How to make a biltong maker.

Some fat is usually the problem whether you jerkyficate or biltongficate, the dry meat from a chicken may work well. If you make an oxygen remover it should be no problem. Chicken bones may also be a no-no.

The oxygen removers work, I have two ~1kg packets, one with biltong and one with Boerewors (sousage) that was sealed more than a year ago. The oxygen bag discolored but the content is fine.

Apparently there is a way to preserve raw meat using oxygen removers, the trick is probably in the way you package it so the oxygen remover bag doesn't get swamped. Never tried it.

 

I think Andy and I would travel well together. I've dried a lot of food over the years for all kinds of trips. If meat is your primary interest, you really should get some temperature control on your box. Cold smoking beef is done between 130 and 145 degrees. Other meats may start to cook at 140 and need even more careful temp control. Sausage is really tricky and you should do some serious research before trying that. Chickens and other fowl can be smoked, but turkey works better. As Andy mentioned, salmonella is a real problem regards to store-bought bird. If there is some old crone raising field chicken, and you can truck them alive to a trusted butcher, that would be better. Or marinate and precook thoroughly as Andy suggested. There are plenty of forums on preserving food, smoking, dehydrating, freezedrying, and curing meats. I have no idea what plants you use in SA for smokes and cures, but using the right ones makes all the difference in the world.

It is also a good idea to do everything you can to filter the air and not have any sources of bacteria in the area. Electrostatic precipitators are the gold standard. HEPA filters have the be changed every day, or they just breed more bacteria. The typical back yard isn't really the best place from an air quality standpoint unless there is a couple feet of snow on the ground.

 

LOL. If you have lots of food, any one would travel well with you

There are various trees one can use for smoking, and yes, if you use the wrong ones, well, lets just say you won't look at food much for a while. Best is to buy the sawdust. Smoking is healthy too because you steam the content.

Biltong and dry wors is second nature to us Phil. If you don't get it you will not live long and you will become sickly and develop poorly. Have you ever seen a sickly lion ? Proves my point

 

Excellent thread and ideas!

I catch and smoke much salmon,herring,halibut,etc every year. It can then be canned, or vac packed and put in the freezer.
One can also buy those small fruit/food dryers very cheaply- and make all the jerky one wants from cheap cuts of roast.

A few years ago a friend and I went halfers on a bison...and it was a gong show as we bought the dam thing not knowing how much they weighed.
Ended up with 2100 pounds of meat,and we made a LOT of biltong from it.

If anyone is at all serious about prepping,go and buy a freeze dryer. If you buy any amount of freeze dried food you can pay for the freeze dryer in about 2-3 weeks.

 

Talking about freezing. I heard that they use neo magnets rotating? under food to be frozen. This prevents the water molecules to align and your frozen stuff remains fresh, even fruit and meat can hence be frozen for a long time and comes out fresh.

That's close to a ton of meat Van, good grief. What does Bison taste like ?

I hear there is a meeting in Switzerland about accepting gold as the new currency exchange, which means the $ will probably become worthless. If this happens we will follow and it will have far reaching consequences. Just saying - prepare...

 

Respect to you Sir, you are one seriously dedicated carnivore.

If you ate 3 pounds a day, 21 pounds a week, it would have still taken almost 2 years, we can still win the fight against the tyranny of vegetarianism!



------------------------------------------------------------------------

My sisters friend was one of those wierdo's

(disengage political correctness mode and transfer to jokes thread if appropriate (or inappropriate!))

She said she was a Vegan so I held up my hand making a V between the 2nd and 3rd fingers, and said "Live long and prosper" in my best Leonard Nimoy accent...

She said that's not what it means!

I replied I know what it means, it means that either you're a Virgin and you have a speech impediment, or you only eat garnish - either way I guess you don't like having meat inside you.

She looked scornfully at my supper, Well it's healthier than what you're eating!

I said, THIS is a balanced diet - it's got my 5 daily fruits and vegetables!

She looked confused so I explained;-
The first sausage is pork with somerset cider and bramley APPLE,
Then I have a nice Venison with port and CRANBERRY,
The third is a Lincolnshire sausage with LEEK,
and finally a Cumberland sausage with Sage and ONION

Ha, she said, sage is a herb so it doesnt count!

I Know, that's why I added the BACON...

Bacon isn't a vegetable

Of course it isn't, you're being ridiculous...... it's a FRUIT


A Fruit, you imbecile, is something which you pick from a PLANT!

Exactly, I picked the bacon and a couple of steaks on my way home from work - stopped by at the "Meat Packing PLANT"
:?:
:?::?:
:?::?::?:

Anyway, it'll serve you right, the Vegetarian magazines say that for every pound of meat you eat, it means you'll die two weeks earlier, so there!

I stopped chewing for a minute and thought.
Finally a cut a big chunk of sausage and resumed supper...

Did you understand what I said?

Sure, I was just working it out... I'm going to die in 1876 which is awesome as I just love the Victorian era, Must let Stephen Hawking know, he said time travel was difficult, turns out he was missing the diet shortcut...

You're impossible!

And yet I exist !, it must be a temporal paradox to do with the victorian thing we were just talking about?

She walked out and slammed the door!

I shouted after her that I was going to invite her to dinner, got a recipe for Vegetarian Nut Roast been wanting to try for ages, just short the main ingredient - a Vegetarian Nut (Page 186 of the Hannibal Lecter Cookbook, Serve with Fava beans and a nice chianti!)

 

Bison/buffalo is very good. Very lean so ideal for jerky and biltong.
Best hamburgers EVER. I haven't eaten beef for years.

