I just tried my first attempt at making biltong and it wasn't great. I'm gonna try give as much info as possible to see if anyone can give me some pointers
Meat was beef (outside round)
Cut into 1/2" strips and soaked in malt vinegar for 3hrs.
Patted meat dry and covered the meat in my own spice mix (coarsely ground roasted coriander, black pepper and kosher salt). I was told to place meat in a sealed container for an hour before hanging it in the dryer but I skipped that step. I put it straight in the dryer. My dryer is a 80L clear Tupperware box with computer fan on top and 40w light bulb and 4 holes (2") on the bottom. I left the meat drying for 3 days.
I checked the meat this morning and it looked right and felt right when squeezed. I cut a little sample piece and didnt love the flavour.
It has mostly a vinegar flavour that reminds me of the aftertaste of eating olives. Salt flavour is ok but no coriander or black pepper taste at all. Its edible but not particularly pleasant.
When I ground the coriander and black pepper I left it pretty coarse... I would say it was more cracked than ground.
I'm wondering if I should have ground the coriander and pepper more? A lot of the corriander and pepper just fell off during slicing.
Any suggestions on what I can do differently next time?
Meat was beef (outside round)
Cut into 1/2" strips and soaked in malt vinegar for 3hrs.
Patted meat dry and covered the meat in my own spice mix (coarsely ground roasted coriander, black pepper and kosher salt). I was told to place meat in a sealed container for an hour before hanging it in the dryer but I skipped that step. I put it straight in the dryer. My dryer is a 80L clear Tupperware box with computer fan on top and 40w light bulb and 4 holes (2") on the bottom. I left the meat drying for 3 days.
I checked the meat this morning and it looked right and felt right when squeezed. I cut a little sample piece and didnt love the flavour.
It has mostly a vinegar flavour that reminds me of the aftertaste of eating olives. Salt flavour is ok but no coriander or black pepper taste at all. Its edible but not particularly pleasant.
When I ground the coriander and black pepper I left it pretty coarse... I would say it was more cracked than ground.
I'm wondering if I should have ground the coriander and pepper more? A lot of the corriander and pepper just fell off during slicing.
Any suggestions on what I can do differently next time?
