South African Beef Biltong

South African Beef Biltong is the African version of beef jerky. The big difference between South African biltong and beef jerky is that the South African is flavored with vinegar and coriander.

How To Make Real South African Beef Biltong

Beef London BroilKosher SaltCoarse Ground Black PepperCoarse Ground CorianderVinegar (preferably Apple-Cider vinegar)

Get some half-inch thick strips of beef. Make sure it's cut with the grain. The pieces should be about 6 inches long and about 1/4 inch thick.

Liberally sprinkle kosher salt on each side of the pieces of meat and let them stand for an hour. The longer you let it stand the saltier it will become.

When the hour is up scrape off all the excess salt with a knife (don't soak it in water!).

Put some vinegar in a bowl and dip the strips of meat in the vinegar for a second or so - just so that the meat is covered in the vinegar. Hold the beef strips up so that the excess vinegar drips off.

Sprinkle the vinegar covered beef strips with ground pepper and ground coriander on all sides. The meat is now ready to dry.

There are several methods of drying. One is to hang it up on a line in a cool place and have a fan blow on it. This method is a bit difficult because if the air is humid the meat can spoil.

The method some people use is a homemade “Biltong Box”. This is basically a sealed wooden box (you can use cardboard if you like) with holes in it and a 60w light bulb inside.

Just hang the meat at the top of the box, and leave the light bulb on at the bottom. The heat from the light bulb helps dry the meat (even in humid weather).

You can achieve the same thing in your oven. Just turn the oven on to its lowest temperature setting. Place the biltong on a foil-covered rack in the lowest oven position. Leave the oven door ajar for air circulation.

You can also dry it in a food dehydrator.

You'll know when the biltong is ready when it is quite hard, but still a bit moist inside. When you bend a piece it will crack but will not snap into two pieces.

The above recipe is close to authentic as far as I know. But you can add flavors like Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce, Tabasco sauce, soy sauce, etc.. Just brush these sauces on after applying the vinegar using a basting brush.

If you would like to compare you homemade biltong with professionally made you can buy biltong online. Just run a search and you’ll come up with several vendors.

This South African Beef Biltong Recipe is a fun project and some darned good eating.

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