Check out the nutrition info:
http://www.m-star.ca/why_bison.html


My friend got it-sight unseen-from a retiring buffalo farmer for $100.
Sounded cheap,assumed it was a small yearling so I suggested we get two,he agreed.

I knew we were in trouble when the livestock truck showed up at my friend's butcher shop,and he called wondering which rented freezer storage we had.
So we actually had about 4100 pounds of meat.
Sold the one to the butcher shop,so after all was said and done the 1000 pounds of meat each cost us almost nothing to have butchered and cut/wrapped.
We then spent 3 days nitrogen flushing and vacuum packing,and making biltong/jerky took more time.

Made a LOT of jerky,biltong, and sausage...vac packed the rest and gave a bunch away.
Vac packed biltong in the freezer,5 years old and it's fine.
If we'd had a freeze dryer at the time,it'll last 25-30 years with no freezing.

Well, it was only half a ton.


Anything worth doing,is worth doing to excess.

 

Sorry I missed the postes

The Buffalo we have are the most feared of all animals, born full of sh3t one would expect them all to be female, like (african killer ) bee's, hence the older ones are tough and less desirable for eating. Also too expensive.

Just an update on the dryer. Everything spiced and cooked as if you were going to eat it.

I have dried biltong and cooked meat, super cool.
Sliced potatoes, cooked, and dried, works well.
Cooked rice, dried, works well.
Cooked spinach, green beans, works well.

The advantage is you re-hydrate and heat up and you have cooked food in a few minutes as to having to cook for half an hour or more. Most of the stuff you can eat cold if re-hydrated or even as is. Everything dried becomes lightweight, and I think ideal for extended boat trips. Most dried stuff takes up less space as well.

One disadvantage though. When you take out "just enough" it is almost always too much.

We bought dried vegetables before, but it was dried raw for sure, it takes longer to re-hydrate and you have to cook it for quite a long time. I have a solar cooker dish (actually I have 3) which doesn't cost a cent to run if there is sun. As long as the sun is up and you can keep the boat from rocking, you can merrily cook away all day long.

Of course if you have a small space, you can make a centrifugal swivel that would keep the dish from changing angle with the sun when the boat does.

First few times I used the solar cooker I asked the wife for more stuff to cook, there are some sun left Disadvantage is the solar cooker wants clear sun, misty, foggy or clouds has a huge effect, unlike electrical solar which still works but just outputs less power.

Another use may be to, like Hoyte suggested, make distilled drinking water with a boiler.

Weird how some things happens at the same time. I showed the dryer to a few friends, two of them's wives recently bought them a dryer. Is this an omen ? !




I should mention that a good pressure cooker works extremely well with a solar cooker dish...

 

How goes the biltong project?

 

The biltong is always fine, you should make some yourself Best is just salt and a bit of pepper. Use good meat.

Ok I can say that drying cooked food for transport is a winner. You simply cook the food as if you are preparing it for a meal, then relay it to the dryer instead and you have long term dried food you can simply re-hydrate and eat cold or heat up as you wish.

The eliminates the use of a freezer or fridge.

I have just cooked a large pot of sliced green beans and it shrinks to a small lightweight amount of... almost crumbs.
Rice, potatoes, meat, green beans and many other foods can be cooked and dried to store in a fraction of the space and weight. Store in brown paper bags, not plastic unless you use oxygen removers. Good for years.

I think this is ideal for when one undertakes a longish trip on land or on the water, the food is sorted. You don't need special cooling equipment, just water, and of course some pre-paration.

I'm working on a method to dry the water and save it in the same way
Yeah, you just add water

If you're on freshwater you can probably just invest in a proper water filter, perhaps a hand crank one or a 12V solar powered something. That or a heavy reservoir.

The dried food we bought before are uncooked, iow raw dried food. It takes quite long to re-hydrate and you have to cook it for at least half an hour before is becomes edible.

 

The Scotts' have already got that sorted - keeps indefinately until you open the bottle and add a little water, then it seems to disappear like magic...

Water - best drink in the world as long as you take it in the right spirit..

 

Well observed there Andy ! My friends will enjoy your comment on drying water, they were thinking I was joking all along

Here's someone that claim she uses dried food only, recons once you start using it this way you won't go back to the un-hydrated food. There's 10 parts, I'm sure you can navigate to part 1 if you want to watch her whole series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoy-3ondVcE
How to dehydrate and store food PART 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd7kEAo3mJU

 

Just a quick update for those interested in long term food...

Just about any food can be dried successfully, and it works very well. I dry a few shelves every week, and also discover uses for things one usually discard off, like brine, the yellow fat nobody uses. This you boil the oil out and it makes an excellent cooking fat, and healthy as well if you look it up, some youtube video's confirm it.

Haven't figured out how to dry bread yet, the slices turn out very tough when re-hydrated. Any ideas ?

 

Try wetting it then microwave it.

 

I've microwaved 'stale' breadbuns before for a few seconds too, but I don't know how it would work for properly dehydrated bread, Micro defrosting frozen bread can also leave it dry and tough, still, a good suggestion and well worth a try.

I do remember that when camping we used to put bread rolls which had got pretty baked and dried out on a rack over the boiling (whatever) and the steam really brought them back and often over softened them, I wonder if a pressure cooker might work for properly dessicated bread.

The flip side is to lightly toast and cube the bread after a good brushing with herb/garlic butter/oil - I have used dessicated soup mix and the croûtons do re-hydrate very nicely actually stay a little crunchier than 'fresh'.
With much less moisture to start, maybe toast might dehydrate better than bread?