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How to Make Biltong
There are a multitude of recipes and methods used today to make biltong. Many of these are passed down from generation to generation. The good news is that it is really simple to make your own biltong, and the principles which you will use are basically the same regardless of which recipe or method you choose to adopt. One thing is sure, like many other recipes, the best biltong is made with the best ingredients.
Meat Selection
As mentioned , In the past farmers used a whole beef carcass for Biltong, but today the beef buttock – consisting of the silverside, topside and thick flank is normally used. The finest biltong is made from the eye muscles running down both sides of the backbone and which are cut whole from a side of beef. The most tender (and most expensive) biltong is made from the fillet.
Bottom line: Use the best meat you can afford. The cheaper cuts of meat often contain an excess amount of sinew, collagen and binding tissue which will yield an often tough and ‘stringy’ produce.
Method
The meat must firstly be cut into strips. A few things should be noted at this point:
- Meat must be cut with the grain. This is because when you come to eat the final product you will cut the biltong across the grain (and tough tissue), in order to get the most tender pieces.
- Meat will shrink by a large amount during the drying process. The more dry you like your biltong the more it will shrink, due to moisture loss from the strips of meat. You can roughly estimate that your end product, will yield approximately 50% of your starting weight.
- In cool, dry climates, your initial strips of meat can be cut fairly thick, and of any length. In warm, moist climates, your initial strips of meat should be cut thinner. This is because the thicker the strip of meat, the longer it will take to dry out, and the more likely the meat is to spoil during the drying process.
- Try to remove as much sinew and binding tissue as possible when you cut your strips of meat.
1.The strips of meat are then dipped into undiluted vinegar. Use red, white, or even apple cider vinegar. The vinegar ‘bath’ accomplishes a few things: It dissolves some of the sinew and binding tissue. It makes the meat a little more tender. It mellows the aroma and flavor of the meat, before and during the drying process. It causes the meat to have a dark and shiny appearance once it is dried. It opens up the pores of the raw meat, for the next step, which is to spice the meat. By doing so, the spices are able to penetrate deeper into the meat.
2.At this point you are ready to season your meat, and this is the step that typically distinguishes one type of biltong from another. Most people develop their own recipes for the seasoning they use on their biltong. These recipes are often passed down from generation to generation. As far as traditional biltong is concerned, you will typically see the following ingredients used in a seasoning: Salt, Pepper, Sugar, and Coarsely Ground Dry or Roasted Coriander
3.Coriander in my opinion is one of the seasoning which really identify with good biltong. Roasted Coriander in particular lends a wonderful flavor to your final product. In order to roast your coriander, place dried coriander seeds in a dry pan over medium heat and stir the seeds around the pan. The seeds will give off a strong aroma and will turn a golden brown color. At this point you should remove the seeds and coarsely crush them.
Some recipes call for ‘salpetre’. This is a chemical similar to sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate and is used to cure the meat and help prevent mildew from occurring during the drying process in moist conditions. The ‘salpetre’ also gives the meat a nice rosy color once it has dried. Please note that health experts are now warning that such nitrates may significantly increase the risk of cancer in humans. So you might want to take this into consideration before using nitrates.
Of course you can be as creative as you like at this point and as an example, use seasonings such as dried chilies, granulated garlic and Worcestershire sauce.
Once you have seasoned your meat, we recommend placing it into a large ice chest overnight, and allowing it to absorb the flavors of the vinegar and seasoning, before you hang it up to dry.
The following is a seasoning recipe, which we use, and is good for seasoning about 12 ½ kilograms of meat strips:
- 560 g fine salt
- 125 ml brown sugar
- 25 ml bicarbonate of soda (helps to make the biltong tender) or Brown Vinegar
- 10 ml salpetre (optional)
- 12.5 ml ground black pepper
- 125 ml coarsely ground coriander