Biltong

Sus scrofa

Well-Known Member
I'm just sat here quaffing a cheeky red and tucking into a fresh batch of home dried Roe venison biltong made with South African spices . Nothing wrong with that you might say! :)

Only trouble is I've only made a small batch <1Kg and it's dissapearing mighty fast :confused: :eek:

What is so addictive about biltong? And if you haven't tried it you really should, mmmm.
 
What sort of post is that.... :eek:

Id love to try some..

Offering to post some would have been much more civil ;)

I can pm you my address

Terry
 
Hi Terry

Just a general mulling over of ones deliciously tasty snack and quite why it's so tasty.

The trouble is due to quality control one has to taste each batch before posting and like I said it is damn tasty :D and before you know it there's none left to post but you can remain assured that quality has been assured!?! YUMMY :lol: :lol:
 
Sounds divine and I can sympathise on not preparing enough to cope with inevitable desire to eat more and more.

I've just cooked up a scrap of muntjac I found lurking in the corner of the freezer. It was only a tiny cut and had probably been in there for far longer than I cared to remember so I decided a quick marinade would be prudent. Step forward Lingham's Ginger Garlic Chilli sauce (bright red sauce in yellow labelled bottle - you can't miss it). Allowed said cut to swim in the jungle juice for an hour and then no more than five minutes each side in a hot pan. Deeeeelicious!!!!! Now I ask myself why the hell did I only cook a child's portion? Good excuse to go and get another monkey!!! :lol:
 
Iwrch said:
Sounds divine and I can sympathise on not preparing enough to cope with inevitable desire to eat more and more.

I've just cooked up a scrap of muntjac I found lurking in the corner of the freezer. It was only a tiny cut and had probably been in there for far longer than I cared to remember so I decided a quick marinade would be prudent. Step forward Lingham's Ginger Garlic Chilli sauce (bright red sauce in yellow labelled bottle - you can't miss it). Allowed said cut to swim in the jungle juice for an hour and then no more than five minutes each side in a hot pan. Deeeeelicious!!!!! Now I ask myself why the hell did I only cook a child's portion? Good excuse to go and get another monkey!!! :lol:
Great!!
Until you mentioned garlic. Yuk!! :lol:
basil.
 
Any chance of posting how you make said Biltong?? Making me hungry just thinking about it.
 
I make my own during the warmer months. I can always eat it faster than I can make it though.
Blue Rock Butchers in Bisley sell some very good biltong by mail order. Bloody expensive though.
 
I was weaned on Biltong - growing up in Rhodesia under sanctions did n't know what sweeties were - instead was fed biltong.

Most deer I shoot get made into biltong - very simple to make. Roe are very good, but Red deer being a slightly courser meat probably are even better.

Take one deer - skin it and then divide into haunches etc - then you want to cut the meat into long strips about 1 inch wide, 1/2 inch thick. Best if you can seperate say the hanuch into the major muscles first and then cut these into strips - you want the grain running up and down the strips.

Try and avoid having any fat on the meat and aslo try and remove any sinews etc - they just get very chewy.

Now for the spicy bit - you can expereiment here till you have something that totally agrees with your pallet:

But take 1 part salt, one part corriander seed and one part pepper and grind up into reasonably fine powder. If you like chilli add in chilli flakes, garlic - add in dried garlic. I suppose you could even add dried herbs etc.

Put the meat into a dish and make sure it is well covered in the Biltong spice. If you think the meat may be a bit tough add in a bit of Bicarb of Soda - it acts a tenderiser. I also add a good shot of worcester sauce, or a bit of red wine to help the marinade do its magic. Cover and leave in the fridge for a few hours.

Now to the drying bit.

Best place is somewhere that has a regular warm airflow. You definatly want air movement. The best place is probably the drying rack above a kitchen stove / aga - but you risk being made into biltong yourself if you use this route. I have a long string that runs under neath a high kitchen shelf.

Take a packet of paper clips and open them into hooks, and then take each strip and hang them on your long drying rack.

Make sure there is plenty of space around each piece and that they are not touching. Before hanging I often put mine onto a cake cooling rack just to allow any drips to run away. Some say pat them dry with kitchen towl - I just find kitchen towel then gets stuck to the meat!

Now the hard part.

You have to let them dry. They will first go balck and a bit leathery - after 24 hours.

After 48 hours - find one of the thin pieces and do a taste test.

After 72 hours - do a further taste test - but to sample properly you will need to try at least three or four bits.

After four days sit down and munch you way through the whole lot.

I have found that after five or six days the biltong is really a bit too dry for my palet, and to avoid this risk you do need to eat all before then.

Note that there will be major family arguments as to whose pievce is whose etc, and daddy why have you eaten all the biltong when I was saving that bit ofr after school etc.

If you get a bit of mould on it - this is because you haven't enough airflow over it. I have read you can remove the mold with vinegar, but personally wouldn't risk this.
 
Pretty much the same method as heym.

I will use fresh or vacuum packed frozen haunches. You really do need the best cuts to get the best biltong.

1 Separate the muscle groups from the haunch and trim as much sinew and connective tissue out as possible.

2 Cut into strips lengthwise about 10mm thick lay on wooden chopping board brush lightly with balsamic vinegar on both sides and sprinkle on Biltong spice mix that I bought home from South Africa, marinade for 4 hours turning every half hour.

3 Place four or five strips, do not let them touch, on a wooden skewer and place/hang in biltong drying box that I purchased from ebay, (plans for building your own can be readily found on the internet).

4 Dry for a minimum of 48 hours depending on ambient temp etc.. start to taste test until satisfied.

5 Proceed to munch ones way through the remainder of ones stash as quickly as possible before any new best friends (they appear from everywhere at the word biltong, it is truly one of the seven wonders where they come from) can possibly get their sticky paws on it.

Eric I will of course try to make sure that I have some in stock .
 
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