Biltong - Cured Beef

Mark_B_Good

Had a go at making South African Biltong. This is a dry cured beef, very tasty. Got myself a Biltong Box and gave it a go ... turned out incredible. Very happy with the results.

Used a 3.5 kg eye of round, cut into 3/4" to 1" steaks, rubbed with mixture of equal parts brown vinegar and water, then applied a premixed biltong seasoning. Let it sit in a pan overnight, turning a few times before I went to bed, to ensure both sides were adequately covered in the vinegar mixture.

Then hung in the Biltong Box which has a fan to move air through it, for 3 to 4 days. Just pulled the first piece out for a taste. Was perfect.

6baluts

- Put me in coach. Have actually had Biltong in my travels and it was down right tasty.
- Nice job.

lkapigian

Nailed it!

johnmitchell

Yes sir!!! Great looking biltong. Your last pic is exactly how we like it. 

loco_engr

WOW . . . totally new concept!
Plz share your sources  TY

Jstroke

I’m ignorant. What’s the difference between Biltong and Jerky

lkapigian

Jstroke said:

I’m ignorant. What’s the difference between Biltong and Jerky

Couple of them are , Biltong is Air Dried no heat Jerky is Slow Dried with added heat, Biltong is thicker larger and then shredded like Machaca but can be eaten like jerky 

caliking

Looks good!

BIL made a biltong box out of a storage tote and other things a long time back, but it turned out some great biltong. Was very tasty. 

Mark_B_Good

Jstroke said:

I’m ignorant. What’s the difference between Biltong and Jerky

Yeah, it's air dried with different spices. Not sure if jerky sees brown vinegar. Anyhow, I like it way better than jerky. 

Mark_B_Good

loco_engr said:

WOW . . . totally new concept!
Plz share your sources  TY

I got the box made by a guy in Toronto. But to be honest, if your just somewhat handy with wood and have time, it's a very simple build. Wood box, with front door and magnetic latch, CPU fan mounted at top to blow air in, and slots cut out on bottom of left, right and back panel to let air out. 3 bars at top to hook thr meat pieces on, and thatsbit. I'm sure a quick Google search will put you onto some plans/instructions.

Jstroke

Mark_B_Good said:

Jstroke said:

I’m ignorant. What’s the difference between Biltong and Jerky

Yeah, it's air dried with different spices. Not sure if jerky sees brown vinegar. Anyhow, I like it way better than jerky. 

lkapigian said:

Jstroke said:

I’m ignorant. What’s the difference between Biltong and Jerky

Couple of them are , Biltong is Air Dried no heat Jerky is Slow Dried with added heat, Biltong is thicker larger and then shredded like Machaca but can be eaten like jerky 

It’s simple I’m all in. Sounds like an awesome plan. 

nolaegghead

awesome!  How do you cut the eye of round....across the grain, with, diagonal, downward dog?

I suppose you could use any species of meat as long as it's safe to eat raw.

HeavyG

Don't even need to make a wood box, a cardboard one works fine I've read.

nolaegghead

Isn't the main reason for the box to keep your wife from nagging you about the raw meat hanging in your house.  And other bugs off it.

Mark_B_Good

nolaegghead said:

awesome!  How do you cut the eye of round....across the grain, with, diagonal, downward dog?

I suppose you could use any species of meat as long as it's safe to eat raw.

It's cut with the grain. When it's cured you then slice against the grain (thin slices), then when you bite, your biting with the grain again, which produces a tender texture.

Mark_B_Good

nolaegghead said:

awesome!  How do you cut the eye of round....across the grain, with, diagonal, downward dog?

I suppose you could use any species of meat as long as it's safe to eat raw.

I actually used a rump roast to make "chili bites' ... same idea but thinner strips of meat, and chili powder and crushed chili used to give them a bit of a kick. See photos below. In terms of type of meat to use .... for the biltong, you want a cut of meat that has a 1/2" fat layer on one side, whereas with chili bites you don't want the fat there.

Mark_B_Good

Chili bites turned out fantastic. With this one, you want a drier product ... basically took 4 days, but because they are thinner strips of meat, they were fairly dried out...



 

lkapigian

Mark_B_Good said:

Chili bites turned out fantastic. With this one, you want a drier product ... basically took 4 days, but because they are thinner strips of meat, they were fairly dried out...



 

Beautiful 

Mark_B_Good

Yeah, they turned out great. They didn't have as much pepper bite as I wanted. I think the vinegar washed most of the chili powder off. So next time, I'm going to apply the vinegar and base seasoning first, let them cure in that overnight ... then apply the chili powder and flakes just before I hang them ... 

But! I have to eat what I made first! LOL.

Canugghead

The new search is awesome, typed in biltong and this came up top of the list.
Where do you get your premixed biltong seasoning? I just discovered this place
https://www.sedosnax.com/shop/freddy-hirsch-original-biltong-seasoning-1kg-bag/

Mark_B_Good

We have a South African butcher about 2 miles from our house, and he brings it in (from South Africa?).

