Making Biltong

[tarlucon47]

Hi

Some of you South Africans may be missing this special treat: Biltong. I know that I was

There is a Motonet outlet in Vantaa where they sell a food dehydrator for just under 40€. We bought one a few weeks ago and have since tried to preserve many things from fruits and vegetables to meat.

It works great with Biltong and depending on the thickness of your meat strips you can have biltong in any time from 4hrs to a few days:) We get our meat from local wholesale stores, but have also recently been to the Chef Wotkins Factory outlet butchery on Vanhatalvitie 8, Sörnäinen - Helsinki, to purchase some steak and intenstine sleeves for making Droewors.

We're trying out a few more recipes tonight, but anyone interested in continuing this discussion and sharing recipes is more than welcome to contribute.

Cheers:)
Tara

[Rosamunda]

Brilliant idea.... I never thought of using one of those things for making biltong. Do you think all the Motonet have them? (There is one in Espoonkeskus).

We get casings for sausage and biltong seasoning from an on-line store based in the UK.
http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/index.html

Their shipping charges are (were) prohibitive so we haven't used them recently.

In RSA my SO made his own biltong (eg kudu) just by hanging the meat in his garage for a few days. No way we can do that here...

Hunting season hasn't started yet so all our remaining elk and deer meat is frozen. Have you ever tried making biltong from meat that has been frozen and then thawed....?

Have you tried making reindeer biltong yet?

[Karhunkoski]

Similar to jerky? Just dry overnight in your common or garden domestic oven:

http://mungobah.blogspot.com/2007/09/ma ... which.html

[tarlucon47]

Hi Penelope and Karhunkoski

Biltong is not similar to Jerky. It is completely different

Well, we've only just started making biltong and have yet to try the droewors (our sausages came out very well by the way). I made a very plain biltong yesterday and I must say that I would have happily paid for it at a SA butchery.

We haven't tried using frozen meat, but I don't think that you'll have a problem. Besides, you're so lucky you have game. My husband is going to apply for a licence to hunt. (Penelope) Besides, if you let the meat thaw out somewhat, it will be easier to cut into the strips that you want. I would also think that it would be easier to break up the proteins in the meat.

You could always go online and check out the Motonetti stores for an Avec Food Dehydrator. We're still novices, but it isn't that hard with a dehydrator. We couldn't use our oven because it isn't very fancy and doesn't circulate air (I think most standard ovens in Finland are that way?).

We have only used beef to make biltong so far, but the Reindeer biltong that I've bought from Kauppahalli is really good, if a little too salty. I only salted the last batch of beef for an hour and it is just right (using rock salt). We're dying to get our hands on some other meat, but it is a little pricy here.

It's so great that you're interested too. All of our SA friends who'd normally enjoy this sort of thing are off in the country on holiday (all seperately of course), so there's nobody to share the excitement with.

Tara

[Bubba Elvis XIV]

I guess you can make jerky with the dehydrater?

What about the fruits? What did you use? Just cut 'em up and bang 'em in?

There's a shop in Turku...is the product on the website? Can't find it.

[Rosamunda]

Similar to jerky? Just dry overnight in your common or garden domestic oven:

I tried drying mushrooms in my oven and it just didn't work; I got better results leaving them out on the deck in the sun (but can't rely on the weather here). I do have a fan oven but the minimum temperature is 50 degC, so maybe that is why I don't get good results. The other problem with an oven is that the humidity released from the food is trapped in the oven (at least for a while) whereas outdoors in the right conditions, it evaporates quickly.

As I am just nutty about dried fruit (not mad about biltong but my SO and my kids are crazy about the stuff) I think I will go and check out the machine. I have seen them in other places too, they are usually on sale at this time of year.

My husband is going to apply for a licence to hunt.

My kids just passed theirs and my husband got his years ago. The licence is not so difficult (you are allowed to take in an interpreter, it's a multiple choice exam on paper) but getting the permits is another thing altogether. You need to find a club and then get them to accept you. No problem if you live on 100 acres of forest and are willing to give up your own land for the hunt, but otherwise it can be tough to get in. Some companies have hunting clubs.... maybe your husband has one at work. Of course some things (like some sea birds, forest hares, roe deer etc) don't require a permit but all the big game does. This year the elk quotas are huge.


PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltong#Co ... n_to_Jerky

[Rosamunda]

I guess you can make jerky with the dehydrater?

What about the fruits? What did you use? Just cut 'em up and bang 'em in?

There's a shop in Turku...is the product on the website? Can't find it.

Went to Motonet in Espoonkeskus this afternoon and got the "Avec" dehydrater for 34,90 e (the only one in Prisma was 49e, and I couldn't be bothered to try Kodin Ykkonen and Gigantti). Am currently dehydrating strawberries (also making jam and coulis at the same time, toooo many strawberries to cope with this year)... yes, just cut 'em up and bang 'em in. Easy. The instruction manual is naf - says things like "drying time 4-10 hours" which isn't much help but I think it is such a simple piece of kit there is not much to go wrong.

