Making Biltong


There are lots of recipes out there for Biltong, it’s completely up to you really how you do it, but the two essential ingredients are salt and no water.

What I mean by ‘no water’ is the meat is dried, completely. That with the saltiness of the meat is enough to preserve.

Now of course you can get it in little packets, not very much for quite a lot of money.

Living in a wet climate, we use the dehydrator to force the water from the meat. Traditionally, so the story goes, biltong was made by putting meat under the saddle and it was then rode on all day. That way the meat was salted by horse sweat. No idea if this is true! I have also heard it about kebabs and Ghengis Kahn’s men, so who knows?

In this recipe you need

Very thin slices of beef - around 2 - 3 mm thick

Carraway seeds

Fennel seeds

Curing salt - with nitrates already added - we used Weschenfelder Continental Cure, which is very low in nitrates. But then I feel it is important to have some in this uncooked product to guard against botulism.

Balsamic vinegar


Put a sprinkling of salt in the bottom of a container and lay out some strips of beef on top

Sprinkle a layer of curing salt on top of the meat

Then sprinkle a layer of carraway seeds

Then a layer of fennel seeds

Then splash the laters with balsamic vinegar (Some recipes call for Worcestershire sauce instead)

Then lay another load of beef on the top and repeat the process until your beef is finsihed

Cover with food wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours

After 24 hours wash off the seeds and place in the dehydrator and process until completely dry and moisture free

You can freeze it - in vac bags preferably, otherwise eat them within about a week - which is no problem with us. Of course, if you live in a dry windy environment you can dry them outside - it is probably better that way.