Making Blouwildebeest Biltong. Part 1

I thought I would share with you all how we make biltong from the meat of the blouwildebeest Cules hunted on Friday. The carcass has been hanging in a huge fridge since then and Cules went to fetch it this morning to carve the meat into the required sizes (strips) He concentrated first on the back and hindquarters and the rest of the meat have been frozen until he gets to hunt a bush pig whose meat  will  get mixed together with the blouwildebeest  meat and then be processed into cabbanossi,cheese grillers,salami and such.

Here goes:

First you get all your ingredients together...Fluids goes in first,brown spirit vinegar and Worcester sauce,Golden Brown sugar, whatever biltong spice you prefer, we love Safari Biltong spice for game meat.

Close up of spices...loads of coriander!

First step is to cover the bottom of  your meat tub with the fluids...brown spirit vinegar and Worcester sauce in our case...

Then a fine sprinkling of  golden brown sugar...

VERY LITTLE SUGAR! !

Like above..

.....then the spices...

.......like this...

Then you start to layer your meat neatly on top of  the vinegar,Worcester sauce,golden brown sugar and spices..

This is where it is a lot like making lasagna..., layer, repeat.....repeat....

Fluids,sugar,spice on top of first layer.....

The second layer of meat gets stacked ACROSS like this...

I asked Cules why he stacks it across...

His answer; 

 His Dad taught him to do it this way!

Third layer of meat...repeat all the above steps..

Like making macaroni cheese...remember?

Or was that lasagna?????

Whatever...

Until you have used up all your meat..

Like so..

Repeat one last time,fluids,golden brown sugar and spices...

You then cover this with a towel and let it sit in a cool place for the whole day..(In our case,the kitchen)

Remember to start making your biltong early in the morning so it has plenty of time to sit in the vinegar mix.

Late tonight Cules will put his hands into the tub of meat and mix it right through..,messing up the neat layers and let it sit overnight...

Tomorrow he will put hooks in the biltong pieces and hang them in a cool,dry place with at least three fans blowing on it full time, like a porch for instance...or a garage..just don't park your car underneath the biltong as the vinegar drips off something terrible at first.

Depending on how thick your slices of meat is,and the humidity (not a good thing) or the dryness of the air (a good thing) which is why we only make biltong during winter..,your biltong should be ready in one to two weeks.