Making Biltong - Gavin's Homemade Biltong
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- Making Biltong - Its easy if you do it right. Being brought up on a farm in Zimbabwe with lots of hunting and fishing and having a Father who loved the outdoors it became second nature to make biltong every fortnight or so during the hunting season. I was a keen helper and got to learn the ropes at a very early age. The art of Biltong Making was imbedded in my blood.
This love for eating and making and continued throughout my life but then took a slight dip when we emigrated to the UK in 2001. But I soon found the supermarket special offers and got into making beef biltong instead of game using my dining room curtain pole. This was not allowed after the first batch the Mrs. so I moved into the garage. I eventually made a biltong dryer box which worked well and in 2014 I started to make it commercially. I was council registered and approved in a few months and grew it to become a full time business a few months later. I moved the drying and prepping into a few sheds but still use the kitchen for the butchering work. My shed was converted into a whole big dryer and holds around 300-350kg meat when full.
Making a biltong dryer - • Making a Biltong Dryer...
Extended version here (includes dryer info) - • Making Biltong - Gavin...
Biltong shed arrangement: • Biltong Shed
Website: bit.ly/GHBwebshop
Facebook Biltong page: bit.ly/BiltongBizPage
Facebook BBQ / Smoking group bit.ly/BiltongBBQgroup
All my meat is from: bit.ly/TTSFactoryShop
Knives from Japa Knives 10% discount: bit.ly/JapaKnives10
NAMIBIAN BILTONG RECIPE
For every kg wet meat use.
Ingredients
• 18 gram salt
• 2 gram black pepper
• 1 gram brown sugar (white will work too)
• 4 gram coarsely ground dry roasted coriander.
• I add 0.9 gram Potassium Sorbate per kg meat to prolong shelf life.
What you do
• Sprinkling of vinegar is optional.
• Put spices in bowl.
• Mix by hand. Rub all over meat.
• Leave meat standing overnight and it will form its own beautiful brine.
• Next day dry the meat well (with some paper towel - I dont do this)
• Hang and voilà, perfect biltong after 3-4 days.
When hanging leave adequate space between meat to allow good unrestricted airflow.
Thanks for another cracking video Gavin, really easy to understand 👍
Glad the videos are being enjoyed - thats the reason I'm doing them. Just to help people learn the basics.
Gavin you are like a machine 👍
You make biltong the right way, same as i do.
It´s fantastic to find a biltong eating Rhodie on line.
Ha ha - I love the stuff. . .
Im always waiting for these videos. Love it man I live in the states can't wait to try this.
Enjoy - I'm new to this movie marlakey so still learning how to do it properly.
@@GavinConwayWoodworkBBQ It's already good enough man, good audio and video is all you need, and looks like you got it!
Thanks, Gavin. The tip for cutting up smaller pieces is brilliant! I'm a "DIYer" here in the UK and use the Lidl silverside roasts (to good effect - at least my family thinks so... :) ). But they're often not available in particularly big roasts. I have about 3kg of hanging capacity in my little DIY Ikea cabinet which I converted into a biltong box, but it has a small footprint and is quite tall, so your advice will really help me maximise the yield of my batches. Thank you!
Glad it will help you :)
That's one hell of a sharp knife!
Sure is
Hi Gavin. How do you "store" your biltong waiti g to be sold ? I've heard guys wrap it in newspaper and then with cling wrap before putting it in the freezer.
Baas Gavin wena yazi kuyenza lo biltong kakhulu
Hi Gavin, what type of salt and vinegar do you use here in the UK, in SA I use to use normal brown grape vinegar and rock salt but brush off the rock salt after a couple of hours.
I'm not fussy. I just get cheap cooking salt
I still prefer soaking the meat in a brown viniger, white viniger and water mixture for a couple of hours. Nothing beats it smell and taste!
I use vinegar and Worcester sauce mix at 3 parts vinegar to 2 part Worcester sauce
Theres no set way to make it - just some poplles prefer to soak - whereas I dont :)
Hi Gavin and thank you for sharing. I see you cut the meat against the grain, yet I read in all biltong recipes that you should cut the strips with the grain. Is there a reason you do it differently?
Yes the proverbial "They" say it should be with the grain but nowdays its cut to suit the drying technique and equipment you have. I find with the grain for venison for surre is better so you get long strips that you can pull apart with your teeth like we all used to do back in Africa but with beef just cut across the grain is best. If you get a salmon cut that is attached to the one side of the silverside and you cut lengthways with the gerain its got such a course grain it gets very tough. Once its all cut and sliced after drying its all just good stuff.
Conway we have a Conway making biltong in Perth Western Australia must be related another Rhodie for sure hykona maan
Hi Gavin, I grew up in the Kalahari but now live in Aus. Thank you for sharing this, I tried it with Samber deer and worked brilliantly. Reminded me of how my parents made biltong with venison. Have you done a droewors one yet?
I will do one soon.
