r/Biltong

I have never tried biltong before but were always fascinated by the idea. I finally did it, super excited to try and it was... Nothing. I dont know what went wrong or if it did but there is no beefieness to this meat. Its not spoiled, saltiness is good, I can taste the spices, the sauce but no beef? It just tastes weird. Anyway here is what I did, it stayed in salt for 3 hours and sauce for 2,5 hours. its kinda hot here nowadays so this only took 3 days to dry in a biltong box I've made and loose 45% of its weight. I can push my finger in the middle and it goes in like memory foam, which felt kinda wrong but no spoilage in taste because it has no taste... I kinda wanna bite a huge chunk out of it to see if I feel anything.

Edit: I've served it to a buch of people and they actually liked it, granted they like vinegar. This made me realize that the vinegar is in fact too strong for my own liking and spices were not it for me. Also the meat is super duper lean so it is not so flavorful. Will try different seasoning and marinade next (open for suggestions) and place the meat further from the fan.

My son has taken after his dad and had been making biltong intermittently in Orlando for the past 15 years.

He has asked me to make some t-shirts for his baby daughter and he just completed a batch. Seems the lass young takes after Oupa...

Thanks to Inyama, a biltong company in Southern England, for the use of their logo used under "Fair Use Doctrine" and not for commercial reproduction or profit.

BTW I am the former lecturer in Photography at The Michaelis School of Fine Art and Graphic Design at the University of Cape Town.

Hi all,
First time making Biltong . I’m making Biltong in my benchfoods dehydrator. I have use Wagyu brisket (it was quite cheap). Did one hour covering in salt followed by a wet marinade soaking for one hour and then dry seasoning and hung it starting at 21 degrees for the first day 22 and 23 for second and 23 and 24 for the third and 25 for the fourth. I cut it on the fourth day and there was a layer of glistening fat liquid on the inside and still abit rare and wet. Should I slowly increase the temperature or just keep dehydrating?

Vor 20 Jahren als Kind im Bach gefunden. Seither frage ich mich oft was das ist…;)

I’ve got a big batch of biltong hanging to dry right now and its been hanging 5.5 days, went through and felt and pulled some of the thinner slabs that felt like they might be done, cutting one of these up I got to a section where there was some untrimmed fat on the middle of the slab that appears to have caused some off coloring/discoloration, assuming cause moisture couldn’t escape there, that’s the only guess I have for why the color would be so weird, the ends of the slab look more normal, is this still safe to eat? For comparison is another slab I pulled off the rack right next to it as well as some slices.

Just wondering why there is moisture? Today is day 4 and I was h going to remove it but I’m a bit skeptical if it’s safe or not now?

Took a small piece out to see how it's going.

I cut eye of round (pieces could have been more uniform) I apply spices and soak in red vinegar, want sure if I added enough salt but I pretty much soaked all pieces for 18hrs.

After I remove from vinegar and apply another coating of spices before hanging to dry in BBox.

I set fan to lowest setting to avoid case hardening but..it doesn't look how I get it from the shop. It taste ok

Any suggestions to improve?

Fan that moves left to right and air conditioned, holes in box etc, did the vinegar soak and salted heavy, this a lean sirloin steak so ima see after like 2 days and ima rotate the meat periodically lmk if there’s anything else

First time using the Mellerware Biltong King

Fan speed seems high, kinda blocked it a bit for the first 2 days to slow down the airflow.

Any tips to modify or add a fan speed controller?

Howdy do,

I've gotten into making biltong recently, as I miss it and it's too expensive and not usually good here.

Both batches (batch 1 on the left, 2 on the right) used a plastic tub biltong box with a light/ 12v Amazon computer fan combo. It's quite humid here so I needed to put a light (20W incandescent), this fall and winter I shouldn't. I found 55-65rh optimal with the fan on low, sub 55 turn light off, over 65 increase fan speed to max.

The first batch as you can see is disgusting. The reason is due to me not understanding the vinegar dunk. I soaked the batch in white vinegar mixed with Worcestershire sauce overnight, then added salt/ spice (coriander, black pepper, red pepper). That essentially cooked the meat. 0/10 would not recommend, I ate some out of spite and pitched the rest except for the before after demonstration piece.

For the second batch, I basically followed the "Pants Down Aprons On" recipe from YouTube. That involves salting first and following a (more limited) vinegar soak neutralizing the vinegar with baking soda to stop it from cooking the slabs through. The result is lovely. I changed the ratios in the spice blend and added crushed Arbol chili's instead of the store bought ones so I'd get more of a "chili bite" hit. I also kept the humidity higher and used the fan less aggressively compared to batch 1 (previous averaged around 50%rh, this one around 65%, but finishing around 55%). I got mold on one piece because it was in a corner and the vent hole was covered up but every one I've cut into so far has been perfect. I'm gonna base my future experimentation off of this as a baseline. Highly recommended.

For both I used bottom round beef. Both were pulled at 45-50% moisture loss, which took about 3 days with batch 1 and 5 days with batch 2.

My next steps are gonna be making strips and droëwors.

Basic spices with flaked chillies added. Malt vinegar, liquid smoke and a little soy.

We grew up in Namibia but both live in Germany now. Sis wanted a little taste of home for the guests to snack on.
The last batch was still a bit too moist and fatty so we’re eating that ourselves

First time making biltong, 3 days in and going to probably check how it is tomorrow morning. Just wondering what your thoughts are?