Home made Biltong

Discovering the Joy of Homemade Biltong

Have you ever wanted to know how to make this absolute gourmet treat? It’s much easier than I ever thought, thanks to a surprise Christmas present!

A Surprising Gift

One surprise present I unwrapped this Christmas was a food dehydrator bought for me by my husband. Initially, I opened the accompanying spice mix parcel, which caused some confusion until I opened the large box it came with to find an electronic dehydrator. While this may not be a mainstream gift on many people’s wish lists, it filled me with total joy. For me, it meant one thing - homemade BILTONG!

A Love for Biltong

I absolutely love biltong! I was first introduced to this delectable treat by the South African contingent of my husband’s family. Biltong is not beef jerky; the two are miles apart in terms of taste and texture. Jerky is dry and chewy, while biltong is much softer and far superior in taste and texture. After trying the real thing, I became rather addicted to it. Whenever we pass by the farm shops at Gloucester or Tebay (which stock particularly good biltong), I head straight for it. Unfortunately, this is not as often as I would like, so the thought of being able to produce my own caused a buzz of real excitement for me.

The First Attempt

Unsurprisingly, I had never made biltong before, but I knew it couldn’t be that complicated. After all, it’s essentially a dried meat product. How hard could it be? I scoured the internet for advice on what cuts of meat to try, options for preparing the meat, and most importantly, time and temperature to produce a good, reliable product. The advice was helpful, but the variations on what and how to do it were truly mind-boggling. I ended up more confused than when I started!

In the end, we concluded that the best option was just to try. We bought a medium-sized rump steak (the one cut that seemed most popular for home drying) and decided to dry it whole rather than in slices to ensure the meat retained some moisture, as I prefer my biltong on the slightly softer side. My initial attempt involved pre-salting the steak with rock salt, resting for 2 hours, removing the salt, and then bathing it in cider vinegar for 3 to 4 minutes before adding the spice mix and then drying in the dehydrator.

The end product was tender and delicious, but even for my palate, it was rather too salty (and I like salt!). One thing that had seemed to work perfectly was the time and temperature setting. We had opted for lower and slower than some of the advice pages had given. With the temperature gauge set at around 40 degrees Celsius, we left the steak for 26 hours (testing it after 24 hours and opting to give it a bit longer).

Perfecting the Process

Although the first attempt was not too bad, undeterred, we tried again later that week. This time with no pre-salting and also skipping the option to bathe it in vinegar. We just coated the steaks in the spice mix and dried whole at the same temperature and time as before. This time the end product was perfect! Once dried, the steak could be sliced thinly and consumed immediately (although I have to admit it does improve once cut if you leave it for around 24 hours in an airtight container - if you can resist!).

Below is a small sample of the end product from attempt number 2, left for 24 hours. Suffice to say, it didn’t last much longer than that. As you can see, I chose to leave the fat on it as that’s the best bit in my humble opinion, but I understand some may prefer to remove it.

Summary Recipe

Rump steak(s) about an inch or so thick
Spice mix of your choice (we used a pre-bought blend of spices for biltong called “Chilli bite”)

Method:

Coat the steaks in the spice mix.
Dehydrate on racks with the meat well spaced out at around 40 degrees Celsius for approximately 26 hours, depending on the size of your steaks.

That’s it. Not exactly rocket science, is it? Not exactly rocket science is it?