Biltong and Jerky
This recipe is a simple marinade of vinegar, followed by curing and flavouring. The vinegar is really important because it disinfects the meat.
Ingredients
600 ml white wine vinegar
500 g curing salt
250 g fine brown sugar
5 g Bicarbonate of soda
25 g black peppercorns (crushed) 25 g coriander seeds
5 g mustard powder
The cut of meat
Donʼt waste money on expensive cuts, I tend to buy whatever is on offer in the supermarket, or as lean a piece of leg or loin as I can get. Remove the skin and fat and as much connective tissue as you can.
I then put the meat in a bag and freeze it as best I can, just so the meat is firming up. This makes the meat easier to cut, and also tenderises it a little too, as well as keeping the meat fresh.
Cut the meat into 5 mm (if you can manage it) strips, against the grain. This means that when you are chewing on the meat your teeth are working along the grain, it is much easier to chew.
Once you have your strips, cut them again to give you pieces that are about 2 - 3 cm by about 10 cm, or as near as you can get to this.
These strips are then placed into a glass bowl and covered in the vinegar. These are left for an hour to marinade. In this time you can be preparing the rest of the equipment and cures.
The cure is made of the salt, sugar and bicarb, and I mix this in a food processor, so it gets a thorough blending together. The peppercorns are similarly mixed with the mustard powder, and given a good beating in the mortar and pestle.
You also need to be sure the hooks (for hanging the meat) the drier or anything else that comes into contact with the meat is perfectly sterile.
After the initial hour, drain the vinegar into a bowl (you will use it again) and then sprinkle the damp meat with the spice mix, so it is completely covered.
As a starting point for the curing process you can go a long way by making biltong or jerkey. Don't ask me what the difference is - the recipes out there are not very helpful on that point!
Drying the meat in the dehumidifier