Brooklyn Biltong
Dec. 6th, 2021 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithBrooklyn Biltong is grass-fed beef mixed with spices and dried to a tender meat leather texture. It includes salt and celery juice, but no sugar or chemical preservatives. There are 6 flavors ranging from mild through zesty to quite hot.
We tried the original flavor, which is quite tasty with a little spice but not hot. It's good jerky, but not particularly exotic in flavor. The things that make it stand out: it's not too spicy, it's not oversalted, it's not full of chemical crap, and it's chewy rather than boot leather.
So I used a variation of an old hippie hiker trick, and poured some into a pot of ordinary packet noodles. They immediately became a lot more interesting. We're thinking about trying the other flavors. I also think this stuff would be great as a topping on baked potatoes, salad, etc.
To make it hotter: add dried peppers, add your favorite spice blend, or buy the peri peri (hot pepper) flavor.
To make it milder: spread out the biltong in a larger volume of food, don't add any other flavorings, or buy the naked flavor.
The hippie hiker trick, by the way, used to be ubiquitous but I never can find it online now. You just used dried meat for cooking instead of trying to pack any kind of fresh raw meat into the bush. While you can snack on it plain or put in on top of things, the real trick is when you reconstitute it. Since jerky usually has lots of salt and spices, it becomes a way to carry those condiments without spilling anything. You put bite-sized jerky bits into something bland, and that spreads out the flavor. So for instance, set up your pot of dehydrated vegetable soup mix or beans'n'rice or any other dry mix pot meal. Add about a handful of jerky bites per person. As it cooks, the flavors will blend and the meat will tenderize. An advantage to single-serving pouches is that they won't attract pests with food smells. So the biltong is just perfect for these uses. :D
We tried the original flavor, which is quite tasty with a little spice but not hot. It's good jerky, but not particularly exotic in flavor. The things that make it stand out: it's not too spicy, it's not oversalted, it's not full of chemical crap, and it's chewy rather than boot leather.
So I used a variation of an old hippie hiker trick, and poured some into a pot of ordinary packet noodles. They immediately became a lot more interesting. We're thinking about trying the other flavors. I also think this stuff would be great as a topping on baked potatoes, salad, etc.
To make it hotter: add dried peppers, add your favorite spice blend, or buy the peri peri (hot pepper) flavor.
To make it milder: spread out the biltong in a larger volume of food, don't add any other flavorings, or buy the naked flavor.
The hippie hiker trick, by the way, used to be ubiquitous but I never can find it online now. You just used dried meat for cooking instead of trying to pack any kind of fresh raw meat into the bush. While you can snack on it plain or put in on top of things, the real trick is when you reconstitute it. Since jerky usually has lots of salt and spices, it becomes a way to carry those condiments without spilling anything. You put bite-sized jerky bits into something bland, and that spreads out the flavor. So for instance, set up your pot of dehydrated vegetable soup mix or beans'n'rice or any other dry mix pot meal. Add about a handful of jerky bites per person. As it cooks, the flavors will blend and the meat will tenderize. An advantage to single-serving pouches is that they won't attract pests with food smells. So the biltong is just perfect for these uses. :D
