How to make Biltong (South African Beef Jerky)

1 kg boneless beef roast

apple cider vinegar (about 1/4 cup or so, plus a bowlful for rinsing in step 5)

worchestshire sauce (about 1/4 cup or so)

1 Tblsp. rock salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 baking soda (to soften meat fibers)

coriander, roasted, ground (if can’t find roasted, plain ground coriander is ok – but not as flavorful. A coffee or spice grinder will grind roasted whole coriander – roasting them yourself is easy – 350 F on an ungreased cookie tray until aromatic – about 3 to 6 minutes)

1. Partially thaw meat until able to slice with very sharp knife – should still be quite frosted. This ensures clean, neat, uniform thickness slices. If you slice with the grain, the biltong will be chewier, if you slice against the grain, it will be easier to tear. Slice into 1/4 to 1/2 cm. thick slices. Cut slices into any size you want. Trim off excess fat – too much fat, and the biltong will go rancid more quickly.
2. Mix rock salt, brown sugar, pepper, soda.
3. Marinade meat in large baking pan (13 by 9 inch). On the bottom of the pan, sprinkle a little salt mixture. Lay on a single layer of meat, sprinkle with salt mixture, then vinegar and worcheshire sauce. You want just enough salt mixture and vinegar and worcheshire to get the salt mixture to fizz. Not too much! Not too little! Repeat layers, ending with the salt-vinegar-worcheshire on top. You want to layer it so that by the end, you’ve run out of the salt mixture. It’ll take practice! 
4. Marinade 12 hours in the fridge. Not much longer than that – if you marinade too long, the meat dries out too much. If you marinade too little, the meat has not cured enough and will be flavourless and will spoil faster.
5. Quickly dip each piece of meat in a bowl of apple cider vinegar to get off excess salt – not all the salt, just the excess salt. Lay in dehydrator in single layers – no overlapping. Sprinkle with coriander. Dehydrate about 4 hours – the meat should be pliable but not gooshy and definitely not dry. If it’s gone stiff and hard while still warm, it’s dried too much. Once the pieces have cooled, they should be fairly stiff but still at least a little flexible. I always eat a piece or two to test. 🙂
6. Store in ziplock bags with a paper towel to absorb condensation in fridge or freezer – if you freeze for a long time, it tends to dry out a bit more. You don’t want the biltong to get warm and humid, as it will spoil very quickly.

I recommend you do a small batch (about 1 kg meat) to start, to get the feel of things and to adjust things to get the taste and texture you want. When I do a big batch, I sometimes do as much as 6 to 8 kg at once. 1 kg of fresh meat doesn’t make a lot of biltong! (Probably only about one small freezer bag worth). You don’t want to do too much at once, because then it doesn’t all fit on the dehydrator at once and the rest of the meat marinades too long and becomes too dry.

My sister-in-law added this piece of advice:

“One note, I actually take my meat to the butcher and ask them to slice it in to 1/2 inch slices so that I don’t need to freeze it and slice it. It makes it a whole lot easier for uniformity in the dehydrator. I just take the slices and make them into smaller strips. Super easy, and easier when short on time.”