Apparently for pale fruits like apple, pear, 'nanas etc it is preferable to dip them in lemon or pineapple juice to prevent oxidization (or you can use ascorbic or citric acid), otherwise they go brown. Or you can blanch them first. But no need with strawberries, mango, kiwi etc

I've been wanting to get one for ages so I can switch from nibbling biscuits (on the PC) and chewing candy (in the car). But as it was SO's birthday last week he can have it as a present and make his own biltong. I took some elk out of the freezer and I'll give it a go tomorrow. I have never made biltong (he has, many times, but he's in Rovaniemi) so it will be a challenge and a nice surprise (I hope) for him when he gets back.

I'm also going to dry some black olives and then crush 'em up: they make a great crust on a filet. or cutlets (elk, pork, lamb). You can also blanch fruits in syrup and then dry them which gives something more like candy.

[Bubba Elvis XIV]

Well, that's why I want one. I like my chewy snacks...don't we all...better to chew on dried fruit and meat than sweets. And Jerky is expensive here. I'd rather make my own stuff and know it's sugar/chemical free etc.

The instruction manual is naf - says things like "drying time 4-10 hours"

4 - 10 hrs??? thanks manual, that really is just the info I need.

[NewEnglandNative]

go to the store and pick up some good roma or cherry tomatoes, slice them up and throw those in overnight. Next morning you have the best sun dried tomatoes you have ever had. And there not even packed in oil like the ones from the store. I actually have been munching on those like candy. Very tasty.

Oh and with the biltong, if you take all of the small little pieces and then crush them in say the coffee grinder you can make a GREAT seasoning to go into soups or on top of a bland meal.

Tara and I are going to have a ZA weekend. We have 3 kilos of Boerewors in the fridge, the biltong is ready and the droë wors just came out ofthe dehydrator. We have a bunch of Leon Schuster Movies on deck so look out, "Theres a zulu on my stoep!"

[Rosamunda]

go to the store and pick up some good roma or cherry tomatoes, slice them up and throw those in overnight. Next morning you have the best sun dried tomatoes you have ever had. And there not even packed in oil like the ones from the store. I actually have been munching on those like candy. Very tasty.

Thanks, great idea... I grow my own tomatoes and usually have them all at once (but not for a few weeks yet). Dehydrating them is a fab idea.

Oh and with the biltong, if you take all of the small little pieces and then crush them in say the coffee grinder you can make a GREAT seasoning to go into soups or on top of a bland meal.

I saw a similar tip on here: http://www.biltongmakers.com/biltong15_botched1.html

Tara and I are going to have a ZA weekend. We have 3 kilos of Boerewors in the fridge, the biltong is ready and the droë wors just came out ofthe dehydrator. We have a bunch of Leon Schuster Movies on deck so look out, "Theres a zulu on my stoep!"

Have fun!

My biltong is marinating in the fridge and I will start dehydrating it tomorrow morning. I have used elk meat. I have heard that pineapple juice is a good marinade for elk meat but I didn't have any (and don't much like the stuff) so I used homemade cider vinegar (from Somerset apple cider that turned). How long did yours take to dry in the machine?

My strawberries took all night to dehydrate but they are really great. Very sweet and FULL of flavour. I guess all the vit C disappears but probably the antioxidants (?) are still in there.

[NewEnglandNative]

[img][img=http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/4439 ... ng0.th.jpg]
[/img]

Heres some biltong fresh out of the dehydrator that Tara wanted me to post. The pile is Quickly disappearing

[Karhunkoski]

That looks geat, making my tongue wet.

[Bubba Elvis XIV]

We buy the cheapest cut of beef, slightly freeze it and then cut it really really thin. We marinade for flavour. Thinly sliced it'll dehydrate in about 5 hours. Course you can use an oven but the cost of electricity is a bit prohibitive if you're only doing a bit at a time.

Do you use an over or one of those magic dehydrating devices? Where did you pick it up from?

What about the marinades? Anyone suggest any good site?...Of course, I could just google...but saves me sorting through the crap.

cheers!

[Karhunkoski]

Yes do come along now Cory, , would really appreciate your input.

Here I have a batch of jerky in the oven. At 50 Celsuius the oven thermometer reports anywhere from 72 (good for bugs), down to 41 (um).

Anyone else got one of these dehydrators? Where from? What price? Any good?

Bubba and me are growing boys!

[Rosamunda]

Made my first biltong (ever) on Sunday:

Sliced elk :


I marinated it using this recipe: http://www.biltongmakers.com/biltong12_ ... shine.html

In the dehydrater:


I found the bottom tray dries much quicker than the top ones, so I swapped them around from time to time, so they all finished at the same time. Alternatively you could put thicker slices on the bottom and thinner at the top:



Some I left plain (dark and shiny):


And some I sprinkled with biltong spice mix (which I got from the UK):


Then I wrapped them in a bag and made a label My SO didn't believe I had made them at home
To be honest, he said they were a bit too salty (which I think comes from the marinade) so next time I will try a different marinade recipe (or rather he will, because he made biltong many times when he lived in SA so he's much better at it than I am). The texture was as good as any biltong I have eaten and the flavour was great (but a bit salty).

Strawberries too (delicious):