when you have a picky eater or a pup with dental issues that prefers the softer and warmer texture of a fresh meal. 

However, pet parents need to use caution to ensure their best furbuddies meals have adequately cooled to the appropriate temperatures. Doing so not only ensures they don’t burn their mouths, it will make food taste and smell even better. 

The Reasons Why Warm And Hot Foods Taste Better

While we and our dogs often prefer our meals to be warmed up, we often don’t sit down and ask ourselves why. But you don’t need to because we’re here to explain the science. 

Better Aromas

Smell is a critical part of why something tastes good to us and our dogs. When we warm food, it’s easier for aromatic molecules in the meal to aerosolize (release into the air). Initially, you may think that means a meal isn’t as flavorful, but in fact, this increases the flavor. 

For humans, it’s widely accepted in sensory science that our sense of smell is responsible for 70-80% of what we taste. While specific studies quantifying the exact percentage in dogs are limited, it’s likely even higher as dogs have fewer taste buds (around 1,700) compared to humans (about 9,000). 

But that’s only one reason why aroma plays a major part in how delicious warm food tastes to us and especially to our dogs. That’s because, for every 1 scent receptor humans have, our furry best friends have about 50, giving them a sense of smell that is 10,000 to 100,000 times more acute than ours. Some even report dogs being able to pick up a scent over 12 miles away.

So the next time you catch yourself drooling over the aroma of a hot cooked meal, just imagine how amazing that aroma smells to your dog. No wonder they beg so much for our food when they are used to bland kibble and cold wet foods.  

Richer Flavors

Like us, within our dogs’ taste buds are microscopic channels called TRPM4 and TRPM5. These taste-signaling transient receptors really awaken when they come across temperatures that fall in the range of 59°F to 95°F (15°C to 35°C). 

But like us, our dogs will generally prefer foods near the top of the range because guess what turns into a melty liquid around 94–98°F (34–37°C)? Butter and fats that unlock fat-soluble compounds in the meal while bringing along their own flavor that all really amplifies a meal’s flavor. 

Some hypothesize that warm meals are a holdover from biological evolution as a warm meal indicates a fresh kill and thus safer to eat, i.e., less time for bacteria growth. All-in-all, it’s likely a combination of many factors that play into the simple fact…warm meals are often way more delicious and preferable to cold foods. 

Tips For Cooling Fresh Meals When Using ChefPaw

ChefPaw is designed to cook your dog’s food to perfection, ensuring the ingredients in the meal have been gently cooked while eliminating pathogens that thrive in undercooked and raw meals. 

To do that, ChefPaw implores a sous-vide style cooking process by applying a gentle heat of 212°F (100°C) to the ingredients for an average time of 40 minutes. While this is a moderately low-temperature cooking-wise to ensure the best nutrient retention, meals freshly out of ChefPaw are far too hot for your dog to immediately eat. So let’s look at a few tips to guarantee your dog’s meals are appropriately cooled. 

Tip #1 - The Optimal Serving Temperature 

To ensure your dog is getting highly aromatic and flavorful hot meals while protecting their digestion system against repeated exposure to high temperatures, we recommend allowing meals to cool to at least 101–103°F (38–39°C) before serving. If you need to feed your pup right away, we suggest placing the desired amount of food in the refrigerator or freezer for several minutes to cool. 

Tip #2 - Achieving The Optimal Serving Temperature 

Need help knowing whether your dog’s meals are perfectly hot and fresh without being too hot? The best way is to use a food thermometer, which is just a nice tool to have on hand when you are cooking your meals. You deserve perfectly cooked meals with maximum nutrition too! 

However, you can also carefully touch the food, holding your hand over the meal first to gauge whether it’s too hot to touch. 

Tip #3 - Best Practices For Meal Times 

When giving your dog hot and fresh meals around 101–103°F (38–39°C), it’s important to remember that this temperature is slightly hotter than their body temperature. To keep your dog’s body temperature down, you can serve warm food with cold water, especially on hot days. Serving water with their meals is a great way to promote better digestion and nutrient absorption. 

Veterinarians recommend waiting at least 30-60 minutes after your dog has eaten a meal before exercising them. However, a gentle walk after mealtime is A-OK if no issues are seen. We recommend monitoring your dog’s reaction to their delightful cooked meals for any digestive issues, such as diarrhea. Please contact your veterinarian if your dog’s diarrhea persists, or if they are vomiting with diarrhea, as this could lead to dehydration. 

You should also contact your veterinarian if your dog seems distressed, or if digestive issues last more than 12–24 hours. If your dog shows any signs of choking, such as pawing at their mouth, having trouble breathing, or salivating heavily, seek immediate emergency care. 

Final Thoughts

ChefPaw is the perfect all-in-one food processor and cooker for giving your dog a whole-food diet. When you give your dog meals that aren’t too hot and not too cold, many pet parents say they wish they had started doing it sooner. But before ChefPaw, that wasn’t the easiest. Thankfully, the problems of giving our dogs homemade meals in the past are no more!