RECIPES: Biltong Spice Recipes

[UKHunter]

Hi chaps,

I have just built myself a biltong box and have a muntjac hanging waiting to be put to good use.

Does anybody have any recipes they would recommend and the quantities needed?

Cheers,

Tom

 

[TokkieM]

 

[UKHunter]

Many thanks.

 

[TokkieM]

Most welcome Sir,enjoy

 

[BRICKBURN]

2Kg Venison
Sliced 1/2 inch thick strips

Rinse 1:
Rinsed meat in 1/10 White Vinegar and Water
10 Minutes

Spice:
Corriander 1 cup whole
Black Pepper 1/2 cup black pepper
Garlic 1 TBSp

Cure:
Large Coarse Salt 500mg
Baking Soda 2 Tsp
Brown Sugar 150mg

Rinse 2:
100% White Vinegar Rinse

Process:
Rinse 1
Meat Sliced into Strips
Meat Rinsed in 10% solution for 10 minutes

Spice:
Grind All Spices in grinder course grind

Cure:
Mix/Blend ingredients in food processor to get the ingredients into homogeneous mixture.
Coat the meat completely in spice
Allow to sit for a few minutes
Remove any excess by rubbing lightly
Place in a container
Alternating Layers of Brine and meat in container
Layer of Brine in the bottom.
Cover meat in Container

6 HOURS in Fridge do not do it this long
2 HOURS MAX

Rinse 2
Place Vinegar in a container
Drain meat from brine
Dip meat into vinegar bath to remove all salt
Allow to drain

(Note Baking Sodas active)
Sprinkle meat with remaining Spice mixture
Layer meat and spice in container

12 HOURS in fridge steeping

Hang to dry until reaches desired consistency.

 

[Patrick R]

View attachment 41261

excellent with these ingredients, but use brown vinegar not white vinegar together with coarse salt, black pepper (grinded or coarse), brown sugar, worcester sauce...lay the meat then poor the ingredients on, then another layer then poor the ingredients on and so on until finished...best results is to leave it for 24 hours in a fridge to create a deep brine mixture on the biltong, then hang...

 

[UKHunter]

Many thanks gentlemen.

 

[Grady]

Now that we have some good recipes, does anyone have some plans for a biltong box?

 

[BRICKBURN]

Now that we have some good recipes, does anyone have some plans for a biltong box?

Be careful everywhere in the world is not quite as dry as parts of South Africa or Namibia.

One version:

Another version:

How To Make A Biltong Box

Biltong and droëwors (dried sausage) are two favorite South African snacks. There are places that sell pretty decent biltong, but many people prefer to make their own biltong because it is easy to do.

(If you don't know what biltong is, it is seasoned meat cut in strips and then dried. It is similar to jerky.)

The biggest problem usually is how to dry the biltong. You could go buy one of the fancy dehydrators sold at outdoor stores, but if you want to save some money, you could simply find out how to make a biltong box.

I will show you how to make two types of biltong boxes, (1) a decent wooden box, or (2) a quick and cheap cardboard box.

Your Basic Goal: The most important goal, whether you make a wooden box or a cardboard box, is to have a place to hang your biltong and then move air through it. The moving air dries the biltong!

A Wooden Biltong Box

Here's what your wooden biltong drying box should look like:

The diagram shows a box with a divider that divides the box into two sections, A & B. Section A is high enough for a 100 Watt (or 60W) bulb to fit into. Section B is where you will hang the meat. Near the top of section B are wooden or steel rods (marked C) from where you will hang your meat.

There are holes (½-1 inch diameter) drilled along the sides of section A, in the divider, and in the roof of the box.

How It Works

The bulb heats the air in section A. As we all know from school, warm air rises. The air rises through the holes in the divider, through section B, and out the top. The air in section A that has risen out the top, is replaced by air being sucked in through the holes in the sides of section A. The blue arrows show the air flow.

How To Make It

1. Make a wooden box that measures roughly 3 ft. high, 2 ft. wide, 2 ft. deep, and that has a door on one side (a door is not shown in the diagram).
2. Place a wooden divider in the box, and about 1 ft from the bottom (it must be high enough from the bottom that you can place the bulb under it).



3. Drill several holes, about ½-1 inch diameter, in the sides of section A, the divider, and the top of the box.
4. Place several (about 7) wooden rods (C) inside the box about 2 inches from the top. Space them about 3 - 4 inches apart. (Tip: Use a method of attaching the rods that allows you to move the rods if you find that you can fit more rods in the box.)
5. Place the 100 watt bulb in the center of section A.
Now hang your meat from the rods, making sure the pieces don't touch each other (the meat will rot at the spots where they touch), and wait patiently for it to dry. We use plastic-coated paper clips as biltong hooks.

Fans: If you have one or more electric fans, you could eliminate the bulb, and either have the fans blow into section A, or reverse the fans and use them as extraction fans in the roof of the box. If you go with this option, wherever you mount the fans, don't drill the holes in that location as well.

The box can be made of wood or cardboard, but a wooden box will certainly last longer. You also may want to cover the holes in the box with insect netting (the kind used on screen doors). This will stop the bugs from getting to your biltong before you do.