@@GavinConwayWoodworkBBQ Thank you.
Hi Gavin. I'm very curious about the "vinegar mixes" everyone uses. I generally just use a 3 parts Brown Vinegar to 1 part Worcestershire sauce mixture for maranading. Is this ok in your opinion or is there some other mixture you recommend me trying (not asking for your personal secret recipe) ?
Whatever tickles your fancy really. Its a myth that it stiops mould forming - it might help initially but its defo not a cure all at all. never "soak or drown" it in vinegar - just a sprits is good to cover the meat . Say no mote than about 20ml per kg meat. Stokkies I bang it up to around 50ml.
Can i ask, how much potassium do you use? Also I think i use way too much spice in mine. I use 50g per kg, i might have to cut it back.
Scott I use 0.9 g per kg meat - so just below a g per kg. Spice quantity 30-35g per kg is ample. 18g salt per kg meat is ideal and the rest made up of the other stuff.
Do you supply the Spice sprinkler..
Hi - Naa sorry - its just a plastic bottle that I get my garlic, herbs and chilli etc from the supplier. I always have a few empties around that I keep for these puroposes. Are you in the UK?
Are the spice mix ratios correct. Only 4 grams of sugar on 4 kg of meat seems low. That’s less than a teaspoon and you’ve certainly used more for your batch.
Yeah its just a bit of flavouring and a bit of a tenderizer. Its also low for people who are dieting and need low sugar I suppose. Its what I was given many years ago to use and used it ever scince.
Hi Gavin, I'm also from Rhodesia, moved to SA for many years but now living in Mauritius 😊So nice to watch your videos. So I'm guessing you use the soya sauce to give the stokkies a browner colour? So would it be dark or light soya sauce? And a plain, straight forward Balsamic vinegar?
So could I use this Namibian spice as the "base" recipe to use either a "chilli" flavour, or a "barbecue" flavour, in order to vary the taste I'm looking for? Best regards
Hi - its just something I tried and stuck with it. Just aflavouring I guess. Yes to your Namibian as a spice recipe for everything then add as required. If you can get Crown National Safari Biltong spice add 1/2 teaspoon per kg meat and it makes a good flavour for plain biltong.
How much potassium sorbate did you add to this mix?
I add 0.9 gram Potassium Sorbate per kg meat to prolong shelf life.
Is brown vinegar malt vineger ?
Yeah normally - you can use any vinegar - it just acts a a slight flavour enhancer.
Hi Gavin. Thanks for all your advice so far. It has been most helpful. I have however received a very strange request from a customer wanting me to make Baby Teething Biltong. Any advice on this ? I believe it requires a lot less spice etc but I am unsure. Also, I am thinking of mixing garlic powder into my biltong spice for my stokkies. Any advice on "amounts" for this ?. Thanks . BRANDON
Hi Brandon - ok baby biltong is to be made carefully cutting the steaks about 12mm =thick and with the grain. This way it wont break off easily. Warning you must state to be used with extreme care to cover yourself. Spices you cant really cut down on the salt due to the required amount to cure whilst drying is needed. Can throw out the rest of the stuff but really makes no difference.
As for garlic in stokkies - throw in a good teaspoon powder per kg meat.
BTW please subscribe inf you havent done so already. :)
I forgot to mention - once made the biltong can be stored then small thin kids finger wide strips cut off and used. JKust long enough for a kid to hold in the hand and suck on.
Gavin, thank you very much. I am subscribed to your channel.
How much salt do you use per kg?
18 gram salt - the recipe is in the description :)
Is there never an end result?
Sorry !!
Gavin, I think I've cut the meat in the wrong direction. Will it still be okay dried?
It also has a vein of sinew down the middle of the steaks 🥺
Dont worry which way you cut it
It's hanging now, thanks. Got 2 pc fans blowing at them and a mini probreeze peltier dehumidifier. Running costs about 1p an hour (and we have solar for daytimes ha). It's between 18-20C here in Wales atm. I've ordered a cheap hygrometer so I can see the humidity (it needs to be below 50% right?). The meat is hanging inside a nylon wardrobe/dryer in the kitchen. The place stinks of biltong seasoning 😆
@@Riggy2201 good stuff - enjoy it.
I tried a smaller piece of 3 days old today. Really really good. I ate it all! It'll be perfect tomorrow. How best to store it so it doesn't dry out or get soggy? Let's say to keep it good for 2-4 weeks.
@@Riggy2201 wrap in paper bag then in a plastic bag and throw into the freezeer. Remove and defrost open till ready.
Hey Gavin I think you have the measurements wrong as coriander is surely more than 4 grams.
Does anyone have a grams to teaspoons translation of this recipe I live in California and and we don't use grams in cooking thanks for any help.
for most dry products 4,2 grams= teaspoon(sugar being the baseline).
That's just the basic spice mixture. Why don't you share the secret ingredients that makes it taste so good?
Mix in some Crown safari spice as well. about 8g per kg meat.