r/Biltong

Am using a biltong box, Khabu KK12, meat has been in there at 25C for around a week or so and this is the result, what's going on? I know the meat is probably too thick but still for this long it should've dried more. For context am living in Melbourne and it's currently cold here with machine sitting in garage. I want the meat to be like the second photo, any tips on how to achieve that?

Who else gets excited when they see marbling like this?

This is my second batch of the Basic Biltong Recipe from Khabu. Best thing I've ever made, beats store bought a million times over. So glad I started this hobby I just need to stop myself from eating it all immediately.

For the more experienced, any tips to improve?

Topside
3 days drying at 20C

Biltong is now in Portugal. Raw Sintra has classic, garlic and piri-piri flavours, and deliver direct to home. In case anyone out there is looking 👀

First batch of Billtong using donated South African spice mix.
Thinner pieces 30hrs @30C in dehydrator, remaining slabs still drying.

4 days in my homemade biltong box. 2 guys and a cooler method has always worked well for me. I tweaked this one a bit and added some msg and garlic and onion powder. This was with eye of round, which I can get at about $4.50-$5/lb.

This stuff disappears at an alarming rate in my house. Even my 5 year old loves it. I will be vacuum sealing and freezing them.

Give me the bad news please brains trust. Hung this batch up in a cool garage but foolishly didn’t have any airflow and some of the larger pieces have picked up mould. Any chance of salvaging these or are they destined for the bin?

I recently completed a batch of Biltong.

2 guys and a cooler recipe and method.

Dried for 4 days @25`c

Puzzled as to why the exterior colour is different from 2 pieces cut for the same piece of meet.

Smells fine tastes normal, just intrigued as to what is going on.

Only my third attempt and it came out great, good enough to post I thought.

First pic was taken of the very last piece so was more on the dry side than I typically enjoy, flavour was great. Maybe a tinge saltier than I like so will tone that down a bit, I use way less than the recommended as it is.

First batch wasn't a good flavour as I used white vinegar and the spice wasn't great, also had severe case-hardening.

Second batch was 50/50 malt vinegar and Worcestershire sauce for 24h in the fridge, with Safari biltong mix. Also had some case-hardening but tasted wonderful, got slight mould on a couple of pieces because I was keeping the fan off for too long at times (trying to fix the hardening) but caught it early enough to salvage.

This batch:

2kg Topside, the butcher I buy from said previously that I should give them a call on delivery day to keep a cut aside for me specifically for Billies. Which I did and man they spoiled me, look at that marbling.

I solved the case hardening by slicing a bit thinner, covering 50% of my fan airflow and putting the fan on a smart plug with a timer to be on 1 hour, off 1 hour, 24/7.

I also only had the meat in the vinegar/Worcestershire mix for about 30 seconds, then rolled it in the spice and hung. I tried that after reading a comment on this sub, thank you Redditor! And can confirm (subjectively), it's the same result without the faff of a day in the fridge. And not a sight of mould.

Started sampling at about day 4 and took it all down on day 6.

In the UK and temps were roughly 18-22c, with humidity fluctuating between 50-80%, high when the fan is off naturally. No light/heat source in the box.

On my next one, I want to try slicing a bit thicker again.

Thanks so much to this sub for all of the advice, success and failure stories that you guys document that helped make this a success!

*Oh and a pro tip from my butcher, put your cut in the freezer for about 30 mins before slicing, firms it up a bit and makes slicing much more pleasant.

First attempt at making biltong. The local SA shop here in the Fort Lauderdale, USA area charges $37/lbs so I decided to make my own.

We bought about 6lbs eye of round roast for $7.98/lbs and needed the coriander as we only had ground coriander.

After the initial preparation I had it in the fridge for about 16 hours mainly because I did not feel like getting up at 2am to hang it and had it in the dehydrator for about 48 hours at 85f.

The taste is good and meat is not too dry yet which is how I like it. For the next batch I will grind the coriander and pepper corns a bit more as I feel they are still to big with this batch.