Being a South African abroad means that we miss out on one of our favourite delicacies, biltong. It’s not beef jerky, it’s biltong!

For those who don’t know, biltong is dried meat, cut in small strips and enjoyed as is, or in a variety of other dishes. Biltong gets its heritage from the native KhoiKhoi people in South Africa and the Dutch settlers who colonised the Cape. Both these cultures needed a way to store meat for long periods of time, be it for long seafaring trips or overcoming long winter months where hunting was scarce. This was long before the invention of refrigeration.

The first requirements was to cure the meat through salt and/or vinegar to lower the pH to conditions in wich bacteria wouldn’t grow.

Secondly, the meat needed to be dried, and the easiest way to do this was to hang the meat up, in a space where air could flow freely and away from the scorching sun.

Finally, the meat needed to taste good, so spices were introduced.

Today, this process has gotten a little easier with the availability of electric fans and electric lightbulbs. With the help of a few friends, we recently built a Biltong drying cabinet that creates the perfect environment for drying meat.

A tall cabinet with loads of space for hanging meat, 2 extraction fans (the small computer type) to extract air, air inlet holes at the bottom, a standard 60w lightbulb to heat and dry the air ever so slightly, and gause to keep the creepy crawlies out, and the box was done.

Thanks to everyone that helped on this project! I’ll be posting my first batch results as well as our biltong recipe and instructions soon!

Here it is: