Is it a secret recipe?

 

If only I knew your recipe, then my fish would be very happy too.:icon_mrgr

 

At least tell us the base ingredients

 

No secret. LOL Happy to share. I wrote down the entire process so that I could make changes where necessary.

Ingredients:
Kale (raw)- from the garden. About 1 large bag full.
Granny Smith Apple - 1 apple, just cored.
Cream of Wheat - Instant packages and I used 2 packets (28g each)
Egg - I used one, but next time I plan on omitting this item.
Daphnia - freezed dried
Hermit Crab Cakes
Shrimp Pellets
*NOTE: with the last 3 ingredients, add as much as you want. I threw in about a handful of each. I would recommend grinding the crab cakes and shrimp pellets to give the cookie a more "even" consistency. Some of the pellets didn't get "pureed" so the cookies look like they have lil choco chips. LOL

I used a food processor to puree these items. The Kale and apple were first, which took the longest to get that "baby food" consistency. Then I tossed in the rest to mix throughly. It was just like cookie dough.

I found it best to cook these cookies at approximately 250 to 275 degrees. 200 degrees just took too long to cook. So preheat your oven accordingly.

Spoon (same size amount for each cookie so they cook evenly) out mixture onto a cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper. Some people use greased up cookie sheets, but I didn't want oil residues in my tank. The parchment paper worked great! I first tried to make the cookies as thin as I could, but they came out too... how can I put this....too separated is the word I'm looking for. I found it was better to form medium thick cookies. At 250 degrees, it took these cookies about an hour to cook. I would just keep an eye on them at the 35-45 minute mark, to make sure they don't burn. When they are done, cool them down and freeze the portions that you won't use in week. This single batch made ~24 cookies.

 

Why do you plan on omitting the egg? Fouls up the water?

 

Nope, no fouling of water. I just didn't like the egg shells. They didn't grind down as much as I would have liked. I think the cream of wheat would have been a good enough binder, even oatmeal would have worked well. I just want to try it w/o egg the next time to see if there would be any differences to the cookies.

 

I intended these cookies to be mainly for my shrimp. Protein they get from the frozen bloodworms I feed them. I wanted the cookies to have a high calcium content. I hate blanching veggies and sticking them in the tank. This is a much easier way for me.

I also have plans to make a seaweed packed cookie. I just need to gather up all the ingredients. This cookie batch will be "cooked" using the dehydrator method.

 

The only thing I am worried about is the shrimp pellets and the copper they contain... Does the hermit crab food have copper as well?

 

Nope, no copper. Omega One Shrimp Pellets and TetraFauna Hermit Crab Cakes. Neither one contains copper. I wouldn't put anything in my cookies that would harm my shrimp or other inhabitants.

 

Nice idea. I'm not sure if egg is a good idea, especially with egg shells, even though they maybe grounded up.

I love giving my fish and shrimp different varieties of food. I like Rain-'s shrimp bisquits, since my fish/shrimp seem to enjoy them. They are very thin and sink easy, so I'm not sure if Rain- will share her secrets to help make yours thin.

How did you come up with those ingredients?

 

I'm pretty sure satu's/rain-'s food has eggs in it. I would suggest trying to put the egg in first, then apple and kale?

I'm also in the process of making some food more for convenience but also to sell. How did yours smell? Some of mine smelled HORRIBLE! Too much good stuff blended together...

Good luck!

-Andrew

 

Sounds like a great new food for our little friends. I think the ingredients were just what she had around the house, please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks very much for sharing!

 

the smell is about all I can think about at this point.......*throw up in my mouth*. :hihi:

EDIT: I didn't mean to sound rude, actually I am jealous you made food that an oto would search out and eat. Never seen mine eat anything but algae!

 

the smell is about all I can think about at this point.......*throw up in my mouth*. :hihi:

Yeah it's REALLY REALLY REALLY bad. Some family members wouldn't stay in the same room since it was so bad . I didn't notice it till I left, but the shrimp like the food so it's all good!

-Andrew

 

Fish Newb: You know, after reading your thread about making your own cookies and how the smell was pretty bad, I was expecting the same. But nope, didn't happen! I've read other accounts, who make their own cookies, of the smells being pretty stinky. Mine wasn't bad at all. In fact, it smelled "grassy" and if you ever owned rabbits/vermin (hehe), an Alfalfa odor was strongly recognizable.

I must say too: I was cooking in a well-ventilated kitchen. Windows were open (nice temp during the days here in San Diego- just the nights are frigid) and the stove fan was operating on high. The smell of alfalfa wasn't bad at all in my opinion and no one complained in my house.

 

Well, I'm in NE and its a bit cold out finally! I think it has been about 30F or lower or a bit higher the past week so we can't have all our windows open:icon_neut I need to air out my room but can't because of the cold... ehh trials and tribulations of living in NE.

I think the mix of ingredients I had helped with the smell... very strong flavors all mixed together!

rain: Your biscuits sound so good that even I would eat one!

Some people's food tastes + smells pretty good! I tried a tiny piece of rain's and It was quite good!:thumbsup:

I will! I'll dehydrate some liquified Mc Donald's cheeseburger. The shrimpies are going to love it! I kid, I kid. Can you imagine how disgusting that would be? Fouling up the water for sure.

^That sounds like fun... ... Maybe If I'm really bored I'll do that sometime...

