What Is Biltong? The Complete Guide to South Africa's Air-Dried Beef
Biltong is beef (or game) that has been cured in vinegar and salt, coated in spice, and air-dried whole over several days until it is safe to eat without cooking. It comes from South Africa, it predates refrigeration, and it is not jerky — jerky is cooked, biltong is cured. This guide covers what it is, how it is made, what it tastes like, and every question people usually ask next.
The one-paragraph version
Take a whole strip of beef, cut with the grain. Wash it in vinegar. Salt it, then coat it in a spice blend built around coriander and black pepper. Hang it in a space with steady moving air, cool and dry, for anywhere from three days to a couple of weeks depending on thickness. The meat loses roughly half to two thirds of its weight in water. What is left is dense, deep red-brown, tender in the middle, firm at the edge, and intensely beefy. That is biltong.
Where the word comes from
"Biltong" is Afrikaans, from Dutch roots: bil, meaning rump or hindquarter, and tong, meaning strip or tongue. So the word describes the shape and the cut, not the animal or the flavor. Despite the name, there is no tongue in it.
The method arrived with Dutch settlers in the 17th century and merged with practices already used by indigenous southern African peoples, who dried meat in strips in the open air. Vinegar and spice were the settlers' contribution; the drying was already there. The Voortrekker migrations of the 1830s and 1840s carried the method inland, and it became the food you took when there was no way to keep meat cold.
How biltong is actually made
| Stage | What happens | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Cut | Whole muscle sliced into strips with the grain, typically silverside or topside | Cutting with the grain gives biltong its characteristic shred rather than a snap |
| 2. Vinegar | Meat is washed or briefly soaked in vinegar | Drops surface pH, controls spoilage bacteria, adds the background tang |
| 3. Salt | Salted, then usually rested and the excess brushed off | Draws out water; salt is the primary preservative |
| 4. Spice | Coriander, black pepper, garlic and variations coat the surface | Coriander is the signature; roasted and cracked it becomes citrusy and warm |
| 5. Dry | Hung in cool, dry, moving air for days | Slow water loss is what makes it tender rather than tough |
| 6. Cut to format | Sold as a whole slab, or sliced across the grain | Slicing across the grain after drying is what makes it easy to eat |
Note step 5. Days, not hours, and no heat. Applying heat cooks the proteins and produces something with a completely different texture. That single difference is why biltong and jerky are not variations on a theme — they are different foods that happen to both be dried meat.
What does biltong taste like?
Beefier than jerky, and much less sweet. Most American jerky is built on a sugar-and-soy marinade, so the first thing you taste is the glaze. Biltong has no marinade to hide behind, so the first thing you taste is the beef, then the salt, then the coriander's warm citrus note, then the faint sourness the vinegar left behind.
Texture depends on how far it was dried. A softer, wetter biltong is tender and yields easily. A drier one is firm and shreds. Neither is more authentic — South Africans argue about this constantly, and preference splits roughly down the middle.
Is biltong raw?
No, and this is the question that worries people most. Biltong is not cooked, but "not cooked" and "raw" are not the same thing. It is cured. Three things make it safe:
- Acid. The vinegar step lowers surface pH before drying begins, at the exact moment the meat is most vulnerable.
- Salt. Salt draws water out of the meat and out of any bacteria present.
- Water activity. This is the real mechanism. Bacteria need available water. Dry the meat far enough and there is not enough free water left to support growth, regardless of temperature.
Water activity, not moisture percentage, is the number that matters. Two pieces of biltong can have the same moisture content and behave completely differently depending on how that water is bound. Properly made biltong sits below the threshold where spoilage organisms can operate. That is the same principle behind prosciutto, bresaola and country ham, none of which are cooked either.
Is biltong healthy?
It is one of the more straightforward high-protein snacks available, mostly by omission — there is nothing much in it. A traditional blend is beef, vinegar, salt, coriander, black pepper and garlic. No cooking oil, no soy, no dairy, no added sugar in an original blend.
| Biltong (typical, 3 oz) | Mass-market beef jerky (typical, 3 oz) | |
|---|---|---|
| Protein | ~36 g | ~27–33 g |
| Calories | ~240 | ~250–300 |
| Added sugar | 0 g in an original blend | ~15–20 g typical |
| Preservatives | None required | Usually sodium nitrite |
| Carbohydrate | Near zero | Moderate, from the marinade |
The figures in the biltong column are The Grub Company's own — 36 g of protein and 240 calories per 3 oz bag. Jerky figures are a category range, because they vary enormously by brand. The consistent difference is sugar: it is the reason biltong works on keto and most jerky does not.
