Home / Recipes / Pork and Carrot Biscuits
A savory-sweet biscuit with real staying power: lean pork diced fine and grated carrot baked firm in a quinoa and egg dough.
Pork and carrot is a plainer pairing than pork and apple, and plain is a virtue in a biscuit that has to keep, travel and train. Lean pork, cooked through and diced fine, brings the savory weight; grated carrot brings a gentle sweetness and enough moisture to keep a lean dough from drying into a brick. The biscuits bake firm and hold an edge, which makes them the pocket treat of this tranche.
Pork follows the same discipline as every meat in this library: our pork verdict is yes in small amounts for plain, fully cooked pork, lean cuts with fat trimmed and every bone removed, and never cooked pork bones, which splinter. The pork in this dough starts as a plain lean cut such as loin, cooked for the dog's batch, not as seasoned leftovers from a roast.
Storage: Refrigerate in an airtight container within 2 hours of baking and use within 3 to 4 days, or freeze for up to 2 months.
Every ingredient in this recipe was checked against our own food safety verdicts before it went in. If a food has no verdict page on this site, it does not go into a recipe here, however common it is in other people's treat recipes. The checks for this one:
Dice size is the craft in this recipe. Pork diced pea small spreads through the dough and bakes into the biscuit; pork in chunks sits in the middle of a biscuit like a stone in a bun and pulls the biscuit apart when bitten. Take the extra two minutes with the knife. The other quiet trap is the cut of pork: shoulder and belly carry fat that no trimming fully removes, and their richness overwhelms a treat sized biscuit. Loin is the cut the verdict's lean serving describes, and it is the cut this dough was built around.
A firm pork biscuit is a substantial treat, closer to a small meal component than to a nibble. Break them for training rather than feeding them whole by the handful.
| Dog size | Suggested serving |
|---|---|
| Toy, under 10 lb | Half a biscuit, broken up |
| Small, 10 to 25 lb | 1 biscuit a day |
| Medium, 25 to 50 lb | 1 to 2 biscuits a day |
| Large, 50 to 90 lb | 2 to 3 biscuits a day |
| Extra large, over 90 lb | Up to 3 biscuits a day, within the day's treat total |
Treats are treats. The American Kennel Club's guidance is that treats should make up no more than 10 percent of a dog's daily calories, counting every treat and snack in the day together, and that the treat calories sit inside the day's total rather than on top of it. The servings above are starting points for a healthy adult dog; puppies, seniors and dogs on a veterinary diet need their own veterinarian's steer, and a dog trying any ingredient for the first time should get a small piece first, with a day to watch for an upset stomach.
Cooked pork follows the FoodSafety.gov cold food storage chart's meat rules exactly: refrigerate within 2 hours of baking, keep at 40F (4C) or below, use within 3 to 4 days, and freeze at 0F (minus 18C) for up to 2 months of best quality in a small batch, inside the chart's wider freezer window for cooked dishes. Freeze biscuits on the tray before bagging so they stay separate, and thaw a day's supply in the fridge. A biscuit that smells sour or feels slimy is finished, however recently it was baked.
No. Ham and bacon are cured, salted products, and neither is the plain pork our verdict describes. The verdict's serving is a lean cut cooked plainly, fat trimmed and boneless. Processed pork sits outside it entirely, however small the amount.
Cooked bones splinter, and our pork verdict repeats the rule that runs through this library's meat pages: bones come out before serving, and cooked pork bones are never given. The meat in this recipe is diced off the bone by the cook, which is the only safe route.
No. Cook the pork fully first, as the method does, so doneness is certain before the meat meets the dough and so the fat can be trimmed and drained at the meat stage. Some minced pork is also sold pre-seasoned, so read the pack and choose plain mince if you use it at all.
The dough was pressed too thin for a full bake, or the pork was extra lean and the carrot coarse, so its moisture escaped early. Press a touch thicker, grate the carrot fine, and check the biscuits at 18 minutes the next time rather than by the clock alone.
Many dogs who react to chicken manage pork well, and our verdict calls it highly digestible. A protein sensitivity is individual, though, so introduce a first biscuit small, watch for a day, and let your veterinarian guide any dog on an elimination diet.
This page is general information drawn from the published guidance of the organizations listed under Sources below. It is not veterinary advice, and it does not replace your own veterinarian, who knows your dog. If your dog has eaten something toxic, contact your veterinarian, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435, or the Pet Poison Helpline on (855) 764-7661 straight away. A consultation fee may apply on the helplines.
Last updated: November 2026. Every ingredient in this recipe was checked against the verdict pages linked above. Storage times follow the FoodSafety.gov cold storage guidance listed under Sources. How we work: our methodology.
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