This is the stuff I use, it is incredibly tasty (Hunter's Spice):

Amazon.com : Freddy Hirsch Biltong Spice - Hunters (Kosher) 2kg : Grocery & Gourmet Food

For chili bites, I add an equal amount of crushed chili powder and hot paprika just before I hang it (not during the cure ... it all falls off the bites with the vinegar solution added) ... I like to ensure I coat with the pepper mix while the meat comes out wet from the mixture, before I hang.  

Even the biltong, I cure with the seasoning ... but just before I hang it, I sprinkle some more seasoning on it again, as most of it falls off during the wet cure.  All the meat I've made where I gave it another coat of spice before I hang tasted WAY better than when I didn't recoat.

Canugghead

Thanks. Thinking of finding a simple recipe from the web to get my feet wet before I commit to a large pack of commercial premixed spice. How much meat will a 2Kg bag process?

Also, thinking of making a drying box myself since I have lumber, tools and time    Looked at some project ideas, interesting to note some use fan to move air while others use lamp's heat to create air movement. What about the temperature difference though? Perhaps @lkapigian can chime in please?

lkapigian

Canugghead said:

Thanks. Thinking of finding a simple recipe from the web to get my feet wet before I commit to a large pack of commercial premixed spice. How much meat will a 2Kg bag process?

Also, thinking of making a drying box myself since I have lumber, tools and time    Looked at some project ideas, interesting to note some use fan to move air while others use lamp's heat to create air movement. What about the temperature difference though? Perhaps @lkapigian can chime in please?

Airflow is an absolute must, as far as heat/, you’ll want to do 80-90 f ish IMO , convection alone could work, but I would still want a cabinet fan at least 

Canugghead

Thanks @lkapigian. 

caliking

Edit - I basically posted  the same comment I did 7 months ago

My BIL had a lightbulb in his biltong setup. Back when incandescent bulbs were still available. I don’t know if LED bulbs would generate enough heat (unless using one with higher wattage). 

Canugghead

@caliking, you should know that organized people prepared for the demise of incandescent bulbs 

Here's @johnmitchell's box which also looks real nice. Similarly to @Mark_B_Good's box I like the simplicity of fan only.

@caliking do you recall deets of your BIL's box, just lamp or did he have fan as well? @lkapigian got me thinking if I have both lamp and fan won't it be like a dehydrator? Will I have to worry about +/- humidity as well? I don't want to get sucked into dry aging! I know I'm overthunking this, help.

Botch

caliking said:
My BIL had a lightbulb in his biltong setup. Back when incandescent bulbs were still available. I don’t know if LED bulbs would generate enough heat (unless using one with higher wattage). 

The decorative, "candle"-shaped incandescent bulbs are still available:
 

 
They are available in the standard-sized Edison mount, although they probably don't give off quite as much heat (a lot more than any LED, though).  
Just checked my own stash of candle incandescents, and I have 15- and 40-watters, so you can experiment.
 
Funny thing about LED bulbs used in traffic lights; I can't remember the last time I've seen the power company changing a burned-out bulb with the traffic all backed up, that's a good thing.  But, if weather conditions are right and we have blowing snow, a "snowdrift" can build up in the light so you can't see it during the daytime anyway.  Wonder if 3M's "Nev-R-Wet" would take care of that; it sure worked good on my satellite dish when I still had it.  

caliking

@Canugghead - as I typed that post, I honestly thought to myself "there's no way that Gary hasn't hoarded incandescent light bulbs!" 

My  BIL's setup had a lightbulb, and fan. Lived in Michigan then, so humidity wasn't high. I think it was a one-off project, but the results were tasty, IIRC.

johnmitchell

Good timing for this thread to resurface. I just hung a batch of biltong this morning at 5.30 am and it will be ready in 3 to 4 days 

lkapigian

Bombdiggity!

lkapigian

Canugghead said:

@caliking, you should know that organized people prepared for the demise of incandescent bulbs 

Here's @johnmitchell's box which also looks real nice. Similarly to @Mark_B_Good's box I like the simplicity of fan only.

@caliking do you recall deets of your BIL's box, just lamp or did he have fan as well? @lkapigian got me thinking if I have both lamp and fan won't it be like a dehydrator? Will I have to worry about +/- humidity as well? I don't want to get sucked into dry aging! I know I'm overthunking this, help.

You don’t need a lamp unless it’s super cold, but In essence you are dehydrating, just much slower @Mark_B_Good and @johnmitchell Biltong boxes are wonderful and all you need , ideally you are just trying to emulate the conditions in South Africa

dry aging is done at a much lower temp 30-35f as there is no salt, now dry curing , yes you are in the rabbit hole lol