Biltong?

Has anyone tried making their own biltong? any hints or suggestions? would like to give it a go

Yes, I just hung mine out 5 minutes ago. Search biltong box on trademe or google for it. Its very easy to make.

i have the box etc, was given to me from a friend just not sure how to prepare the meat

Easy, start with buying bulk rump, alreadycut in huge steaks(later you can get a butcher to cut strips or cut your own from a whole ribeye.
The strips should be about 1cm thick and 2 cm wide and as long as your steaks allow.

Put your strips on a bed of rocksalt and cover the tops with a layer of rock salt.

Leave for abour 45 minutes (less if you use thin strips , more if its thick

Scrape off all the salt, by this time the salt would have started expelling a bit of moisture from the meat, that you can throw away.

Rinse each strip in a bowl of vinegar, also washing away all the salt still on the meat with the vinegar.

Pack the strips snugly together on a tray in one layer to season easily.

Season with ground pepper, grilled coriander seeds that arerolled fine and squashed with a rolling pin,
bbq spice or moroccan spice if you like those.

Make hooks from plastic coated paper clips and hang the strips WITHOUT touching each other.

Leave for about 5 days. Depending on how dry you want your biltong.

Sometimes I want very dry easy breakable biltong, then I'll buy minute steaks and dry to a crisp.

Do not overfill the biltong box, as that might lead to too little air circulation and mold spores. It is not a disaster if you find it early enough as you can wash the spores away with vinegar, and hang it again.

Have a look on trade me if you want to get a biltong box and make your own biltong.

How do you stop flies from going into the boxes ? or it that just not a problem. Thanks

I have been making it for the last 2 months, made myself a box and it works well. Local butcher selects the cuts for me and I pick up a couple of days after placing order. I store mine in a airtight container and it's all eaten after a week or so.

you can put gauge over any holes or openings, then there will still be enough airflow but no flies or insects can get in.