The Official Biltong Enthusiasts Thread

Ah okay thanks. I didn't use a lightbulb because some people said that made the problem worse. I'll try with a bulb next time.

EDIT: What should I do with the biltong that I've already made it? I mean, will the skin get tougher and tougher?
 
Ancalagon said:
Ah okay thanks. I didn't use a lightbulb because some people said that made the problem worse. I'll try with a bulb next time.

EDIT: What should I do with the biltong that I've already made it? I mean, will the skin get tougher and tougher?
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Put it in a lightbulb, let it run its course, eat it... maybe cut it in small junks, put it in a lemon juice and tobasco mixure, heat in microwave, enjoy :)

Just remember the purpose of the lightbulb. It's not there to dry the meat, it's there to dry the air (to take the moisture out of the air by drying it out). Then because the air is dry, and the meat has a lot of moisture in side, it draws the moisture out of the meat to the surface. The fan is there to dry the moisture on the outside of the meat, drawn out by the dry air... make sense?
 
Don't you guys think bulb must have been at bottom, hot air rise
 
thehuman said:
will be safe if you give that light a canopy :)
edit
where in PE you buy the wors ?
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Aside from the light being moved to the bottom the fan at the top draws air out instead of in.

I suppose I could build a canopy of sorts.

I get my wors and beef from settlers butchery.
 
thehuman said:
Don't you guys think bulb must have been at bottom, hot air rise
Click to expand...

doesn't really matter. but I think, top is better. the hot air is not supposed to interact with the meat.

again, the bulb is there to dry the air out, not the meat. that's the fan's job. you meat is supposed to be DRIED, not COOKED!

think about it, if the heat of the bulb was there to dry out the meat, then why have a fan to blow cool air over the meat? makes no sense.
 
Ancalagon said:
Ah okay thanks. I didn't use a lightbulb because some people said that made the problem worse. I'll try with a bulb next time.

EDIT: What should I do with the biltong that I've already made it? I mean, will the skin get tougher and tougher?
Click to expand...

I only use the bulb on day 1 for a few hours to dry the outside of the meat.
I remove the bulb once I notice the outside of the meat is not longer wet
My biltong is usually ready in 4 days max
Also depends how thick your pieces of meat are mate
 
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Ancalagon said:
So I tasted it - definitely not too salty. In fact, it may not be salty enough. Why did you assume it would be too salty Kido?
.
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Because I dont use salt in my mix and from a taste perspective my biltong depending on spices used surprisingly didnt require additional salt to be added
 
Here is a pic of mine in the brown paper bag
hung up on saturday 13:00 cut up yesterday

IMG_20160601_175919.jpg
 
faniedry said:
If it gets too hard on the outside before the inside is dry then your temperature in the box is too low.
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faniedry said:
doesn't really matter. but I think, top is better. the hot air is not supposed to interact with the meat.

again, the bulb is there to dry the air out, not the meat. that's the fan's job. you meat is supposed to be DRIED, not COOKED!

think about it, if the heat of the bulb was there to dry out the meat, then why have a fan to blow cool air over the meat? makes no sense.
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I'm confused. If the temp inside is too low then how are you supposed to warm things up and still blow cool air over the meat? :confused:
 
bwana said:
I'm confused. If the temp inside is too low then how are you supposed to warm things up and still blow cool air over the meat? :confused:
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because the cool air dries to moisture on the outside of the meat. the heat of the bulb is supposed to remove moisture out of the air <- this draws the moisture out of the meat.

fbd.jpg
 
bwana said:
I'm confused. If the temp inside is too low then how are you supposed to warm things up and still blow cool air over the meat? :confused:
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so on my comment about "your temperature in the box is too low":

stop thinking that making biltong is about heat.... the comment means: their is too much moisture in the air inside the box, which means the moisture is not drawn to the surface of the meat... the fan then just dries out the outside of the meat, while the moisture is stuck inside...
 
faniedry said:
so on my comment about "your temperature in the box is too low":

stop thinking that making biltong is about heat.... the comment means: their is too much moisture in the air inside the box, which means the moisture is not drawn to the surface of the meat... the fan then just dries out the outside of the meat, while the moisture is stuck inside...
Click to expand...
I never thought it was - it's about evaporation and warm dry air does that better than cold dry air.

fbd.jpg
 
faniedry said:
so on my comment about "your temperature in the box is too low":

stop thinking that making biltong is about heat.... the comment means: their is too much moisture in the air inside the box, which means the moisture is not drawn to the surface of the meat... the fan then just dries out the outside of the meat, while the moisture is stuck inside...
Click to expand...

i'm trying the find the right name for it, if there is one, but the only thing i can come up with is: the equilibrium effect.... dry out the air outside, pull the moisture out from the inside

hope someone can help me with that name, because i'm pretty sure there is something called the [insert name here] principal or something :D
 
Oh. Anyway, as I said I don't use any other spice mixes, whether it be BBQ spice or biltong spice.

Put the light bulb in this morning, will see how it looks when I get home.

EDIT: fanie maybe you are thinking of osmosis? But then osmosis isn't the right word, because osmosis doesn't involve air. It is the movement of salt particles in solution from a higher concentration to a lower concentration, across a membrane.

I think evaporation is the right word for biltong.
 
Here we go:

Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement of solvent molecules through a semi-permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in the direction that tends to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides.

Making biltong is the spontaneous net movement of moisture through the outside of the meat into a region of less moisture, in the direction that tends to equalize the moisture concentration on the inside and outside.
 
faniedry said:
of course, but how will the warm dry air get to the inside of the meat?
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Why would you want it to? Most of the resources I've read recommend temperatures in the low 20s to start with then ramping it up to low 30s after a couple of days. Given that it's winter now the lightbulb in the box is going to be the ideal, or maybe only, viable way of achieving these temps as well as maintaining the right level of humidity.

Or I suppose you could buy a dehumidifier and crank up the central heating.
 
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