Making Biltong the Lazy Way

today we're making biltong it's a traditional way to cure meat it's quite a tasty snack and it's gained a lot of popularity all over the world i've even seen it for sale in shops in the middle east i normally just eyeball this but if you want to follow along on the world's worst scale that might be important because sometimes the scale just resets itself assault coriander seeds then i put in a little chilli almost not noteworthy this is just some pickle spice that i'm adding for flavor but normally i just go and mix it today right now there it is all mixed nice and layered just at the taste test i think it might need a bit more coriander it weighs heavier now as it wasn't reset to zero with the plastic on it quick taste test it seems about right now if you were following along with my spices it can do with a little bit more salt it's not necessary for the curing sake you can see there's no funnies anywhere growing on the biltong it's only the spices it's just a personal preference but you can always add salt afterwards as well once again also just eyeballing this mixture the most important thing about making the bolt on would be the vinegar and the salt you don't really need much else this is just flavor but these days some people even put sugar in it i know sugar preserves things it just feels wrong i have this little marinade before i mix it in about between 40 60 to 50 50. for the meat today i have rump to make it with normally topside or silverside was used but these days rump is cheaper than top solar solar side i've also made it with sirloin in the past and that comes out just as yummy i was lazy so i had these sliced by the butcher you have to slice it with the grain and these are that about one centimeter thick just so that they are ready soon as i'm almost running out of my last batch but i've had them up to two centimeters before with no problem it just takes a bit longer to dry and sprinkle the spice on it fairly generous as the spice also contains salt repeat the steps and then i'll lay them up you should use a plastic container or even one of those large ziploc bags otherwise with all the salt and the vinegar it might cause a reaction with the metal container and that's the lock now just to close it and put it in the fridge for 12 to 16 hours can stand a bit longer nothing bad will happen it's just as soon it hangs as soon it will dry and sooner you can enjoy within the next 16 hours or so every now and then i will just flip the box that will get the vinegar and booster sauce running nicely through it just to make sure that all sides are covered i haven't used all the spice i used about a quarter to a third of it what's nice about having it if you taste is something you might have missed in the previous spice with except for the next batch of bottom too little or too much of a spice you just adjust it continue and the spice will evolve with your baking powder you can also taste your spice by quickly frying a piece tasting it and seeing if anything is needed after 16 hours it's now time to hang up the bolton i made a little built-in box out of cardboard you don't really need much else i'll make a video on how to make your own built-in box i hope it will be up by next week they're quickly off to the side you can see i have one of those plastic ball dunking boxes i just find the cardboard box works a lot better you'll also need some hooks i got little plastic hooks that i can reuse if you're in a pinch you can bend some wire or use some paper clips just sanitize it or let it soak in some vinegar still looks pretty much the same just push the hook through the meat it goes in quite easily then you hang it up you want fake gaps in between the meat they shouldn't be touching each other and they should not be touching the sides if you're running out of space on the sides you can make the double one let me just put space at the bottom and just one last look to make sure that nothing is touching each other i'm keeping this plastic tray in the bottom to catch the driplets just so it doesn't soak into the cardboard box too much and then it stays in here for four to five days oh did you know how long the specific patch took when i take them out it's been about three and a half days they know to the consistency where i would say it's edible it's all personal preference i just normally feel them like this and then from the softness or the hardness you can say if it's ready there's a lot of them now it shrunk a little bit i think from let's say two and a half today three and a half as you need to go taste it every six hours just to make sure that it's still all right one thing that helps with bolton is if you have a bolt-on slicer it's not necessary though you can use a pocket knife or even a normal knife on a breadboard or a little specialized bolt-on knife like that as long as it's got a sharp end you can eat bolt on so if you've made all this biltong in there really don't have a knife you can also start biting it in a corner because it's all kind of grainy it will just work like this you'll tear it off there's a nice little piece to chew it's on a nice little string that you can just pick off and of course any pocket knife or knife can do especially if you have a little trusted open on the bay close by you want to cut above your thumb so that if it goes through you don't accidentally amputate anything i normally take it right onto the edge common method especially if you have to divide it out between the family members cut them their portion cut it all the way through and they have a little pool match thing where they can just bite it and then the last piece a little bit bigger there's your nice little pull strips if you have a data slicer you can slice it with that you can get a bit thinner cuts just to show you the consistency or something so one of the reasons to cut the bolt on with the grain after you've dried it and you cut it you have your slice it's quite a tough meat so when you bite it it comes apart very quickly and it's a lot more chewable the other reason which i'm not sure if it is science or superstition is that as it's hanging and the grain is pointing downwards it's just a lot easier for the moisture to run over with if you're going to eat the bolt on within the week you can keep it at room temperature that way the fat is also at a nice temperature where it doesn't stick to your mouth you can keep it in a bottom bag just let it hang up let it lay down or a brown paper bag also works for longer storage you can freeze it freezes quite well just give it a day or so to thaw for me botong is a snack as it is i won't really use it as an ingredient and when i use it as an ingredient i'll use it in something where it keeps as much of its original form in a salad when you can just put it on top similar to croutons it's there you can eat it if you're not fond of the fat as it is you can still make the biltong with the fat in afterwards tear the fat off it tears off quite easily and then you can mix it in with some mints and make some nice bolton fat mince patties bolton also pairs quite nicely with avo so in that salad add some avo add some ever on your burger with your patty my friend over at stuff we do did a nice bolt on poikie i'll put a link in the description because i don't know how to just point and make it magically appear on the screen curing me can be quite dangerous you should know what you're doing please go read up on it before you attempt this and the moment there's any signs of mold stay away from it i will put some amazon affiliate links into the description about various things i've used throughout this video i hope you make your own batch let me know how it goes please feel free to ask any question below in the comments hope you enjoyed the video thank you for watching please go check out my friend at stuff reduce video as well

Channel: vanPlaas

Views: 51,768

Keywords: vanPlaas, biltong, making biltong, cured meat, curing meat, curing beef, beef biltong, air dried meat, south african, keto snack, keto friendly, keto, banting, biltong as an ingredient

Id: f9JqnmJrWdo

Length: 14min 14sec (854 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 05 2020