The meat for biltong
Use Silverside or Topside cut into strips 1cm thick, 30cm long and about 5 cm wide. Best to get from a butcher who will cut it for you. Another option is to buy a roasting joint from a supermarket and cut it yourself. 2kg is a good amount.
The spices
Readymade mixes
You can buy good readymade mixes from Amazon.
When I use these spices, I sometimes add garlic salt and/or chilli flakes
Make your own
For each kilogram of meat use:
Ingredients
- 2 gram black pepper
- 18 gram salt
- 1 gram brown treacle sugar
- 4 gram coarsely ground dry roasted coriander
- Garlic salt or chilli flakes if required
Method
Mix all the dry spices together
Spicing the meat
Ingredients
- The meat from above
- The spice mix from above
- Vinegar or apple vinegar (optional)
- Worcestershire source (optional)
Traditional recipes always use vinegar as it was thought that it helps to kill any bacteria in the meat. The meat you buy today from the butcher of supermarket is free from bacteria, so it’s not really required. With regards to the vinegar, I use only a very small amount for to help the spice mix to stick to meat. Leave it out if you want. Same with the Worcestershire source.
Method
- Sprinkle a bit of the vinegar and maybe Worcestershire source onto two strips of the meat and rub in the spice mix.
- Turn the meat over and place into fairly deep sided tray that will fit the two pieces lying flat on the bottom of the tray. Sprinkle a bit of the vinegar and maybe Worcestershire source onto two strips of the meat and rub in the spice mix.
- Repeat this will all the remaining strips of meat.
- Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for 12 hours.
- Dry the meat with paper towels.
- Hang the meat in your dryer using plastic hooks, making sure that none of the meat touches each other or the sides of dryer as you could get mould building up.
- A light in the dryer is not always necessary unless there is moisture or humidity in the air. I tend to leave the light off for the first 12 hours.
- Your biltong should be ready in three to four days depending on how you like it.
- I like to slice mine with a biltong cutter
