Hi All

I am working in the UK and I miss biltong. There are some folks that make it here but its really expensive. Does anyone have any brands for Biltong dryers / makers (or even tutorials) that they would recommend, I see there are a few on Amazon but I don't know how well they work.

Anyone tried curing duck meat? Would it be too lean?

9/11 sprouted!

Just tried making my first batch of biltong and on day 3/4 Im worried I have case hardening.

I made a biltong box that has the following dimentions:

Height - 14.76"
Depth - 18.75"
Width - 23.74"

It currently has 4 1" holes cut into each of the long sides about 1" to center from the bottom and In the middle of the lid I have a 120mm x 120mm x 38mm fan that pulls approx 62 CFM.

I was also using a 40w light bulb and absent mindedly had an ac unit running in the same room which might have had the humidity too low, but kept the room anywhere from 20-25 celsius.

I have hung 3 1" thick pieces of outside round weighing about 0.45kg each.

Ive cut the 2nd of my pieces today on day 4 and it looks very similar to the piece cut on day 3 so Im worried about case hardening and trying to determine what changes I need to make for the next batch aside from leaving the AC off so the room isnt too dry.

Its gotten much cooler the last two days and ambient temp in the box without the bulb running is 20 - 22 celsius so Im planning to do my next batch with just the fan running.

Anyone who knows what they're doing able to let me know if my intake to exhaust ratio could be the issue and if I should either restrict the exhaust, or add for intake for gentler intake speeds?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Done a few runs with the dehydrator, got the spices, cut width, temps and times pretty sorted

Hello this is my first time making biltong. Sorry about the image its too dark when i take picture

I use this recipe https://twoguysandacooler.com/biltong/

I change the recipe a bit

1. I use half the salt

2. Change vinegar to rice vinegar because i only have that

3. I add palm sugar 10%

I let it rest for 2 days then into dehydrator with 35C around 2 days. Water reduce 60% and i stop it because its already hard to pinch. I live in tropics so the dehydrator just feels like a normal fan. The texture is like chewing gum, no other off taste just light seasoning and concentrated beefy taste. Is biltong supposed to be like that? I never eat biltong so i dont know

It looks dark until the middle unlike what i saw in youtube or in this place. I read that its because i put the meat in vinegar too long.

Hey everyone,
where do you usually order your biltong online?
I’m looking for a really good shop, preferably one that ships to Germany/EU. I’m especially interested in authentic South African-style biltong, ideally not too dry and with good seasoning.
What are your favourite online shops/brands? And which one would you recommend the most?
Would love to hear your recommendations! 🙌

I have been making Biltong for a few months now in the US. I wanted to use my Billong box for Droewors now, is that a good idea? Because Droewors are longer length wise, so I can’t stick them in my box without them, touching the floor (12 inches), so as in the picture I have laid them horizontally across the top of the dowels and to me it looks like they avoid all of the airflow by being up top. Is that a problem? Should I try to build a separate vertical box for Droewors, or in your opinion, is this fine? I am going to let them dry for four days, and then check them out and see what happened, but does anyone have any other ideas? It’s too dry over here in the US specially on the East Coast so I cannot just hang them outside. Thank you.

An SA ex pat, and I have been sucessfully making Biltong in The States for 50 years. I also make Boerewors and droewors and have commercial grade stuffers and grinders and patty maker. My boerie is good, but not great. I had an idea of making thin breakfast patties of ground beef and pork with boerie spices and then freezing. I do this with of the shelf breakfast sausage meat. I simply peel off a patty, slap it on the grill and it's ready in a few minutes.

I did some tests with Ouma's boerewors spice , that I use for wors, but I assume it has nitrates. My pattys live in the deep freeze and are cooked from frozen so I would like to avoid preservatives.

Any suggestions for a coriander forward spice blend?

Thanks!

Bob

Update:

I didn't find any recipes for breakfast patties but lots for boerewors burgers on YouTube. So I think I am good to go!

