Thread: Making Biltong

I've never seen a point to biltong preservative.

Perhaps a combination lock might work.

Originally Posted by mimms2

The dehy is the "preservative"

I've heard it can last up to 6 months. Fat f*ing chance though. My kids will eat approximately a cow a week if it's biltong.

Thus the combination lock.

Never seen it last long enough to go off.

I'm about to build a BIG air drier/cold smoker. I'm likely to knock a bull over or venison and my two deep freezers are solid.

Going to dry cure the whole damn thing.

Just made a batch of Fallow biltong....didn't even last a week in this house. Bloody delicious !!

So...



back at it, this time is chamois.

For those of you that have thought about making some but not had a go. I would highly recomend it !!!

Our game animals make excellant biltong



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Looking good, Kukuwai, we are prepping some goat back straps for our biltong box this weekend

Only one day in the box so far and it already looks delicious



The next idea i have is to make one of these 'biltong cutters' i see online.

The decision being which kitchen knife to drill a hole thru, and which one won't the misses notice is missing

@ROKTOY Throw up some pictures of your setup and the backstraps/results


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Originally Posted by kukuwai

Only one day in the box so far and it already looks delicious



The next idea i have is to make one of these 'biltong cutters' i see online.

The decision being which kitchen knife to drill a hole thru, and which one won't the misses notice is missing

@ROKTOY Throw up some pictures of your setup and the backstraps/results


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Mine uses a planer knife



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This thread got me interested in trying something else. I've been making bresola for quite some time and the odd bit of jerky. So this time I thought I might try biltong.
How long does it take for the vinegar smell to go? Having read through this I may have made a mistake leaving the meat in the vinegar, salt and sugar mix for 3 days.
It's had a week drying and still smells vinegary, you can't really taste it though as the harissa blend I used to dry spice it has some oomph.

yeah sounds like you pickled it rather than spiced it

The last lot I've made. Ready to pull out of the box was marinaded for 2days in the vinegar and worstershire and then frozen, day and a half to thaw out spiced and dried. I use Freddy Hirsch Biltong spice mix available from SA shops.

@Marty Henry

I'm sure there are many ways to skin a cat but this is what i do.

50/50 mix of malt vinegar and Worcester sauce. Soak the meat in that for 3-5 hrs.

Remove the meat and pat it dry with a paper towel. Coat the meat in a generous helping of 'crown national safari biltong spice'

Put it in the fridge for the night. This draws out a lot more moisture from the meat so next morning its all wet again.

Dry each piece again with paper towels.
Give it a bit more spice and hang it in the box

No vinegar smell, bloody delicious



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My current batch from the Oryx I shot end of May.

Usong an old network cabinet as drier.

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Originally Posted by mimms2

Would be interested to see your setup for this?
Proper humidity control and all, or just a shady eave on the north side?

I got half enthusiastic about prosciuto and pancetta once but having to manage it closely bumped it down the list.

Not really that hard and I've never photographed the process but here's how I go about it..
Take a whole muscle, back legs are good here but you could do a backsteak.
Trim and if using backsteak remove silvers kind and cut in half. Weigh the meat.
For every kg weigh out 30 grams of salt, 20 grams of brown sugar, mix this with a teaspoon of garlic flakes, 4 bay leaves and some dried rosemary and put in a large zip lock bag.
Add a bottle of red wine and when the salt and sugar have dissolved put the meat in and mass the bag so its all coated, get as much air as possible out and seal the bag.
Put the bag in the fridge and massage it every day for a week.
Remove the strange purple coloured slightly rubbery meat and pat dry.
Make a rub from some cracked pepper, dried rosemary and salt, I use 2:2:1 and roll the meat in this to coat it, tie each pice in mutton cloth to keep its shape and hang in a cool place for one or 2 weeks (I use the beer fridge)
When done I keep it in a zip lock bag to prevent it drying out further or you can freeze the extra.
I will get a chunk out today and photograph it later.

Originally Posted by kukuwai

Thanks for the link to the spice mix, that looks good


What would you say the ideal cut thickness is? I did notice in the few videos i watched that the cut thickness seemed to vary a lot !



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What i do is, cut different sizes and thicknesses, that way you can start eating small pieces next day and eat the bigger pieces as they dry over the next few days haha. but im the kind of guy who have eaten half of the biltong in the garage while reloading before i actually take the last off to share.

i just chuck all the spices, vinegar etc in with the meat, then i take it out after a couple days and hang it. then i eat it.

If making droëwors (Dry sausage) just make a boerewors recipe and hang it up in thin sheep casings, i use 22mm.

Dont use pork or venison fat for drying this way as it goes rancid, trim off all silverskin, trim off all fat on deer, if making wors use beef or lamb fat

my 2c anyway