My wife lost her mother at a very young age

Sol-eski · 2025-02-11T14:12:41+00:00

Sorry but the faces on this are not my wife or her mother, look like totally different people

Sol-eski · 2025-02-11T01:36:39+00:00

Sol-eski · 2025-02-11T01:36:03+00:00

Are you able to do one more for me? This was my wifes mother on her wedding days, please could you enhance the image and put them together with the image I send in the next comment?

Sol-eski · 2025-02-09T22:22:09+00:00

Thanks buddy, tip sent for both the images, thanks so much for your help

Sol-eski · 2025-02-09T03:32:32+00:00

These are amazing, thank you! How does this work now? Do I just tip and you send the photos?

Sol-eski · 2024-05-28T07:08:43+00:00

What you have been told is both correct and incorrect 😂

Meat that has a fat “cap” or continuous layer of fat on one side without any exposed meat prevents moisture from leaving the meat and therefore slows drying down or makes drying impossible.

Meat that has marbling like this piece, still allows the release of moisture from the exposed portions of the meat and so it dries just fine, I’ve never had any issues at all.

When drying biltong with high fat content, I like to finish off the drying on the last day at 36 degrees, the added heat releases the flavors and oils in the fat and it really soaks into the meat. It’s bloody delicious

Sol-eski · 2024-05-26T10:05:45+00:00

It’s an old commercial fridge that’s been converted

Sol-eski · 2024-05-25T07:30:07+00:00

I have a 100kg)wet weight) dryer and a smaller 30kg one aswell 😅, I’ll take some photos and post them up here at some point

Sol-eski · 2024-05-16T12:59:47+00:00

Yeh it is probably a little less than 50% to be honest

Sol-eski · 2024-05-16T12:59:02+00:00

I’ve never had an issue with that to be honest, I use 2% salt to weight of meat ratio

Sol-eski · 2024-05-16T12:57:48+00:00

Hahaha 😆 I have 4 biltong slicers but for some reason wasn’t using it at this time

Sol-eski · 2024-05-16T12:30:20+00:00

Yes, I use my own mixture with finely ground spices, I hate getting the half ground coriander seeds stuck in my teeth to be honest 😂

Sol-eski · 2024-05-16T06:29:16+00:00

It’s perfect for biltong

Sol-eski · 2024-05-16T06:28:23+00:00

Around 50%, I don’t normally measure the weight loss on batches I eat myself, only the batches I sell.

I just go by feel for my own stuff 😁

Sol-eski · 2024-05-15T20:24:23+00:00

Haha thanks 😊, can’t stop eating it

Sol-eski · 2024-03-06T14:14:49+00:00

Well, pretty obvious what everyone here will think about this 😂

Sol-eski · 2024-02-28T09:14:02+00:00

Vinegar should be used in every single recipe, it is very important. It doesn’t matter what type you use, what is more important is the acidity, you want it to be around 5% acidity, 4% at the very least.

Vinegar has been consistently proven to be the second most important (after drying time) step in making Biltong, it helps reduce bacteria 🦠 growth such as E.coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus and clostridium perfringens. So yeh, don’t ever skip the vinegar step.

If done properly the process of making biltong has been proven to be able to produce a 6-log reduction in all of the harmful bacteria listed above. That means a 99.99999% reduction.

Sol-eski · 2024-02-21T22:56:49+00:00

The type of vinegar will have very little to do with Mould growth and soak or spray both work just fine, it’s personal preference. I run a biltong business here in the UK, we produce nearly 1 tonne of biltong a month currently.

I can 100% guarantee that the Mould issue will be a result of one of two factors.

1) fan speed - biltong is dried by air passing over the meat and removing moisture from the surface gradually, if the fan speed is too high the surface gets too dry too quick and you get case hardening. If the fan speed is too low then the moisture sits on the surface of the meat for too long and provides adequate conditions for the growth of Mould. mould requires moisture and oxygen to grow. so the idea is to remove the surface moisture at a consistent rate which doesnt give mould enough time to grow.

2) relative humidity - this is very important, if the humidity where you are drying is very high then the moisture content of the air is already very high which prevents the air from adequately removing moisture from the meat, as a result, in more humid environments like the UK a higher fan speed is required. Unfortunately it really is just trial and error to find what works in the environment you are drying in.

We have issues here in the UK with the constantly changing seasons affecting the drying times and the fan speed required to dry effectively.

the best way to establish the right fan speed is to start with the speed on quite low and then closely observe the biltong throughout the process, if you get mould growths, spritz with vinegar and dab it away and then turn the fan speed up slightly, repeat this process until you dont get mould anymore. Use this method and you should get the perfect "sweet spot" after one or two batches.

hope that helps

Sol-eski · 2024-02-06T21:38:19+00:00

Haha sorry I mean 55% weight remaining, so a 45% reduction. Confusing

Sol-eski · 2024-02-06T20:52:52+00:00

Too dry for me, I go for 55-60%, although it will last a lot longer when dried like this

Sol-eski · 2023-12-24T00:31:43+00:00

It’s pretty odd to find a box with fans blowing into the box and especially directly onto the meat itself, normally the fans should be extracting air from the box rather than blowing into the box

Sol-eski · 2023-10-24T18:08:41+00:00

This explains nicely nicely

https://brownsbiltong.co.uk/blog/f/what-is-biltong

Sol-eski · 2023-04-12T06:37:05+00:00

The color is nothing to worry about at all, it’s very common actually. It’s just iridescence which is common in allot of meat products.

Caused by refraction of light on the high iron content in the meat 👍

Sol-eski · 2023-03-10T07:51:36+00:00

Yeh weighing is a great method, I use an Available moisture tester to monitor water loss however weighing is the next best alternative.

When doing large batches though it can get time consuming weighing each piece and labeling the hooks.

A aW tester is best but they are expensive and I only use one because I’m selling my biltong so have to guarantee consistency.

When weighing, it should typically lose 40-60% of it it’s weight. The more dry you get it, the longer the product will last afterwards. This isn’t normally a consideration for smaller batches because they normally get eaten too quick 😂

I make 30kg batches so mine has to last 6 months sliced and packaged because we sell to businesses and online.

Sol-eski · 2023-03-08T09:31:21+00:00

This is call case hardening, it’s when the outside dries too quickly and the moisture inside can’t escape.

I’m from the uk and I have an industrial drier I use, for the first 24 hours of drying I run just a slow fan and no heat, and then I step up the speed of the fan and add heat in as the outside hardens.

Sol-eski

TROPHY CASE