Impatient post while I wait for my biltong to cure!

Starting off with some delicious hare back steaks. These ones were shot near Waimate, New Zealand by yours truly. We try to not buy any red meat, just eat what I manage to shoot. Sliced them into strips about 5-10mm (0.2-0.4"?) thick so they dehydrate a bit faster this time. These things around about 2/3 the size of a banana if you're wondering.

Cut all of the back stakes up into strips, lay them down, and salt them. The salt is the main preservative; not that they last too long when I get hungry. Salt 'em up nice and good. Last batch I didn't put enough salt on, and so this time I'm putting heaps on.

Beautiful stack of hare strips. Back steaks are my favourite cut of hare, I super hope they turn out delicious otherwise it's a bit of a waste of such nice meat. The other way we love hare is making Sardinian stew from the back legs; delicious slow-cooked legs, from which the meat literally falls off. This is the recipe we use most often: http://www.themeateater.com/tag/sardinian-hare-stew/

Back to biltong - spice mix. Apparently you can buy specific biltong spice mix, but I'm pretty sure they're only for beef steak biltong. For this one I used a juniper berry, a whole heap of pepper, some raw corriander seeds and a little bit of chilli for that edge of spice. Unfortunately my shooting buddy/brother-in-law can't handle his spice so I can't lavish them with cayenne :(

Rub-a-dub dub!

I left the hare to rest in the salt for 12 hours and then rubbed a nice(ish) red wine vinegar all through it. This is really delicious and also apparently preserves the meat more. Afterwards I rubbed the spice mix through the now-moist meat. Smells delicious.

The biltong box. I made this!

I let the hare rest with the spice mix on it for a few hours, while I went and had a swim to escape the intense heat today was putting on.

The biltong box is just a 400W 450D 600H plywood box with a light bulb and a computer fan built into the side. You can just see the black square fan and the cable for the light bulb fitting. I also put a neat little switch on the side to turn it on and off conveniently. If you guys are particularly interested I'm happy to do a post about building it.

When I first built the box I just had pieces of string, but the hooks holding the meat kept sliding and the meat kept touching which was annoying. Now it has nice chain which stops everything from sliding.

Here it is, all hanging out. Last time it took about 36 hours, but the meat is significantly thinner this time. I replaced the 100W light bulb with just a 60W light bulb so it'll be slower. I think I'll give it 24 - 48 hours or so, but I'll probably eat some of it before then because I'm an impatient hungry person.

Happy to answer any questions you guys may have about this process.