Biltong (Recipe and step by step instructions)

Final product first, Yummy! Goes well as a snack with drinks, hiking food, road trip snacks etc. I sometimes have it for dinner when I'm not in the mood to cook. Recipe and step by step instructions below.

Ingredients: Red Wine Vinegar, Black Pepper, Rock Salt, Coriander, Cayenne Pepper, Bi-Carb Soda, Mortar and Pestle. You'll also need a food dehydrator or biltong box to cure it. If you live in a warm, non-humid environment you can hang it outside on a washing line like my grandmother use to!

1 tablespoon, black pepper. Cracked in the mortar and pestle, not ground into dust.

Add 2 tablespooms Coriander and crack that too (you can leave the black pepper in).

Add 2 tablespoons rock salt.

Add 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste) - yes you can use chilli powder, garlic whatever you like.

Add 1 teaspoon Bi-Carb.

Mix all the spices together.

I use silverside beef and ask the butcher to cut it in slices about half an inch thick. Soak the meat in red wine vinegar, I use about 125ml and would use a flat dish if I had one.

Take about a tablespoon of spices and apply directly to the meat.

Spread the spices over the meat. Remember to do both sides!

Place all the meat in a flat dish and put in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.

This is what it looks like after 8 hours. Not the dark colour compared to the previous photo - this is the curing process that has begun. Also note the liquid that has been extracted and the salt has been absorbed.

I hang the meat using meat hooks in a food dehydrator that has a biltong design. You can either buy one or make your own using a box, a light and an extractor fan - there are many designs on the internet.

That's about 2kg of meat ready to go. Leave to cure at about 30C (86F) for 48-72 hours depending if you like your biltong moist or dry. Generally I find people who like their steaks rare prefer moist and those who like theirs well-done prefer dry.

48 hours later.

Final result.