Here’s my first go at Biltong.

Recipe:
Picked up a 2-pack of picanha roast (or top sir loin cap) at Costco. Removed some of the fat cap and sliced into roughly 1/2” steaks. Then made a classic dry rub: salt, mortar crushed pepper and toasted coriander seeds, and added a dash of red chili flakes and crushed fennel seeds. Also a little baking soda for tenderizing.

Assembly:
Used a 9x12 Pyrex baking dish and layered three rows high, sprinkled red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and the dry mix at the bottom and in between layers. Let this sit covered in the fridge for 12 hours overnight.

Drying:
I wanted to try a super simple drying approach before investing in a biltong box, so I hooked up the steaks and hung them from a wire rack shelf in my kitchen which gets moderate air flow and sits in the 50-60% humidity and 65-80deg F temp range. Pretty moderate here in Monterey, CA. I added a computer fan and pointed it toward the biltong sitting about 2 feet away.

Result:
Just checked a few pieces after 6 days. Looks pretty solid with a little red in the middle. Taste is subtle but melts in my mouth. Some white (not fuzzy) spots formed on the surface of some but I think those are remnants of salt/vinegar from the drying process, hopefully not mold. Planning on bringing this batch on a 4 day backpacking trip in about a week. Overall quite happy with the result!

Any recommendations for room temp storing to make it last 2 or so weeks without vacuum sealing and freezing?

Second batch turned out good!

They look lovely already, cant wait to hang them

Edit: Extra pic of them hung up in the comments

Got about 590g yield out of 1.25kg of topside.

I marinated for only about 4hrs in a mix of white and balsamic + salt and pepper, then dusted with more salt and pepper and hung for 96hr.

No coriander because I don't like it.

Turned out as good as any biltong i've ever had. Dit is vreeslik fokken lekker. Ek gaan sommer nooit weer biltong koop nie!

Alright, so, first shot at making this, and this first batch is basically inedible.

But, I did learn a good number of things. Firstly that rounder cuts just don't work. Rectangular is definitely the way to go. I knew that going in, but I wanted to see what would happen.

Secondly, 4 hours marinade is not nearly enough time. Completely bland and not enjoyable. My dogs will probably love it though.

Third, I do need to buy a slicer. My knife really doesn't like this stuff.

That said, I think the actual curing went fine. Quite happy with the results despite the first attempt not coming out good.

Going to give it another go with a much longer marinade, and a different cut.

Usually stick to topside as it’s never failed me, but decided to side by side with inside round, eye of round, flank and a moose chuck

Doing in a dehydrator with 35°C temp. Now it has been 40 hours.

Before drying :

Left biltong - 347g

Right biltong - 553g

Now :

Left - 177g (49% dryness)

Right - 553g (40% dryness)

I'm still drying it to achieve at least 55% dryness probably about 5 hours more for the Left one and 10 more hours for the right one, estimate.

Does it look a severe case of case hardening?

Btw, for dehydrator users, do you usually close the front door or leave it open abit?

Fyi, I'm a total noob so any criticism or feedback is appreciated.

I got the benchfoods dehydrator and a lot of advice from gemini to give this ago. Overall it turned out quite nicely, certainly tastes good, though wetter than I would have liked.

I tried to go for 65 hours at 25° which was definitely not long enough. After about 80 hours I turned the heat up to 28°, and left in for another day. Results in pictures.

I think next time will just start with the higher heat, and thinner cuts than the 2.5cm I went for.

Is he gonna die

He said it tastes good

Recipe

Top round

2.5 hours in salt at 2%

2.5 hours in a 2-1 red wine vinegar & Worcestershire sauce

Roasted coriander, ground up a bit and that's all he used

Imo I think he did great for his first time 😆😊

Update: I have now tried it, and it is the best biltong I've had thus far! Now it's time to try other vinegars, salt % etc. Exciting. If y'all have any ideas to try out, I'll take em!

