Send your Lockdown Recipes to [email protected] with a hi-resolution horizontal (landscape) photo.

There is an exact science to making the perfect biltong – from the cuts to the drying. It starts with the meat. As with everything farm-to-table, working with the utmost respect when making your own biltong is of paramount importance. It requires only the prime cuts. When working with venison, it’s usually the fillets, backstraps and legs that can be utilised.

Ideally, biltong should be savoured… and the best way to achieve this is to eat it slice by slice with a knipmes (pocket knife). Or, sliced thinly and eaten on toast. I’ve seen a single slice of beef biltong cover the length and width of a plaasbrood slice.

If you’re making beef biltong, brown sugar, saltpetre and baking soda are typically added to the coriander, salt and pepper blend. Beef biltong is made with much larger strips of meat, and the extra ingredients are added to help preserve the large chunks of meat.

Then, the drying. These days, biltong can be made throughout the year in many regions. In the past, however, biltong was made during one of two months of the year as meat needed to be processed without the help of cooling and drying facilities. With the invention of cool rooms, biltong curing boxes and a whole array of other biltong gadgets, biltong became more readily available. It’s now possible for city-dwelling South Africans to make their favourite farm-to-table snack from scratch.

Biltong is much more than a mere snack. It originated as a genuine means of survival and has meant this – survival – for every generation that has followed. From the Khoisan, who first hunted and made biltong, to the Voortrekkers who carefully developed the recipes and methods, to every remote South African who feels a surge of longing and pride when snacking on a parcel of biltong sent from the Mzansi homeland.

Our traditional beef biltong recipe can be worked out depending on the quantity of meat you have available.

Here’s the Lombard family method…

Ingredients

25kg Leg of beef, trimmed and cut into roughly 10 x 15cm strips

750g Coarse salt

15ml White pepper

180g Brown sugar

20g Saltpetre

20g Baking soda

150g Toasted and crushed coriander

375ml Brown grape vinegar

Method

Mix together all the dry spices and vigorously massage into the beef strips. Drizzle a little vinegar at the bottom of a large, clean tray and start layering the salted strips. Sprinkle vinegar between every layer. Let marinade for at least 24 hours before turning over into another tray. Make sure the beef strips that were on top are now on the bottom. Let marinade again for at least 24 hours. Using biltong hooks, hang up in a cool, dry area until the desired consistency is achieved (about two to three weeks). Store in a paper bag or old flour bag (meelsakkie) when dried. DM/TGIFood

Our Thank God It’s Food newsletter is sent to subscribers every Friday at 6pm, and published on the TGIFood platform on Daily Maverick. It’s all about great reads on the themes of food and life. Subscribe here.

Thank God It’s Food is sponsored by Pick n Pay.