- Joined
- Friday July 10, 2009
- Location
- Little Feckwittering-on-the-Moor
Well gents, I've started on something of an interesting journey. All started with a conversation with my South African pal (who now resides in Australia) about droewors (and how the difference between good and bad example of it is a razor thin margin...) and how he's surviving in Australia with only locally produced biltong with their take on how it should be....
One thing lead to another and he pointed me to an article in the South African edition of Popular Mechanics for build your own biltong dryer (that he's been using to satiate his family's demand for biltong like home).
I thought no more about it when a package thudded through the letterbox... He thought I should pull my finger out and get on making some, so 1kg of Freddy Hirsch's biltong spice (enough to do 28kg of input meat apparently).
So back to Popular Mechanics to build the box. http://www.popularmechanics.co.za/home-how-to/diy-projects/reader-projectcut-and-dried/ - Using a 65 litre 'Samla' box from Ikea for the box, all other parts as per the article, nothing high tech but I've made some changes (I've added a removable drip tray and upgraded the dowelling hang rails for aluminium tube).
First lot (a bit less than 1kg input) is in there curing/drying now. As per his hot tip for a starter batch, using rump steak as the feedstock. Hope I've got the spice in the goldilocks zone (too much and it'll be salty, too little and it'll be rancid). Just need to wait for it to happen now. You don't have to use the spice mix of course, there are heaps of recipes out there to help you on your way...
More news when I have some.
One thing lead to another and he pointed me to an article in the South African edition of Popular Mechanics for build your own biltong dryer (that he's been using to satiate his family's demand for biltong like home).
I thought no more about it when a package thudded through the letterbox... He thought I should pull my finger out and get on making some, so 1kg of Freddy Hirsch's biltong spice (enough to do 28kg of input meat apparently).
So back to Popular Mechanics to build the box. http://www.popularmechanics.co.za/home-how-to/diy-projects/reader-projectcut-and-dried/ - Using a 65 litre 'Samla' box from Ikea for the box, all other parts as per the article, nothing high tech but I've made some changes (I've added a removable drip tray and upgraded the dowelling hang rails for aluminium tube).
First lot (a bit less than 1kg input) is in there curing/drying now. As per his hot tip for a starter batch, using rump steak as the feedstock. Hope I've got the spice in the goldilocks zone (too much and it'll be salty, too little and it'll be rancid). Just need to wait for it to happen now. You don't have to use the spice mix of course, there are heaps of recipes out there to help you on your way...
More news when I have some.