Every technical article, build log, and curing walkthrough — organized for reference.
Biltong and jerky are both dried beef, but the methods barely overlap: biltong is sliced thick with the grain, vinegar-cured, and air-dried raw over days, while jerky is sliced thin against the grain and dried with heat over hours. One is a cured raw product; the other is cooked and dried. The USDA recommends jerky […]
Droewors is biltong’s sausage cousin: a thin, coriander-spiced beef sausage stuffed into narrow casings and air-dried fast in the same warm, dry, breezy box. Because it is ground and cased, it carries more risk than a solid strip, so cure #1 goes in as a default — not an option — at 2.5 g per kilogram. I […]
A reliable biltong cure is about 2% fine salt by meat weight, toasted coarse coriander as the dominant spice, cracked black pepper, and a vinegar wash — with optional cure #1 at 2.5 g per kilogram for extra safety margin. Coriander is the signature; everything else is supporting cast. I weigh every cure I make, biltong included, […]
A biltong box is a ventilated enclosure with a low-wattage bulb for gentle warmth and a small fan for airflow — nothing more. The goal is a warm, dry, breezy interior, roughly 25 to 30 °C at 40 to 60 percent humidity, which is the exact opposite of a curing chamber. You can build one in […]
To make biltong at home you marinate thick strips of lean beef in vinegar and spice, salt them, and hang them in a warm, dry, breezy box until they lose about half their weight — roughly 3 to 7 days. No cooking, no smoking, no refrigeration. The whole craft is acid, salt, and moving air. […]
Biltong is air-dried, vinegar-cured beef that does not follow the curing-chamber rulebook. Where a bresaola hangs for eight weeks at 12–15 °C and 75–80% RH, biltong dries in 3–7 days in a warm, dry, breezy box and is finished at roughly 50% weight loss. Different chemistry, different climate, different gear. I have run converted-fridge chambers for […]