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Biltong: The Ultimate SHTF Food for Preppers

Wednesday, September 7, 2016 11:06

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For centuries mankind has endeavored to preserve meat. Seafarers, centuries ago, pickled meat in large wooden caskets and devoured this during the months they were at sea.

BILTONG The Ultimate SHTF Food For Preppers

No wonder they suffered from scurvy!!

African folklore has it that migrating African tribesmen, herding their stock, would place strips of venison under the saddles on their horses as the chaffing would tender the meat and the sweat of the animals would spice it! This must be when vegetarians were born!!

BILTONG, as we know this delicacy today, is a rich inheritance from pioneering South African forefathers who sun dried meat… The history of biltong goes back to the Dutch Voortrekkers travelling from the Cape inland into South Africa. They needed food to sustain themselves and realized that the only way to preserve meat, was to hang it out to dry.
The basic spicing is a dramatic blend of vinegar, salt, sugar, coriander and other spices. These were in abundance in the Cape Colony, as the French Hugenots produced wine and vinegar from their grape crops and the colony was the halfway stop for seafarers plying the spice routes of the East. Throughout the ages many different marinades have been lovingly concocted for slices of beef or venison to draw their own brine for various periods of time, and then hung out to dry – with the proud creators each proclaiming the ultimate taste sensation in perfect Biltong!

The truth of the matter is that Biltong, as with any food, is subject to the verdict of personal taste, which varies from individual to individual. Some like it wet and fatty, others dry and lean; some prefer it well peppered with lots of coriander and other spices while others prefer it with a more delicate piquancy.

A big variety of meats can be used to produce biltong like beef , game meats, chicken, fish or even ostrich. First you have to cut out the fillets of meat.
The fillets must be cut into strips or flat pieces following the grain of the muscle. Biltong is similar to beef jerky in a certain way because both are cured-dried meats. The difference between biltong and beef jerky is that biltong is sliced after the drying process not before like the beef jerky.

biltong 11

Ingredients for biltong

Meat
Black pepper
Coriander
Salt
Sugar or brown sugar
Vinegar

The modern day recipe may include:

Balsamic vinegar or malt vinegar
Bicarbonate of soda
Dry ground chili peppers
Onion powder

Preparation

The best way to prepare biltong is by marinating the meat in a vinegar solution (balsamic or cider vinegar work very well too) for a few hours. After soaking the meat must be drained of excess liquid. Meanwhile prepare the spice mixture that consists of equal amounts of :

Whole slightly roasted and roughly grounded coriander
Black pepper
Rock salt
Barbecue spice

Mix all the ingredients then ground roughly together. Sprinkle the mix all over the meat fillets and rub well to obtain an evenly distributed layer. After this process the meat must rest for a few hours or refrigerate overnight in order to absorb the flavors.

The next step is to pour off any excess of liquid.

The drying process

The drying process can be achieved in three ways:

You can dry out the meat in hot/cold air.
On a cardboard or in a wooden box
In a climate-controlled dry room

In colder climates biltong can be dried with the help of an electric lamp but care must be taken to ventilate as mold can form on the meat spoiling it. A traditional slow dry will take 4 to 6 days but you can dry the biltong in an electric fan-assisted oven too. Set the oven to 100-160 degrees F and leave the door open in order to
eliminate the moist air. You’ll have the same result as the traditional drying after 4-5 hours. The point is to eliminate as much moisture as possible. A longer drying process will prolong the shelf life from 2 to 3-4 years. Biltong can be eaten as a snack, added to stews for the great taste, sandwiches or make biltong-flavored potato chips. Another great way to preserve the meat for long journeys, as our forefathers did on the Oregon Trail, is pemmican. You can find the recipe HERE with a step-by step guide and a great video tutorial.

Saving our forefathers ways starts with people like you and me actually relearning these skills and putting them to use to live better lives through good times and bad. Our answers on these lost skills comes straight from the source, from old forgotten classic books written by past generations, and from first hand witness accounts from the past few hundred years. Aside from a precious few who have gone out of their way to learn basic survival skills, most of us today would be utterly hopeless if we were plopped in the middle of a forest or jungle and suddenly forced to fend for ourselves using only the resources around us. To our ancient ancestors, we’d appear as helpless as babies.

In short, our forefathers lived more simply than most people today are willing to live and that is why they survived with no grocery store, no cheap oil, no cars, no electricity, and no running water. Just like our forefathers used to do, The Lost Ways Book teaches you how you can survive in the worst-case scenario with the minimum resources available. It comes as a step-by-step guide accompanied by pictures and teaches you how to use basic ingredients to make super-food for your loved ones.