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Jorrie

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Durbanville, South Africa
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BILTONG:

Biltong is a South African culture, not just a piece of dried meat. Biltong is South Africa an South Africa is biltong. It is an air cured meat marinated in vinegar and spices. (Similar to Amirican jerky, only better.) Many different types of meat are used ranging from beef through game meats and ostrich.

INGREDIENTS
  • 2 kg meat
  • 100 ml brown sugar
  • 30 ml coarse salt
  • 15ml bicarbonate soda (this softens the meat)
  • 125ml crushed coriander seeds
  • 125 ml red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp cracked black pepper
  • 1 tblsp paprika or chilli flakes
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Use a good quality meat like silverside or topside
  2. Slice the meat, with the grain into 1cm thick x 2cm wide strips and about 20cm in length and rub thoroughly with the vinegar.
  3. Mix the salt, sugar, crushed coriander seeds, bicarbarbonate of soda, black pepper and paprika together in a bowl to form a rubbing mixture.
  4. Rub the spice mixture into the pieces of meat.
  5. Take a glass or stainless steel container and layer the meat, making sure the the thicker pieces are at the bottom.
  6. Cover the container with cling film and refrigerate for about 12 hrs mixing every couple of hours so that the meat flavours evenly.
  7. Hang up to dry in a well ventilated spot.
  8. Biltong Machines for home use work very well.
  9. Drying time is about 4-5 days, depending on the weather, and your personal preference.
Air dry the meat in either a biltong box (will post a link soon), Cover in netting and hang in the garage or behind the fridge. Be careful not to over dry.

Hope you enjoy!!!!






DROEWORS:

When talking about South African food, traditional droëwors is one of the first things that springs to mind. The coriander-seed spiced dried sausages have always been a feast to the taste of food lovers. Try imagining going out on a picnic or a road trip without droëwors sandwich supplies and you will fail. Making your own droëwors, however, could turn to be a bit of a challenge for those unaware of its specifics. Why don’t you test culinary skills and treat your loved ones with homemade droëwors. As challenging as it may appear, it will also turn out to be rewarding… and delicious. This is our take on how to make droëwors.

What do you need?
Never forget that good droëwors is made from very lean beef so it doesn’t turn greasy and limp.

Meat is paramount to droëwors. What you need is 3 kg of lean beef or lamb. Do not use pork or veal because it goes rancid. The other ingredients include 300 gr of fat, some natural sheep casings and a mix of spices. That last bit is open for improvisations. Use coriander, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper in any proportion you like.

Mix together the meat and the fat. The less fat you use, the leaner wors will be. But if you use too little fat, the droëwors could become dry.

Pre-cool the mixture at 2 C.

Mince the meat and add spices to the mix.

Put it in the fridge for 3 hours so the spices can sink in.

Mix again and then mince again this time through 4.5 mm plate on mincer.

Fill the sheep casings with the mixture without letting any air in.

Dry the droëwors at 30 C with UV light for 24 hours.

Then switch off the light.

Hang droëwors to dry on a plastic or metal hook.

Do not allow contact between the raw meat and wood.

Dry droëwors for 5 days.

A traditional recipe combined with quality ingredients and a bit a skill will give you the best droëwors. For those curious to know we can reveal that the delicacy roots date as far back in time as 17th century. This was the time when Dutch settlers in South Africa started following recipes for preserving meat. It is believed that those recipes come from the ancient Incas in South America. And what a tasty heritage they have left us!

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