Make biltong in the oven

 

WANTING to make biltong in the oven is not usually the first choice.

However, in the absence of a biltong box, you can use your oven as a drying cabinet for the meat.

 

(another option is a dehydrator if you have one.)

This guide will give you the ingredients you need to use and the steps you need to follow to make a batch of delicious biltong.

Meat selection

Although you can use many cuts of meat for biltong, you will get the best results from beef or venison.

The fattier the meat, the more chance it has of going off, so I would suggest you buy a cut like a sirloin to make your biltong.

Toast the coriander

Coriander seed is the key ingredient for the flavour of biltong.

Toasting the coriander seed releases its oils.

 

This has two benefits, as it adds to the flavour and suppresses the bacterial growth of the biltong.

Toast these coriander seeds in a dry pan.

Once these seeds have been properly toasted, you can break them down with a mortar and pestle.

When you are done with that, the coriander seeds should just be a fine powder with a few shells left over.

You can add this to the spice mix.

Cut the meat

The first thing you want to do is trim most of the fat off the beef.

 

A little fat can taste nice on biltong, but you never want an enormous piece in a bite.

Fat will also interfere with the drying process.

Next, you want to slice the beef.

If you are going to be making biltong traditionally, slice the meat into slabs.

Because you are making biltong in the oven, you want to slice the beef thinner into beef strips, so that it dries faster.

The best way to do this is to put the beef into the freezer for about half an hour, it will make it a lot easier to cut it into thin pieces with a sharp knife.

Combine the spices

Salt is a wonderful flavour enhancer and preservative, just be careful not to use too much.

Salt will pull the moisture from inside the meat onto the surface.

 

From here, it can evaporate.

You want to use a coarse salt like Himalayan or sea salt, don’t use a salt that’s iodised as it will leave a bitter taste in your mouth when eating the biltong.

For your black pepper, ensure that it is ground up. A bite into a peppercorn can be unpleasant.

You want to combine about one-quarter of black pepper with three-quarters of coriander seed.

A modern ingredient to the traditional biltong recipe is sugar, more specifically brown sugar for its molasses taste.

It isn’t necessary to add but it helps with flavouring the meat and drying the moisture.

Too much sugar will make the biltong taste terrible, so I only add about three-quarters of a tablespoon.

Combine all the spices together into a bowl, ready for adding on to the beef.

Vinegar

Traditional biltong calls for brown or malt vinegar to be used. You can also use apple cider vinegar.

Cure the meat

The meat should be coated with spice and vinegar rather than being left to sit submerged in a marinade.

The easiest way to do this is to get a flat plate and add the vinegar and spice mixture to the bottom.

Coat the meat with this vinegar and spice mix on both sides.

Once the meat is fully coated, chill it in the fridge.

This can be for 24 hours, but because it’s so thin you only need to do this for four hours.

Pat dry

Once the meat has been in the fridge for four hours, take it out, and pat it dry with paper towels.

Be careful not to remove the spice mix from the beef.

Lay it in the oven

Lie the meat flat on a baking rack, ensuring there is space underneath the wire so air surrounds all the meat.

Be careful not to overlap any pieces of the meat.

Oven preparation

Your oven does not need to be on, all you need is to turn on the light.

 

That should provide enough heat.

You don’t need to turn the fan on, you can keep the door slightly open to ensure there is airflow.

Unlike with homemade beef jerky, you are not trying to cook the meat, your aim is to dry it out.

 

It’s a misconception that biltong requires a high temperature to dry.

Drying time

It should take three days to dry out, depending on the thickness and fattiness of your meat.

I would suggest checking every day until the biltong has reached your desired dryness and taste.

Once it’s there, you can take it out and enjoy this flavourful dried meat to your heart’s content.

And that’s all there is to it.

One thing about the oven is that you can experiment with a number of different recipes for your spice mix in one batch.

 

(Think of ideas like garlic powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder, peri peri, etc)
Enjoy!