Biltong is a dried, cured strip of beef that has been part of Southern African food culture for generations, developed long before refrigeration existed to keep meat any other way. It's easy to assume a food this old has one clean origin story. It doesn't. What historians can trace with confidence is a blend of two much older traditions meeting at the southern tip of Africa, and a word that has stayed almost unchanged for more than 200 years.
Where the Word Comes From
Biltong is Afrikaans, built from two Middle Dutch words: "bil," meaning rump or hindquarter, and "tong," meaning strip or tongue, roughly "a strip cut from the hindquarter." The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest recorded use of the word in English dates to 1815, which tells us the term was already established by the early 1800s, even if the practice behind it is older than any written record of the name.
One popular story claims Dutch pioneers dried strips of meat by tucking them under a horse's saddle so the animal's sweat and motion would cure it on the move. It's a great campfire story, but it doesn't hold up well historically. Horses weren't in widespread use in the region until later in the colonial period, after biltong-style meat drying was already underway. The more credible account is simpler and less dramatic: Dutch settlers arriving at the Cape adopted an existing local practice of drying meat in strips to survive the region's heat and lack of refrigeration, then refined it with the curing tools they already knew.
Two Traditions Meeting at the Cape
Long before Dutch ships arrived, indigenous peoples of Southern Africa were already drying meat into strips and hanging it to cure in the region's hot, dry air, a practical response to living somewhere with abundant game but no way to keep fresh meat from spoiling. The Dutch East India Company established a supply station at the Cape in 1652, and the settlers who came with it brought their own preserving know-how from Europe: salting meat, curing it with vinegar, and seasoning it with spices like coriander, black pepper, and cloves.
What happened next is the part that actually defines biltong as we know it today. The indigenous drying method and the European curing method didn't replace each other, they combined. Vinegar lowered the acidity on the meat's surface, salt and saltpeter drew out moisture, and the region's dry climate did the rest. That combination, air-drying plus a vinegar-and-spice cure, is still the basic method used to make biltong now.
The Great Trek and Life on the Veld
Biltong's reputation as a survival food, and not just a farmhouse snack, comes from the Great Trek of the 1830s and 1840s, when groups of Dutch-descended farmers known as Voortrekkers loaded ox-wagons and moved inland from the Cape Colony into the interior of Southern Africa, largely to get out from under British rule at the Cape. There were no shops on the open grassland they were crossing, and no way to keep fresh meat from spoiling in wagon heat. Dried, cured meat solved that problem: it was light, it didn't need cooking, it was dense in protein, and it lasted for weeks without spoiling.
Biltong stayed a practical field food well past the Trek era. During the Second Boer War (1899-1902), Boer commandos operating across the open veld relied on it as portable rations they could carry without a supply line. A generation later, South African soldiers serving on the Western Front in World War I had biltong shipped to them from home, a detail that says something about how firmly the food was already tied to South African identity by that point.
From Field Ration to National Icon
Biltong's move from survival food to everyday snack happened gradually as South Africa urbanized and refrigeration made meat preservation optional rather than essential. But the taste for it never went away. It became, and remains, a fixture of South African social life: at braais, on road trips, in offices, sold from small family butcheries as often as from big brands. Modern biltong-makers still follow the same core process the Voortrekkers would recognize: salt and vinegar cure, dry spices, and time in the air. What's changed is mostly convenience, packaging, and flavor variety, not the fundamentals.
That's the tradition Grub Company's biltong sits inside, made with the same vinegar-and-spice cure and air-dried the traditional way, offered in Original, Peri Peri, and Loaded Garlic, and certified kosher.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is biltong the same thing as beef jerky?
They're related but not identical. Biltong is air-dried and cured with vinegar and spices, usually left thicker and often slightly softer in the middle, while most commercial beef jerky in the US is marinated, then cooked or smoked, and sliced thinner. Both are meat preservation methods developed independently in different parts of the world, and both rely on removing enough moisture to keep the meat shelf-stable.
Did biltong really originate from meat dried under a horse's saddle?
Almost certainly not, despite how often the story gets repeated. Historians point out that horses weren't in wide use in the region during the earliest period when meat-drying practices were developing, which makes the timeline for that story implausible. The more credible origin is Dutch settlers adopting an indigenous meat-drying method and refining it with vinegar, salt, and spices.
What does the word "biltong" actually mean?
It comes from two Middle Dutch words: "bil," meaning rump or hindquarter, and "tong," meaning strip. Put together, it roughly means "a strip cut from the hindquarter," a literal description of how the meat was originally cut before curing. The word shows up in English-language records as early as 1815.
Why did biltong become important during the Great Trek?
Voortrekkers migrating inland by ox-wagon in the 1830s and 1840s had no refrigeration and no shops along the way, so meat that could stay safe to eat for weeks without spoiling was essential. Biltong was light to carry, high in protein, and ready to eat without cooking, which made it one of the few practical protein sources available on a months-long overland journey.
Is biltong cured with heat, like smoked jerky?
No. Traditional biltong is not cooked or smoked. It's cured with vinegar and salt, seasoned with spices, and then air-dried, relying on the curing process and the dry climate to make it shelf-stable rather than heat. That's the main technical difference from cooked, smoked jerky styles.
Is biltong still eaten the same way in South Africa today?
Yes, largely. It's a staple at braais (South African barbecues), a common road-trip and office snack, and something many South Africans still buy from small family butcheries that cure it in-house. The recipe has stayed close to its 19th-century roots even as packaging and distribution have modernized.
