Making Traditional South African Biltong Part 2 of 2

Biltong is the perfect survival food, it can be made with no energy inputs and only requires lean meat and some very basic and easy to store ingredients.

Biltong differs from jerky in two distinct ways:

1. The meat used in biltong can be much thicker; typically biltong meat is cut in strips approx 1 inch wide - but can be thicker. Jerky is normally very thin meat.

2. The vinegar and salt in biltong, together with the drying process, cures the meat as well as adding texture and flavor. Jerky is traditionally dried without vinegar.

In this project we experiment with the difference between traditional drying and using a dehydrator on a very low setting.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• biltong
• dried meat
• dehydrated meat
• jerkey

[gigtimes]

Just a little note - Biltong hasn't been around for thousands of years. The 'Boers' (farmers) that emigrated out of Holland started the whole 'Biltong' thing. The first (permanent) settlers arrived with Jan van Riebeeck in the 1652. These people became known as Afrikaners because they spoke / speak Afrikans which is very similar to their original language Dutch.

[survivalpodcasting]

@gigtimes - Of course you are correct I misspoke.

[StormWeapons]

I know this is a stupid question, having now gone out of Air Conditioning 'season' and the heat on (gas heat) I would think the dry air I get from the heat would be a good way to make Biltong. Yes no?

[survivalpodcasting]

@StormWeapons - Not stupid at all and yea it should work really good.

[sigmapi13]

How long will this store?

[goonerfromjhb]

Dude, as a South African I cant fault your video. I've seen some unlikely yet inovative ways to make the stuff. Yours is worthy of a taste, but to say biltong is a survival food is just simply wrong.

In a survival situation all that salt will kill you one way or another

[smilewait4flash]

Your shirt at the end is awesome.

[glockman1727ak47]

where is the Biltong cooking video? Also like to see the other meats being done.

[nosharpe]

You could use the fatty offcuts to make droewors or if there is too much fat content, some nice boerewors - just add a similar amount of diced shoulder pork together with the spices you used (less salt though), mince and stuff

[Saferetias]

@001madmex no never use pork itll go rancid

[lalalaina4life]

When I was growing up in South Africa my mother used to hang the meat by piercing the flash through a wire clothes hanger.

[bisonhawk1]

i like to use jalapeno vinegar on mine i just made a batch with tabasco sauce cant wait to try that one out.

[gigtimes]

The word BILTONG is formed from the Dutch words "BIL" (meaning meat buttock or hind quarter) and 'TONG" meaning "strip". So it's just that - a strip of meat.