How to make biltong

Biltong isn’t jerky with an accent. It’s a different craft: no dehydrator, no kill-step temperature, no marinade. Salt and vinegar do the preserving, airflow does the drying, and toasted coriander does the talking. Get those three right and you’ll never buy a bag again.

The whole method rests on one idea: the meat is cured raw and dried cold, never cooked. That means safety comes from a stack of small defenses rather than a thermometer, coarse salt pulling out water, brown vinegar souring the surface, optionally a weighed trace of cure #1, and constant moving air drying the outside before anything can spoil. Master those and the rest is patience. Below is the process start to finish; the section after it explains where batches go wrong.

The five steps

1. Cut into thick strips

   Silverside or topside is traditional. Cut with the grain into thick fingers, 1"-1.5", far thicker than jerky. Leave a little fat cap if you like it; unlike jerky, biltong tolerates some fat because vinegar and salt do the preserving.

2. Vinegar wash

   Dunk or brush the strips in brown or cider vinegar. This is the first line of defense, it lowers surface pH so bacteria can’t take hold while the meat air-dries, and it’s where biltong gets its tang.

3. Salt & spice cure

   Coat generously with coarse salt and leave 30 minutes to an hour, then brush off the excess. Now the signature spice: toasted, cracked coriander first, then black pepper. Some add a second vinegar splash after salting.

4. Hang in moving air

   Hang each strip on a hook with space around it and a fan moving air across, no heat. A biltong box holds the strips, the fan and airflow together. Aim for cool, dry, moving air at roughly 55-65% humidity.

5. Dry to your texture

   Wet biltong is 3-4 days; firm, traditional biltong is 4-5+. Squeeze to judge: soft and springy is moist, firm with a little give is classic. Slice thin across the grain to serve.

Get the spice right

Biltong lives or dies on its cure and spice, and the mix is short. Coarse salt does the preserving; everything else is flavor. The proportions below are a reliable starting point, adjust the pepper and chilli to taste, but keep coriander in the lead, it’s what makes biltong taste like biltong rather than salted beef.

• Coarse salt, the workhorse. Roughly 1.75% of the meat’s weight if you weigh, or a generous coat brushed off after resting.
• Toasted coriander, the signature. Toast the whole seed until fragrant, then crack it coarsely so it clings to the strip.
• Cracked black pepper, coarse, not fine, for warmth and bite.
• Brown or cider vinegar, the tang and the first line of safety; it sours the surface as it dries.
• A little brown sugar (optional), rounds off the vinegar’s edge without making it sweet.
• Cure #1 (optional), about 0.25% of the meat weight, weighed, for colour and an extra margin in humid climates.

How it differs from jerky

If you already make jerky, it helps to see plainly where biltong parts ways, because almost every instinct from the dehydrator is wrong here. Jerky is thin, marinated and heat-dried to clear a 160°F kill-step in hours; biltong is thick, dry-cured with vinegar and salt, and air-dried cold over days. The table lays the two side by side.

Common mistakes

A failed batch nearly always traces back to the air, not the recipe. Watch for these:

• Still, humid air. The number-one cause of mold. Without a fan and low humidity the surface stays damp long enough to spoil, run the air constantly.
• Crowding the strips. Pieces that touch trap moisture between them and mold there first. Leave a gap around every strip.
• Drying too hot or too fast. Warm, bone-dry air seals the outside while the core stays wet, that’s case-hardening. Keep it cool and around 55-65% humidity.
• Skipping the vinegar. It isn’t just flavor, it’s the surface’s first defense. Don’t leave it out to make a “milder” biltong.
• Eyeballing the cure. If you use cure #1, weigh it at about 0.25% of the meat, never guess with nitrite.