Kai
Fermentation Assistant
- Joined
- 1/4/04
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I picked up this recipe a couple years ago from my uncle, who got it from a south african bloke. They call it biltong over there, and its certainly nicer than any oven-dried jerky you buy here.
Ingredients are thusly:
Meat, as lean as possible. I prefer topside, but roo makes a nice alternative.
Rock salt.
Vinegar, I usually use brown but some good malt vinegar would probably work nicely.
Seasoning, whatever you desire. Good options are cracked pepper, coriander, cayenne, cumin, onion, garlic, mustard powder and so on.
Obviously, this has the potential to be a risky product. I'm sure you mob know how to be hygienic in the kitchen, though. I've never gotten sick from eating it, I think it's fine so long as you use good fresh meat, keep things clean, make sure the salting and vinegaring are done adequately and make sure it doesn't get contaminated while drying.
Compared to ordinary beef jerky, it comes out a lot softer. If it dries right, the outside goes firm and dry while the inside remains soft and chewy. It's also a lot more flavoursome than regular jerky, I like mine with chilli and cumin and a nice tart flavour. Kangaroo's a real pearler, I seasoned some with wasabi and pepper, the strength of roo meat is tasty but not overpowering and it comes out surprisingly tender.
Oh, and it all goes great with beer.
Ingredients are thusly:
Meat, as lean as possible. I prefer topside, but roo makes a nice alternative.
Rock salt.
Vinegar, I usually use brown but some good malt vinegar would probably work nicely.
Seasoning, whatever you desire. Good options are cracked pepper, coriander, cayenne, cumin, onion, garlic, mustard powder and so on.
- Have the butcher slice you some nice thin slices of topside, say less than 1cm thick
- Cut these into strips around 1cm wide. Lay them in a dish on a bed of rock salt. The salt does not need to cover all of the meat, it's only there to suck out some of the moisture. Sprinkle salt over the top too, you can build up layers in the dish if you're doing a lot of meat. It's important to use rock salt, normal salt will be absorbed into the meat making it too salty.
- After around 15-20 minutes, scrape off the salt. Immerse the strips in the vinegar, either a quick rinse or a 5 minute soak if you want your meat tart (and a little safer). You can also add crap to the vinegar for flavouring, like lemon, lime, worcestershire, soy, tabasco, bourbon, etc.
- Remove the meat from the vinegar, shaking or squeezing off the excess. Lie on a tray and cover with dry seasoning of your choice. Cover sparsely, otherwise the seasoning will be too strong when dry. Also, avoid premixed seasonings that contain salt, they make the meat too salty when it's dry.
- Either air dry on a rack or hang them up on a clean area free of dust and insects. I usually hang mine using paper clips on a shower rail, but at the moment I'm trying to dry a batch on a rack in the oven with the fan on. On the shower rail, pieces of this size usually take no more than 24 hours to dry.
Obviously, this has the potential to be a risky product. I'm sure you mob know how to be hygienic in the kitchen, though. I've never gotten sick from eating it, I think it's fine so long as you use good fresh meat, keep things clean, make sure the salting and vinegaring are done adequately and make sure it doesn't get contaminated while drying.
Compared to ordinary beef jerky, it comes out a lot softer. If it dries right, the outside goes firm and dry while the inside remains soft and chewy. It's also a lot more flavoursome than regular jerky, I like mine with chilli and cumin and a nice tart flavour. Kangaroo's a real pearler, I seasoned some with wasabi and pepper, the strength of roo meat is tasty but not overpowering and it comes out surprisingly tender.
Oh, and it all goes great with beer.
hopefully I will live to tell the tale.