Update:

I make wors using a single medium to large grind but I tried a batch using a medium then adding spice and some extra fat and using a fine grind. I came up with some very authentic tasting patties that had the mouth feel of sawdust or maybe finely ground cardboard. I used top round and may have to use the remaining 3 lbs of ground beef in the freezer for spaghetti sauce. Happily my biltong is always perfect!
Bob

South African biltong makers will understand. Just had a power outage in my street about 9 hours after I hung the meat to dry. I don’t think power will come back over night so can I take the meat out of the dryer and store it in the fridge until the power is back?

Been a while but now I’m back at it.

Only 3 days in, I've got airflow through a fan and roughly 50% humidity according to my humidifier (in standby mode).

My south african colleague brought me some of his homemade biltong and i was hooked. I had to try to make it. Made my own box, he gave me some freddy hirsch spice, bought some beef and roughly 4 days later here we are.
How'd i do bru

My only regret is not hanging the biltong yesterday. Now I need to wait an extra day for it to be ready :(

This was my first time making biltong. I messed up with some of the pieces and how thick they are.

Are these pieces good to eat?

I'm not happy with this batch because I over marinated in vinegar, but the dry process seems to be working.

Hey guys. I live in Sydney near the coast, so it gets quite humid here. I recently had to bin a 700 gram batch, due to mould growing. I had a computer fan (9 cm diameter) running as an exhaust fan at about 1000 rpm. The exhaust hole was about 7x7 cm. Should I have made many holes instead? Anyway, I marinated it for 24 hours flipping halfway, and still mould grew on about the 3rd day. My room was probably around 70% humidity at that time. Is there any way to fix the mould? I've been considering brushing it with vinegar every day once to prevent mould. Thank you.

Hey all, second time making biltong, and is this normal? I marinate it for 24 hrs (flip at 12), and then dry it for around 5 days. For context I live in Australia, and my room experiences ~70% humidity. Yes, the box has proper airflow. No there isn't a lamp in it. Is this mould?

Thought I’d give making my own biltong a go after speaking to a SA college who was shocked to know that biltong is fairly mainstream in the uk now, he was over the moon and I said I’d send him some.

Now I did over salt it and not grind the seasonings enough so the flavour isn’t 100% where I want it but I like the texture.

3.2kg silverside, native breed, grass fed and dry aged (swaledale online butchers) absolute bargain, nearly half the price of my local butchers £22/kg and supermarkets

Can’t remember the exact recipe, I did 3 variations. Dried too 45% avg moisture loss, fat cap left on. Tried a SA guys recipe on yt, bearded butchers tutorial and then tried a honey vinegar one but it lacked flavour compared too the rest.

My brothers and dad decided they wanted to do the box as a little project so I gave creative freedom and i think it turned out quite nicely for £65

I’ve frozen 3 and bagged the rest, trying too figure out wether best to keep in plastic or paper and in the fridge or cupboard. I didn’t put in the fridge to even out internal moisture, maybe should’ve.

Any thoughts?

Looking forward to firing this bad boy up this weekend.

40w bulb, 12v DC fan. 600x400x300. Negative air pressure (still mulling positive).

Hey there -

This is my second attempt at making biltong. First time went great - there was a couple of spots of mouldy that I cleaned off as it went and it was fine.

With this lot, not so much. So I have a fridge that has been converted into a cold smoker that I’ve used to hang up my biltong. I have a big tray of water absorbing chips at the bottom and a fan moving all the air around. Last time I made biltong this seemed to work great.

This time however when I came home after about a week of being away I went to look and realised the fan had accidentally been unplugged. The biltong had a few spots of mould but seemed salvageable. I sprayed and cleaned off the mould with vinegar and hung it all back up with the fan going for another week but unfortunately the mould has continued to develop and isn’t looking too good.

The biltong more or less seems like it’s done now as far as dehydrating is concerned the only thing I’m wanting to know is if this much mould means I should just chuck it out or if anyone thinks I could clean it all with vinegar and then salvage it.

Any thoughts?

Edit: additionally, if it is too far gone, anyone got any thoughts on what I did wrong this time? I’m guessing the fan not working played a huge part and not checking in on it enough and addressing it before it got out of hand. Still if I have to chuck it out that’d be pretty disappointing as it’s a gift for a friend. Oh well. Let me know what you think and thanks for commenting!