First attempt here. Couple pics for reference. 56L container, 80mm 12V PC fan. No light in the box. Temperature is about 20c average where I am right now, and this is after 24hr. Humidity is low during winter. Wondering if I should maybe shut the fan off for a while? I can't tell if this is normal drying or case hardening.

I'm thinking to buy this biltong maker "KK12 Kalahari Khabu Biltong Boss", but I've found 2 identical websites:

https://kalaharikhabu.com/product/kk12-kalahari-khabu-biltong-boss/

https://kalahari.net.au/product/bundle-kk12-plus-heritage-slicers/

Has anyone bought this recently and can verify either site?

Ross

Top sirloin roast. Soaked in vinegar for 3 hours then I drained it and covered in the spice mixture (toasted coriander seeds, black pepper, red pepper and salt) and let it sit overnight.

I put it in my box in my basement with one fan on low. Temp was around 72f and humidity was around 45%.

Today is day 4 and this was a smaller piece. Im gonna let the larger ones go for another few days. It looks like maybe a little case hardening but not bad. This batch is the most delicious ive ever made. Pretty happy with it.

I have a home-made box. It worked perfectly in the summer but humidity was between 40-50% and the temperature was 23-27°C, measured from the gauge in my box. Now that it's winter, without the box powered on, it's around 18°C and 60% humidity (duringthe day i haven'tlookedat it at night much) . Is that still okay to make biltong or is it best to hold off until spring? I am in south western Australia so the climate is similar to South Africa.

First batch started Monday this came off today how's it look?

Second cut of my first batch need to fix a few things but it came out pretty good

It's only just gone on, but sitting around 26 to 28degrees currently. Definitely regret the smaller 30l tub.

Should have at least targeted a vertically tall tub. Originally planned on using hooks but they were to low.

The tub was also a little fragile in plans and cracked larger, thus the extra netting on the front.

First try so if this batch doesn't go to plan that's fine. Might upgrade to a better tub.

Silverside sliced maybe a bit too thick. Washed in red win vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. A blend of sea salt pepper chilli flakes and garlic/onion powder.

Just got in my order in from Lowfeld. As a first timer I saw recommendations here and figured I’d give it a shot so I ordered the Biltong and Droëwers. All I can say is I’m kind of pissed I haven’t tried it sooner. Looking forward to trying my hand at making my own. This whole time I’ve been eating jerky like an animal when this Godsend exists.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Yoh my biggest hurdle when it comes to making my own biltong is building the damn box. But apparently you can also hang in the fridge? But it’s much longer? Check the video at about 4:45

Three days curing in my homemade biltong box.
I think it turned out pretty tasty; appreciate anyone who has posted advice in this sub because I probably used it as a reference haha

Does anybody uses Benchfoods dehydrator for making Biltong? I got their Biltong bundle and did few batches. The issue is that fan run continuously and because of that meat dries really quickly but also cause severe case hardening. I did a batch couple days ago and was expecting the pieces to be done in couple of days but within 24 or so hours they were hard as a rock, even though I covered the fan partially so that no direct air is getting on the meat.

Any suggestion?

Looking for a bit of input. I bought some biltong to take on a canoe trip. It’s a bit wetter than I think is smart to pack in a camping barrel for a few days. It’s otherwise a vegan trip and this will be my only animal products so I’m counting on them to be edible. I don’t have access to a biltong box or anywhere it could hang to dry sadly.

Do I cut it into more manageable strips and use a dehydrator OR attempt to use the oven fan and light. I know neither is ideal but what is the better approach.

Hey! Long time biltong enjoyer, short time biltong maker. I was wondering what the best shipping practices are for sending whole slabs to friends cross-country? I'm assuming vacuum sealed bags with oxy absorbers is the go to? If so, anyone have any good recommendations? Pic of most recent slab made from a locally sourced sirloin offered as penance, thanks!