right - here's the pigeon. 3 1/2 days in the dryer. Went in last thing saturday night and came out first thing wednesday morning.
Compare the colour with the day and a half picture (included at bottom of post).
This to my mind is just about the perfect state of dryness. It's still chewable but without the almost jellylike texture that I suspect sqwib didn't like.
Aim for this very dark red colour in the centre of your biltong and you can't go far wrong.
Now biltong if not frozen or vacced will continue to dry - at this stage it won't go off, but if left lying around will just turn into hard dry sticks - good for hiking trips but not as edible as it could be :-)
So seal it or throw it in the freezer as soon as it's at the consistency you like and out of the box.
Commercial butchers will tell you you need nitites/nitrates to get biltong this colour. I'll just tell you that it's concentrated haemoglobin and just use salt :-)
Guess whos right ;-)
Leave out the toxins - they serve no useful purpose.
lol
I've packed them into 2 breast snack packs
(okay I admit it was an excuse to play with the vacpacker - but still practical as well lol) and put them in the freezer.
Biltong doesn't actually freeze as there isn't enough water left to from ice crystals. It just gets cold and hard. Ten minutes out of the freezer and it's chewable again. If you don't vac it and just shove it in sealed bags - it won't get freezer burn - not enough water left. And will keep indefinitely. (assuming you forget it's there - otherwise you'll eat it quite quickly :-)