Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Biltong.....

has more protein in 11 oz than a 5# steak! Easy to make also!

Good stuff. Been making it for years. Got hooked on it in RSA in 1993

ok so how?

Got a favorite recipe?

Place makes it locally and charges $65/lb for it.

Not hard to make, have done it before. The key is setting up a properly ventilated air dryer. I've not tried my dehydrator simply because it wouldn't handle the larger cuts that biltong is usually made with.

Young son and a bud of his make it all the time

Tried some in South Africa, good stuff. I never thought of trying to make it myself, maybe in the peak of summer when the humidity is low.

5lbs of raw meet can dehydrate up to 90% of the original weight. Roughly 80oz fully hydrated and then 8oz after dehydration. I guess the OP is comparing 11oz of biltong to 8oz of dehydrated raw meat for the total protein content. I dunno.

Pudding is good!


Just that.

Ain’t it jerky had to google it 🤷‍♂️

How does it differ from jerky?

HS 58

Chocolate Chip Cookies is more gooder!

That, Jack!

Had the same rolling around in my head^^

Checkmate.

You aren't supposed to get biltong so dry.....I think.

I made 2 batches last year using Eileen Clarke’s recipe from her “Slice of the Wild” wild game cookbook. One from moose, one from mule deer, outstanding!

I’ll be making more before hunting season starts this fall.

Will it 'keep' like jerky?

Don't know. The recipe video I watched was from a guy in SA.

Cut cross grained meat, slow dried, spiced to your liking, smoke optional. Jerkey!!

Recipee plz

What do you substitute the Brown Vinegar with?

I've made a bunch of spiced dried deer meat
in my dehydrators a few years ago. Did it for years
Washed my hands and all the utensils and racks
with vinegar water to chase away the cooties.
Plain pickling salt and the black pepper in a can and
a wee bit of wooster-shower/soy sauce or
Figaro for a light coat and on the racks.
Don't know exactly if it was billtong or jerky.

I haven't messed with any drying exercises
after I figured out how to properly make
dead deer sausage

It’s made from the whole muscle, not thinly sliced meat.

You could probably beat someone to death with a biltong stick.

To eat it, they shave off slivers of meat.

Malt vinegar works well in place of brown vinegar.

Honey and apple cider vinegar!

I have eaten biltong in Africa.

It was sliced thicker than jerky. In the remote villages it is sundried on strings. No seasoning.

The more refined way was to use salt and some seasoning, but it is still dried in the sun. In general, humidity is very low in the dry season.

It is much more meaty and chewy, at least what I ate.

You would have to knock the flies off.

W8fe bought tapioca pudding but it looks like fish eyes

Fuqk that🤢

I think I’ll stick to jerky.

The farm I hunted in Namibia had several wires running the length of the buildings underneath the soffitts where they constantly processed biltong. it was sold at a roadside store they owned along the highway heading east out of Windhoek. I tried some but wasn't a fan, they made much better salami. During our one visit our hunt was delayed because we had to go shoot a cow to replenish the biltong supply. South Africans came through and bought out the store.

I’ve had it SA and Namibia, and bought and made it here. I never asked where it was made, but I saw the strips hanging around the workers huts.

I like it, but I gotta say, it tastes a whole lot better on safari than here.

Here is a pretty good video on how to make it.


Here is a link to their recipe page where you can use the weight of meat to get the measurements for spices. You need to use a metric to imperial conversion to get it to American measurements but you can find one of those on any search engine. I have used this guys info and it is pretty good but I add a healthy dose of garlic to it and a splash of cayenne and I prefer malt vinegar but you can use what you like and add or subtract spices. The one spice you really need for biltong that has no substitute is the coriander.
https://twoguysandacooler.com/biltong/

Cheers Y'All

I love it. They had stryve brand at Costco a year or two ago but it wasn't there long. When they closed it out u bought several bags. I prefer it to most jerky. It has a more natural beef taste. Like anything some is definitely better than others.

We used to just hang it on a line in our flat in South Africa and put a fan on it for a few days. I like nine pretty simple salt vinegar lots of roasted and coarse ground coriander and a bit of white pepper.

I also made 35 pounds of elk and pork shoulder boerwors last fall. My south African friends that live here now all 3 took some and said it was the best they'd had in the states but said I used a bit too much black pepper. I'm going to make another batch soon. I've still got half an elk in my neighbors freezer I need to finish packing.

Bb

Yes. After a thorough drying, 20 lbs of steak can fit in a quart jar.

I bought several spiral hams from Costco on clearance thr other day. I'm going to freeze dry them in our harvest right and then seal them in mylar for food storage. They had them an extra $10 off per ham so I bought all the smaller ones that were normally $18-$20 for $8-$10 each. I think it'll be cheaper than buying cans of freeze dried meat for storage. I'm curious to see how it works. As soon as my strawberries and mango slices are done I'll try the hams. Should go good with all the beans we have stored.

Bb

Tag

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2999172/1#discussion

Is biltong healthier than jerky?
Not only is the taste of biltong more natural and “beefy” than jerky due to the drying process and ingredients used, but the nutritional differences when it comes to beef jerky vs. biltong are clear as day. With no sugar or carbohydrates and almost half the amount of sodium, biltong is the clear winner.

If you want something really good, try a freeze dried jolly rancher!

We do jolly ranchers and skittles all the time. My 10 year old daughter wants to sell them. The jolly ranchers are my favorite too. I tried to buy another big bag this week but our Costco just quit selling them. I'll have to find a new bulk source.

Bb

One of Cookie's photographer buddies used to work for a huge freeze dry outfit (I think Mt House) and would bring over a case of two of samples on fall visits. Except for freeze dried ice cream, most was at least passable if one was seriously starved.

Too damned humid here to make it, unless you could do it in a dehydrator or something.

That would be a problem. We have great conditions here in Eastern Idaho for drying it during most months. Especially mid summer. I wouldn't want to try to make it in kaneohe Hawaii or someplace like that. I've got an elk rear quarter I plan on doing about July.

Another thing I found with biltong is that the type of vinegar matters. I prefer brown malt style and a course Himalayan pink salt. I'll have to try the weighing of each piece as it drys to get to the right dryness. We always just bent the sticks or basically flexed them a little to tell how dry they are. I don't like it super dry.

The first time I tried it I bought a big really dry stick and didn't have it sliced in thin slices across the grain. I didn't like it at all. Later I finally tried it sliced right at the right moisture and have loved it ever since. Last time I was in Africa we made a bunch from my kudu. They had a big screened in octagon shaped room with tons of places to hang it in on the game farm. I wish the fda would have let me bring some home.

Now if I could figure out what's different about south African corn meal that they make pap with. If tried to make it with various corn meals we have hear and it's not the same. I've got boerwors pretty well dialed in and can make chakalaka. I just need to get the pap figured out and I'll have a proper braii.

The stryve original sliced biltong is pretty good for America stuff. I found a bag at a Walmart in Scottsdale AZ a few months ago and I really enjoyed it. Most people I shared it with didn't really care for it so I think biltong is somewhat of an acquired taste. When I first moved to South Africa I missed American jerky. When I came home two years later I missed biltong ever since. I will now always choose decent biltong over the best jerky. The biltong just has a good Natural taste to me.

Bb