It's good to see more people doing this. Hopefully This batch I finished the other day will all be good and I can share it with some others around here (for a small fee)!

-Andrew

 

And, yes, rain- has a recipe listed in that thread...

 

But the applesnail.net thread recipe of mine is really old, from time when I didn't have a dehydrator and that one was meant only for snails. Maybe I should add a new one there with my current way of making biscuits, but well, it's a snail forum, so maybe an old recipe meant for snails is fine in there.

Let's see, I've left out rye and rice since I don't believe they will add much to the mix (they do contain some nice minerals, but so do the other things I add). I also left the gypsum out since there's lots of calcium in soy beans (I don't use processed tofu anymore, real soy is more natural). I think I use close to 20 ingredients nowadays.

My biscuits are flat basically because I don't add rice, rye or dry things like that which will add volume to the mix and I will ground to as fine particles as possible. That also means that the finished product is about 8 times lighter than the original mixture since the needless water goes away.

I add some eggs without the shells since I don't think I need the calcium of the shells to the mix (and it sure is hard to ground it to a fine powder ). I add the eggs just for their nutritional value, since I don't think there's need for extra binding, the dehydration itself will make sure the food stays intact.

Color Me Blue: It's great to hear that your first attempt was such a success. Keeping the aquatic pets happy with good food is so much fun. Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks Rain! True too about the egg shells. No matter how long I had them in the food processor, they just wouldn't grind down into a fine powder. I too am going to try the dehydrator this time around. Keeping the cookies intact will be much easier with a dehydrator than with the oven I believe. About posting a recipe here at TPT: I think you did one. That's when I asked you about the eggs. It's been quite a while though, so I'm sure your recipe has changed some. Thank you Rain for your help too! I'm definitely going to have to try your biscuits out soon. I've seen all the fabulous reviews!

 

Oh, yes, this thread, I haven't noticed there was more posts there. :icon_redf

 

Ok, thought I would share some pics! Here is how my cookies turned out. As you can see, they lost their "cookie" structure when they were baked. Spread too thin and baking in the oven are to blame. But they work great and my aquatic inhabitants all love it! Those pics will follow in next post.

Here is a few of the cookies:


Here is a closeup. You can see the little egg shells, which were impossible to pulverize in the food processor. But overall, the shells weren't too bad.

 

Here are my lil critters who seem to love my cooking. LOL

As soon as I dropped a piece of cookie into my tank, THEY showed up! The Amanos and RCS were 1st to show up.


Then came the Ottos and pygmy corys. The lil corys are behind that otto hogging up the cookie. LOL


Last, but not least, one of my bees decided to come out and dine on the cookie. Poor thing was getting pushed around by the other shrimp. He/she has to fight to get in there. Can ya spot the bee? Sorry I know, not the greatest pic, but you should be able to see the bee. :hihi:

 

The RCS are always the first to show up to a feast those little opportunists

 

Yum...Now it makes me drool.:hihi: Darn...Those stuffs are only for shrimps but their looks make me think they're appetizing.:drool:

 

aelysa: No kidding! I'd worry if the RCS didn't attack the food. LOL

Bluebell: LOL I dunno if I would eat it, they smell like alfalfa! But thanks! They kind of resemble burnt peanut butter cookies to me. hahaha Yes, I have burned pb cookies before. LOL

 

i may be new to planted tanks, shrimps, etc, but im no newb to cooking.

egg shells in food processor = NO. can jam it up.

get a mortar and pestal, preferrably a marble one, if not, then stainless steel. it really doent cost much, im remember i found a nice marble one at a dollar store for like 7 bucks. it takes a bit of elbow grease, but it will make them egg shells into powder.

thanks for sharing the recipe. i just got some shrimps in the mail, these guys are gonna get a treat soon.

 

I don't know if you are familiar with Dim Sum in San Diego, but around the corner from Jasmine's on Convoy there's a feng shui shop that has mortars and pestles. Just in case

 

I started adding some more of the yummy ingredients to my shrimp biscuit recipe, just enough for me to get a large cup full of liquefied fruit, berries, lemon juice and others like that while I am preparing the biscuits. It's so good. Many of the other ingredients belong to my regular diet too (shrimp, sweet pepper, garlic, eggs etc.). And my shrimpy biscuits don't taste that bad actually, one 1.5 years old girl agrees with me, since she has been caught eating shrimp biscuits a few times.

 

LOL

The first thing I did after opening the bag was to smell it to see if it smelled appetizing. If it did, I was going to take a bite out of it. I did wonder how it tasted. I might have to try your new batch for myself.

I don't add fish food or rice/cream of wheat because I want my biscuits to be 100% natural with no processed ingredients (which already have all kinds of preservatives, dyes, fillers and other stuff added) or fillers. That makes it a wee bit more expensive for me to make the biscuits, but at least I know that mine are healthy.

Good to hear. As I was reading the posts, I started wondering about the same thing. Especially concerns with foods containing some kind of copper.

I wonder is someone plans to make inorganic shrimp biscuits/cookies.

 

415w203: I have a pestal and mortar and will try that when I decide to do the eggs again. Maybe a coffee grinder will work? What kind of shrimp did you purchase? Shrimp are great! They are a pleasure to watch.

aelysa: I've heard of Dim Sum, but have yet to eat there. I have to check out that feng shui shop. I wonder if they have some interesting rocks and such? Maybe they have some nice decor for a tank?

rain: Your biscuits sound so good that even I would eat one!