The honest caveat is sodium. Salt is a preservative here, not a seasoning, so biltong is a salty food. If you are managing sodium closely, treat it as such and check the panel on the bag.
What cut of beef is biltong made from?
Traditionally silverside and topside — lean cuts from the hindquarter with long, straight muscle fibers and very little intramuscular fat. They dry evenly, hold their shape, and produce clean strips.
The cut matters more than most buyers realize. A fattier cut will not dry properly, because fat does not lose water the way muscle does, and it can go rancid where the meat around it is stable. The ratio of silverside to topside a maker uses affects yield, texture and how the finished piece behaves in the bag.
How long does biltong last?
Unopened, in a sealed bag with an oxygen absorber, in a cool dry place: three to six months. Once opened, treat it like fresh food — reseal it and eat it within two or three days, or refrigerate it. Left open to the air, it simply keeps drying and gets harder, which some people do deliberately.
Biltong does not need refrigeration while sealed, which is the whole point of the method. That stops being true the moment the seal is broken.
Types and formats
- Slab — a whole dried strip, uncut. You slice it yourself, to whatever thickness you want.
- Sliced — cut across the grain into pieces. The everyday format.
- Minis / bits — smaller pieces or offcuts, usually in single-serve bags.
- Sticks and droëwors — droëwors is dried sausage made with the same spice profile. Related, but not biltong.
- Chili bites — small, spicy, usually drier pieces.
Common questions, answered briefly
Is biltong the same as jerky? No. Jerky is cooked, sweetened and sliced thin before drying. Biltong is cured with vinegar and salt, unsweetened, and dried whole.
Can I freeze it? Yes, and it freezes well. Wrap it tightly, and let it come back to room temperature before eating.
Is biltong gluten free? A traditional blend contains no gluten ingredients. Check the label for the specific product, since some flavored blends use additives.
Is it made from game? It can be — kudu, springbok and ostrich biltong are all traditional. Most commercial biltong, and effectively all of it sold in the US, is beef.
Why is some biltong darker than others? Longer drying, more surface oxidation, and a spice blend with more coriander or a heavier vinegar wash all darken the finished piece.
How do you pronounce it? BILL-tong. Two syllables, hard T.
Who ends up liking it
People who find jerky too sweet. People eating low-carb or keto who want protein that is not a bar. Anyone who wants a shelf-stable snack with a short ingredient list. And, reliably, anyone who grew up in South Africa and has been trying to explain this to Americans for years.
How to eat it
Straight from the bag is the honest answer, and it is how the overwhelming majority is eaten. But biltong is a proper ingredient as well as a snack, and it rewards being treated as one.
- On a board — sliced thin, alongside a sharp hard cheese, pickles and dried fruit. It behaves like bresaola.
- Over salad — shredded, in place of bacon. The salt does the seasoning for you.
- With eggs — chopped into scrambled eggs at the end, off the heat, so it warms without cooking.
- On a baked potato — shredded with butter and cheese.
- In a stew — a South African habit. It rehydrates and gives depth without needing to brown anything.
- With beer or red wine — a hoppy beer cuts the salt; a bold red such as Pinotage matches the density.
The one thing not to do is cook it hard. It is already dried and cured, so heat only makes it tougher and drives off the aromatics in the coriander.
How biltong got to America
Biltong arrived in the US in two waves, and both are still visible in where it is sold.
The first was emigration. South Africans who left from the 1970s onward settled in South Florida, Southern California, Atlanta, Houston and the New York metro, and they wanted the food they grew up on. Small makers started up to serve them, often in a garage before a facility.
The second was the protein-snack boom of the 2010s, which created an American audience actively looking for jerky alternatives with less sugar. That is when biltong began appearing outside specialty shops.
Those two audiences want different things and judge differently. The expat buyer knows what it should taste like and cares about the Original blend. The newer buyer arrives from the jerky aisle with no reference point, and is more likely to try a flavored variant first. A maker serving both has to get the traditional product right, because that is the one being judged against a memory.
See our range — grass-fed, certified Glatt Kosher, air-dried in small batches. If you are new to it, start with Original.