A Simple Cardboard Biltong Box

A while ago I had to build a biltong box, but I didn't have the time to make a proper box as described above. I had a computer monitor box (about 1 ft x 2 ft x 3 ft) and a small fan (about 8 inches in diamater). The biltong box I made from that, worked very well. I still use it. Here's how I made it:

1. I stood the box upright and opened the top flaps.
2. I cut a hole in the side of the box near the bottom for the fan to fit into. The fan has its own stand, so I made the hole big enough to allow all of the fan's air to blow through the hole.
3. I used the wire from wire hangers to make the rods to hang my biltong on. I poked the wires through the box from one side to the opposite side along a straight line near the top edge of the box. I simply bent the wire rods over where they protruded outside the box. (I later felt that the hanger wire was a little too thin and replaced it with thicker wire that I bought at a hardware store.)
4. Then I hung my meat from the wire rods using plastic-coated paper clips as biltong hooks. That works very well!



5. Lastly I placed the fan in position to blow through the hole I cut earlier. Generally, the top of the box remains open. Sometimes I will cover about ¼ to ½ of the top on the opposite side as the fan. This allows the air to swirl through the box before exiting out the top.

Here are two images of what it looks like:

This simple box has made several batches of biltong for us. It usually takes 4-6 days for the biltong to be ready. Droëwors takes a little longer if you use synthetic casing.

I hope your biltong box works as well for you as our has for us!

 

[Grady]

Thanks Brick

 

[BRICKBURN]

A small computer fan works wonders.
You'll have to figure it out for your area. Humidity, etc.

 

[UKHunter]

I used an 80L plastic container, a light bulb on one of the bottom sides with air flow holes underneath it, then at the opposite top corner of the box i drilled more air flow holes. Some wooden rod's going across the top and paper clips bent into 'S' shapes to hang the meat. I have a computer fan on order, which Im going to put just above the light bulb to increase air flow.

 

[TokkieM]

If you have 10 thumbs then you can order them from SA too.

 

[UKHunter]

The meat is now in the spice and in the fridge. I made one slight addition to the recipe and added smoked paprika.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Hope it works for you.

 

[Ole Bally]

The old 'traditional' recipe is. 1lb. Ground coarse salt. 1 oz.pepper coarse ground. 1 Oz. Coriander seed coarse gound. Prepare the coriander by lightly roasting it in a pan until it wants to smoke!
Mix all together.
Cut meat into steps along the grain.
Prepare a plastic bottle with lid. .500ml.coke works. Make small hole in top.
Make a mix of 50/50 vinegar / Worcester sauce. The vinegar keeps the flies away in the drying process. The worsties adds flavour!
get a plastic basin that'll hold all yr meat.
By hand full, sprinkle yr salt mix evenly and lightly across the bottom of the basin. Place a layer of meat. Spray the vinegar mix lightly over the layer.
add your next layer of salt mix. Don't be heavy handed!
Keep repeating til you finish the meat.
DO NOT just add the salt mix coz you have some left!!
Less is better until you learn how much is enough.
The mix must NOT swim in the vinegar!
In 6 hours you can hang the meat! 2 days later we start eating!!!
Enjoy!

 

[buddy48]

I was doing a little research on making my own biltong and came across this thread. When I was in RSA, the folks there said just hang it and put a fan blowing on it. Do you really need a box and a light bulb? I can imagine that for hundreds of years biltong was made without a fancy box.

 

[Ole Bally]

I was doing a little research on making my own biltong and came across this thread. When I was in RSA, the folks there said just hang it and put a fan blowing on it. Do you really need a box and a light bulb? I can imagine that for hundreds of years biltong was made without a fancy box.

Biltong is generally made in the african winter when the atmospheric humidity is very very low!
The reason for the box and globe story is to dehumidify the air and the fan to move the air around! It does enable you to make it year round... depending of course where you live!
Any form of dehumidifier wold work. Just don't have too much heat or it like par cooks the meat and makes it taste like cardboard!
The vinegar in the mix is to keep the flies from laying eggs on the meat before it forms a skin.

 

[Velo Dog]

Hi UKHunter,

Great topic, thanks for posting it.
As a side note, while experimenting with biltong recipes at home, I discovered a marinate that works fairly well on chicken (for grilling).
I took the liberty of naming it after the first African country I had hunted in.

"CHICKEN NAMIBIA"
Ingredients Required:
1. Chicken - cut up for grilling (drumsticks and/or thighs work quite well).
2. Powdered coriander (plenty of it).
3. White/distilled vinegar (plenty of this as well)
4. Coarse salt (to your individual taste).

A. - Coat pieces of chicken with as much powdered coriander as will stick to the meat, as well as a small amount of coarse salt to taste (if necessary, it helps to first rub chicken with vegetable oil).
B. - Arrange meat in glass, ceramic, stainless steel pan or dish, deeper than the chicken parts (salt and vinegar might be reactive with aluminum / aluminium?)
C. - Let coriander / salt rubbed chicken parts set in their deep container for about an hour, so that said seasonings will bond well to the meat.
D. - Slowly, pour in white distilled vinegar, taking care to not wash away seasonings from the meat, until it is covered (or half covered and then turn it half way through the marinade process).
E. - After about 12 hours, place chicken meat onto a medium hot grill and watch it closely, turning meat often (as with any spices, burning the coriander will not taste good).

Cheers,
Velo Dog.

 

[Ole Bally]

Hi UKHunter,

Great topic, thanks for posting it.
As a side note, while experimenting with biltong recipes at home, I discovered a marinate that works fairly well on chicken (for grilling).
I took the liberty of naming it after the first African country I had hunted in.

To get your marinade into the chicken meat itself, get a pressure cooker and drill a hole in the lid to take a tubeless valve for a car wheel. Fit it to the lid so you can pump air into the pot.
Put your marinade and chicken into the pot so the meat is covered... put the lid on and, using a bicycle pump, pump about 10 lbs of pressure into the pot... so the seal seals and the pressure doofus sticks up!
Leave for 10 minutes...
depressurize and cook!