Hein's Biltong Recipe and Dryer box

Hi guys, here is the biltong recipe as promised, with some pictures showing the steps.

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And here is some pics showing the process, I took these minutes ago while doing my latest batch. This is about 2.5kg of beef rump steak

Step 1 : Soaking the meat in the vinegar and worchester sauce solution for about 25 minutes:

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Step 2 : Cover the bottom of the dish in spice mix and start layering the meat:

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Step 3 : Repeat . . .

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Step 4 : All done, ready to cover in glad wrap in leave in the fridge for 8 hours:

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A pic showing how the spice mix looks for reference:

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I will add some pictures later when I've hung the biltong in the cabinet. Post to follow showing cabinet.

OK, so you've had a quick browse through the recipe above and decided that it really doesn't look that hard, first step is probably to set up a drying cabinet of some sort. I built the cabinet pictured out of a cheap two door cabinet from Bunnings and some bits I had lying around at home. The basic idea of this cabinet is that the lamp at the bottom heats up air, this hot air can hold more moisture and so it draws moisture out of the meat hanging above it. The fan on the side then blows this moist air out of the box and fresh 'dry' air gets sucked in through the little filters at the bottom. Easy peasy, here are some pics:

Outside of the cabinet showing the filters, these are just computer filters from jaycar, any simple air filter will do.

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Inside of the cabinet you can see the two plastic conduit rails for hanging the meat from and the 100w lamp down the bottom.

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Computer fan set up such that it blows air out of the cabinet

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100W Bulb and some newspaper, the meat 'drips' a bit for the first day or so, so good to have some newspaper on the bottom. Also note all the 'extra' holes in the cabinet were covered with some duct tape.

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I just use some plastic coated garden plant support twist ties to hang the meat, cheap easy and effective.

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Many people are afraid to tackle making biltong because they have the perception that you are working with raw meat and if you do it wrong it will either rot or end up giving them food poisoning. I am happy to set the record straight - It's practically impossible to stuff it up as long as you stick roughly to recipe and process. I have made literally hundreds of kilos using the recipe and box above and have never had a single issue. It's one of those things that is actually really difficult to get wrong.

Good luck and pop through any questions.

Nice work. Can you use certain cuts of meat to make it easier to eat when it has been dried out?

Now that is the Bizzo!
cheers Hein B
does non fat venison work ok?

Thank you HeinB.

Toby and OneShotKill, you can use any reasonable cut to make the biltong, I even made some goat biltong once, which turned out really good actually. I wouldn't bother using smaller sinewy muscles as they will just turn into unchewable sinewy biltong. Meat without fat works fine, it will probably last even longer on the shelf, but just like all other food, the fat makes it taste a bit nicer :)

When you dry the biltong it doesn't have to be bone dry, the meat will turn very dark after a few days in the dryer and I usually start eating mine after about a week in the dryer, at this point the outside is quite dry, but the inside middle still a little bit pink.

I will usually consume the 1.5kg or so of biltong within a few weeks, but it will happily last for months in the cupboard if you keep it dry. Alternatively you can also put the biltong in the freezer in which case it will last pretty much indefinitely.

I hung mine at about 10 last night, will take a few pictures a bit later on today and upload them.

The recipe above does not mention where to get some roasted crushed coriander, which is hellishly expensive if you buy it the wrong way. I usually buy a kg at a time of raw dry coriander seeds from the indian bulk food shop in Glenfield, I then heat up a fry pan and when it's super hot I cover it in the coriander seeds about 3 seeds deep. Stir the seeds, the objective is to roast them. You will see they start changing color, going quite dark brown (after a few minutes) and then eventually you will have some smoke coming off. Turn off the heat at this point and start crushing them, back in the early days I used to crush them in a plastic container using another piece of plastic, but these days I use a mortar and pestle which gets the job done a bit quicker. While crushing the coriander you will smell the most amazing thing, it's fantastic.

As an aside, this roasted crushed coriander mixed with some pepper corns and chilli powder or flakes makes a great beef spice for bbqs.

Here is a pic of the biltong hanging in the cabinet, at this point it has been hanging for about 12 hours, I will take another picture in a few days to show how it's darkened up.

Notice how it's gone quite brown from the original red.

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Looks nice

Do you not have the light on full time?

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Originally Posted by Raging Bull

Do you not have the light on full time?

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Yep, you could look at some different heat source if the power consumption worries you. If it's a nice dry hot day then just moving air over the meat will work fine, but Auckland is usually wet and humid, so I just leave the bulb on 24/7 for the first week or so.

Does it smell at all?
I dont have a shed all i have is a 20ft shipping container for the moment and it gets pretty hot in there when the sun hits it. will this matter? does the air need to be "fresh" or can i recycle the air in the container?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oneshotkill

Does it smell at all?
I dont have a shed all i have is a 20ft shipping container for the moment and it gets pretty hot in there when the sun hits it. will this matter? does the air need to be "fresh" or can i recycle the air in the container?

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I do mine in the workshop which is shut overnight and you can definitely smell it for the first few days, makes me hungry working in the workshop during the day!!! During the day if the weather is good I just leave the door open to get a bit of circulation. If I make it in the depths of winter I will also run the dehumidifier in the workshop for the first couple of days, this dries the air during the time when most of the moisture is drawn out of the meat.

Would using a dehydrator work?

It couldn't hurt chucking 1 or 2 pieces in a dehydrator to see how it goes. Even eating it on day 1 without drying wont kill you because the meat has been cured with the vinegar and salt. I assume the dehydrator basically just does the same thing as the box, heating air and blowing it over the items to dehydrate ? If that is the case, if it has settings then just try it on the lowest setting. How big is a typical dehydrator ? Could you put 2kg of beef in it ?