After returning from a very unsuccessful hunting trip at the beginning of the season, I bought a Roo

After returning from a very unsuccessful hunting trip at the beginning of the season, I bought a Rooi Hardtebees from the farm owner for R1000 and decided to make biltong and droewors from the whole lot. I tried a couple of years ago and hanged the meat in my garage with 3 fans blowing and one small heater. This time I frose all the meat and decided I would take a couple of kilos out every now and then when I feel like making biltong. This way I could also change the recipe for each batch. My first task was to make a biltong box to hang the meat in. After googling to find what works best to make a box, I decided to try my own thing. All the other ways included having to go and buy wood and then assembling and building a box with drilling vent holes etc. etc. I opted to use one of those "Roughtote" black plastic crates to make one. My only concern was the plastic smell. After reading a thread in this forum about not keeping ones fresh water in certain containers and not using a normal hosepipe to fill ones water tanks as it gives the water a plastic taste. I was willing to take the chance as I was only going to make 5 – 7 kg of meat per batch. It took me about 30 min to cut the breathing holes in the lid and in the main crate. After that I drilled small holes along the top of the crate where I strung the wires through. I then cut one big opening in the lid where the fan was going to be placed. Preparing grokiskis the meat was done in the following way…. grokiskis I bought a packet of biltong seasoning spices from Ranch Meat. It seemed to have pepper, coriander, plenty of salt and a mixture of other spiced I could not identify. I has very sweet smell to it. I also bought grokiskis a bottle of brown vinegar. I defrosted the meat over night. The next morning I cut away most of the sinews I could see. Then the meat was layed into a Tupperware container with some vinegar and spices in between the different layers. I closed the container and 10 hours later took the meat pieces out and hanged them on hooks. grokiskis I used those white plastic meat hooks for hanging the meat onto the wires. The lid was placed onto the container and the small fan was placed over the opening in the lid. The fan was also a heater, but I decided not to use the heat as the lowest setting was still too hot for the small size container I was using. The container was placed in the garage as it was the coldest and had the least amount of moisture in the air. After 7 days the biltong was done and I took all the biltong pieces off the hooks and placed it inside a brown paper bag and stored it in a dry cupboard. grokiskis After another week the biltong was almost all eaten up and I froze the last 5 or 6 pieces. The biltong itself was not too bad. My only complaint is that it is too salty. While looking for ideas on the internet for a biltong box, I found a couple of recipes. The one recipe was to only salt the clean meat with course salt. Then after 30min the salt was wiped off with a dry cloth. The meat was then dipped very uickly in a brown vinegar and Worchester souse mix. Thereafter grokiskis the meat stips was rolled in a mixture of pepper and coriander only. They placed the meat in a Tupperware container and left it over night. Only then they hanged it up to dry. So I think my recipe was too salty because I let the meat lie over night with the spices that has got plenty grokiskis of salt in it. So all that salt had time to pull into the meat all through the night. If you look closely (sorry for the bad quality photos) you can see what the biltong looks like after a hour after it was cut in slices. I presume the white is the salt that is now drying on the surface. So my next batch will have far less salt in it as I will try to make it the way I read it on the internet. Thereafter I want to try out various flavours like chilly and BBQ. Any more ideas would be VERY welcome. jdjoubert __________________ JEEP CHEROKEE XJ 4.0 CLASSIC "BOESMAN" is sy naam
kenny
Most innovative design JD impressed. I have acquired a oldish IT network cabinet with duel extractor fans. Bought 2 40watt light bulbs and fittings. Was told this works. Now just need to assemble unit and take out the unwanted goods. Bit nervous trying first batch as I have no clue what to do. I'll be surfing, asking questions and bugging the forum members, sorry Kenny will phone you at 2AM pissed as usual to get some tips, he,he __________________ Morton the " BEAST " Berg 3 Skid plates;75mm lift;275/70/16 Maxxis MT's;Merrit 16 rims;Maxe spots+ night breakers on all lights; Solace protection;TJM snorkel;TJM XGS shocks;TJM coils+Bellows; Maniac front & rear steel bumpers;Spare wheel and 3x Jerry can carriers;Rock sliders;Side awning;Front Runner roof rack; Dual batt system;Procool fridge/freezer;2xGarmin;clinometer;Twin free flow exhaust,Fini comp; ARB independent Airlockers F&B; Winch; Drawer Sys;50Lt Water tank;VHF&29Mhz(2)radios; 8x ss Fish road holders; Safety whip&flag.Future mods,Viper V10or Lex V8 Lu