Cold Smoked Biltong (Jerky) Jerky (Perfected!)

G'Day Bruces! :becky:

Some of you will remember I've made a few attempts at Jerky, with some success and a failure or two. Since I last posted Jerky, I've made several smaller batches. Now I've got the technique right and I think I can start giving some away for taste testing etc.

Making this Jerky is different from the way it is commonly done in the US. This is really "biltong" which is more common in South Africa and Australia, where the meat is dried as whole slices over a greater time rather than drying slivers of ground and spiced meat in a dehydrator....

I think this process is better. Hope you like it too..

I started by getting the spices, salts and sugar ready...


And here is the whole topside I had for the job...


First I removed the more fatty muscle that wraps around almost the entire topside. (this went on the Weber that night as a fantastic medium rare bef roast.. almost like a flank!)


And that left me with the main muscle... about 12 pounds


This was sliced into large strips.


Ready for dusting in the Jerky cure..


All coated and then into the fridge covered for 4 days!


4 Days Later, here they are.


The steaks were rinsed well in a mix of 1 Gallon of water and 1 Quart Malt vinegar


In a small aluminium basket, I put 1 small lit chunk of lump and added a block of pure compressed oak sawdust. This came from a factory that cuts French oak down to make flooring. He sells this stuff on eBay! The smell is awesome, the smoke is blue, and it burns long and cool!


Note the temp.. well under 100F... all night!:thumb:


Next morning, I had ash...


and I had some WONDERFUL smelling cold smoked jerky, still moist, for the next part of the process.



Then the jerky was hung in my Redneck Jerky drying cabinet with a decent fan to blow the moisture out of it for the next few days.


Day 2...


Day 3


Day 4... Done:


Nice and glossy!



Here's the best part... the slice. Note the colour and the transluscent texture... that's what I'm looking for:thumb:


And the flavour??? Really good. Nice amount of smoke. The fact is that biltong is not generally cold smoked, so this is an addition to the process which I think has really worked well here.

The smaller pieces were a little salty, but really not overly salty... that just makes you drink more beer!. Also, nice and chewy, but not hard.

Really, the best result so far!

Thanks for looking.

Cheers!

Bill

southernstyle said:

the process is very interesting. what kinda humidity did you have the days you were hanging them. dont really know if it would make a differance, but i think i would like to try this. i live in south florida so we have high humidity "80%" or higher most of the time so 4 days might not work for me, but i love the process

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The fan definately makes a difference and speeds up the process. Florida is a lot more humid than Melbourne, but I learnt this process througha businss in Brisbane (about the same humidity as Florida) that does it this way... they use real Big Arse fans and it dries in 96 hours.

You should give this a try!

Cheers!

Bill

deguerre said:

That doesn't look like wood. Who are and what did you do with Bill?!?

AWESOME post!:thumb::thumb:

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A velociraptor ate him:heh::heh::heh:


No, but seriously... that fossil I sent you was my first attempt. Are your cats still batting that around the living room???:becky:

bluetang said:

Nice results there, Bill! Gonna try it here with an impromptu biltong box myself. Love the addition of smoke too. BTW, did you also use the pink stuff?

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Yesssiree... Cure #2 fer farkin Air Dried Meats!:mod:

Cheers!

Bill

GreenDrake said:

My neighbor is from S.A. and he makes bitlong all the time...I can't stand it. Just nasty. He has a wood box with a lightbulb in it, hangs meat in there for a long time, no smoke. Hard as a rock, yuck. Maybe yours is better, he really likes his, I can't stomach it but eat it and tell him it's good so he doesn't feel bad.

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I got a smaller box like that too. Personal preference on how dry people like it. I like it with a bit of chew. Too dry, and it can become very hard and salty and break your teeth! I know from triel and error!:becky:

fingerlickin' said:

So do you slice off pieces of that to eat or do you just gnaw on the whole thing? It's also good to see some redneck ingenuity made it all the way to Melbourne. You can't keep a good redneck down.

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Just have a pocket knife handy and slice bits off a hunk whenever you want!

Phrasty said:

Looking awesome Bill! Wanna make some thick cut jerky like that! :shocked:
When I make jerky though I usually use Cure #1. Isn't Cute 2 for longer, slower curing/drying meats? Hmmm I guess its kinda that grey area in between. :thumb:

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Dang! now your doin my head in :shock:... no I checked here...

Cure #2... I confuseded myself last time you asked for my ham I made last year. I said cure #2 and meant Cure #1... This job is for Cure#2... I think... maybe.

Cheerss!

Bill