Here’s a decent little video about making a decent piece of biltong. The spices and mixes are exactly the same as mine (see below), and the only areas where we differ are that I make much bigger pieces so that the inside is much wetter than his (New Wife likes her biltong very wet), and I don’t use hot chili flakes (New Wife doesn’t like very hot foods).
At the end, the guy exclaims that he can eat biltong all day, like that’s something unusual. If I leave it lying out on the cutting board, New Wife and I can gobble a stick a day, so I have to hide the damn stuff so that we forget about it.
Just remember that when you eat biltong, the dried meat expands in your stomach back to its original size. I ration myself to about 8-12 slices per day. Back in my Army days, I could make a stick last a week, and not lose a pound of weight.
I’m going to make some tomorrow. It’s been a week already since the last lot, and the natives are getting restless.
Ingredients, per 1lb of raw meat:
- 8 tbsp red wine vinegar/brown apple cider vinegar
- 1.5-2 tbsp coarse (kosher) salt
- 2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
- 2-3 tbsp whole coriander seeds
Love biltong and thus far I’ve been buying it from Braaitime. Gonna try this some day if I ever find the time.
So Biltong is the South African version of beef jerky?
I like the late Ben Kruger’s biltong instructions. https://youtu.be/a1y7FcBLnuc
Warning, potjie and homesickness alert for exile s’effricans.
So Biltong is the South African version of beef jerky?
It is also dried/dessicated meat. I prefer decent slices of slightly moist Biltong over paper-thin dry chips of jerky, especially over the commercial stuff, at five bucks for 20grams. Just Jerky by Mary Bell (ISBN 978-0965357203) is a great resource to have.
Beef jerky is disgusting. It manages to combine every objectionable taste and ingredient into one overpriced product. It’s the Dianne Feinstein of meat products.
You ruined Beef Jerky for me. I have a package here and the ingredients are listed as “BEEF, BROWN SUGAR, WATER, SALT, FLAVORINGS, BEEF STOCK, HYDROLYZED CORN PROTEIN, VINEGAR, SODIUM NITRITE”.
The ingredients of the beef jerky I’ve been eating: Beef, cane sugar and honey, brown sugar, salt, spices, culture celery powder, sea salt, onion, garlic, “natural smoke flavor”. I’d prefer if the smoke had been applied the old fashioned way, but at least it’s not soap flavored from coriander (cilantro).
This is Meijer store brand, from a family-owned chain of stores headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, so Kim isn’t going to find it in his Texas stores.
@Johnny_A:
I’m not from that part of the world, but I am a dedicated keto dieter, and American jerky has all sorts of weird and unnecessary ingredients, not least of which is sugar.
I bought biltong from Aldi’s for a while, but the quality of the meat is pretty variable.
Tillamook no-sugar-added jerky is ok, but I don’t care for the flavor. I eat Prasek’s dried beef but it’s pricey, and probably only available in South Texas. Prasek makes an American jerky as well, but it’s got sugar.
I may have to make some biltong of my own.
Kim, if it’s so wet, how do you store it safely?
Once cured and dried, it would take weeks for the meat to go rancid — and even if a little mold appears, it can be wiped off with vinegar, and the meat eaten with no ill-effects.
One of my commercial kitchen customers would use my big dehydration units, processing 200+ pounds of biltong at a time. He would always leave a pound with me, which I could easily finish in one sitting. Far superior to any of the jerky I’ve had. He finally got his own biltong dryer, and I’ve since sold my bakery and kitchen, so I’ve been without for sometime.
Hey Kim, how about posting a video of you making biltong?
It would look almost exactly like the link I posted, only with more bad language and lousy production quality.
So for someone who has never made nor consumed biltong, what is a good cut of meat to try making it with (i.e. something that will yield good results while being somewhat forgiving the mistakes of a newbie)?
Back in the old days, the Boers would slaughter a cow or bull, cook the best bits for that night’s feast, and make biltong from the “lesser” cuts. If you follow that formula, you won’t go wrong.
I’ve always found the best results with top- or bottom round (what’s known as “rump” steak in Seffrica), or else chuck. Brisket is too fatty (even if you strip the fat off), and filet tastes lovely but is too dry (not enough marbling).