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🥩 How to make biltong at home (anywhere in the world)

A simple, reliable biltong recipe using cuts and ingredients you can buy overseas, plus how to dry it without a biltong box.

Updated 4 October 2026

Can't find a biltong shop nearby? Making your own is easy, cheap, and makes your whole house smell like home.

Ingredients (for about 1 kg of meat)

  • 1–1.5 kg beef: silverside or topside (sometimes sold as "round"; in the US, "top round" or "bottom round"). Ask the butcher for a whole piece about 2–3 cm thick, cut along the grain.
  • About 125 ml brown or apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tbsp coarse salt
  • 2 tbsp whole coriander seeds, toasted and roughly crushed
  • 1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp brown sugar (optional)
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (optional; it reduces the sour taste)

Method

  1. Cut the meat into strips about 2–3 cm thick and 15–20 cm long, with the grain. Leave a little fat on if you like it.
  2. Dip each strip in vinegar, then lay them in a dish. Mix the salt, coriander, pepper and sugar, and rub it over every side.
  3. Cover and refrigerate for 12–24 hours, turning once. The longer you leave it, the saltier it gets.
  4. Next day, dip the strips quickly in a vinegar–water mix (1:1) to rinse off excess salt, pat dry, and press on a little more crushed coriander.
  5. Hang to dry with hooks or paperclips in a spot with good airflow.

Drying without a biltong box

Air movement matters more than heat. A cardboard box with holes cut in it, a 40 W incandescent bulb (or a small fan) at the bottom and dowels across the top works brilliantly. Expect 3–5 days for "wet" biltong and up to 7–10 for dry, depending on how humid it is where you live. In humid climates (Brisbane, Singapore, the Gulf in summer), use a fan and a dehumidifier, or a dehydrator on its lowest setting with the door ajar.

Food safety

Use fresh meat from a trusted butcher, keep it cold while it marinates, and throw out anything that grows fuzzy mould. White salt bloom is fine. Store finished biltong in a paper bag, not plastic, and eat within a couple of weeks or freeze it.