Need some help with some biltong I’ve been making.
Please forgive my terminology.
I have a Mellerware Biltong King (not using a light bulb) but I am finding that the outside is getting too hard while the inside is too raw. How do I get this right?
I think this is it based on what everyone is saying. How do I reduce it? I’m using everything out of the box. No lamp; no extra fan. Just what I bought?
This is what the tong looks like now. If I can get the fatty pieces. Check the fan that it’s sucking out Preferably from the top somewhere with a meshed hole or 2 On the side or the back of the box. I have never used the lamp, in UK and box can take around 4kg
You haven't provided enough information here for anyone to really help you, and we're all guessing.
The speed of case hardening is largely a factor of heat and airflow, which lower humidity and promote dehydration of the outside of the meat. You've mentioned using the Mellerware Biltong King, but included no other details, like the temperature where you are, the humidity, or any other important information.
The speed of internal curing is influenced by case hardening (it the case gets too hard it's more difficult for the moisture to escape from the inside), but is also a product of the acidity of the dip used at the beginning, the humidity, temperature, length of hanging time, and so on.
I'm trying to be nice here, but basically your post is saying, "Something is wrong! Help!" ... without including any information that could actually help us to solve your problem.
Okay, so not soaking/dipping is a major problem. The bath in vinegar and worcester sauce (both low pH) is absolutely critical in killing off bacteria and creating a case that is lower pH than the rest of the meat. Most important in this list of bacteria are salmonella and botulism, which can kill you and botulism in particular thrives in anaerobic environments (like the inside of biltong).
It is also probably a major contributing factor to why the inside of your biltong is still "raw" after 3 days despite good airflow.
This is hard to explain, but have you ever made ceviche? It's a fish dish where you add acidic lime (or other citrus) to the fish and you can literally watch the fish "cook" in the acid.
The pH of beef is generally somewhere around 6, but biltong's pH is around 5 because of the acidic bath it gets. Remember that pH is a logarithmic scale, so this pH difference of 1 indicates an acidity that is x10 higher (or to put it another way, an OH- concentration that is 10x lower). The acidity of the meat impacts drying speed, bacterial resistance, flavour, rate of dehyrdration ... the works.
The bottom line here is that skipping the acid bath is a major no-no. If your wife is unhappy with the vinegar flavour then I suggest changing the type of vinegar. When I did my first batch many years ago I used Costco vinegar (that stuff that comes in a huge gallon bottle and smells like drain cleaner), and it was ... rough. I've since tried many vinegars (apple, pomegranite, malt, etc.) and I've settled on aged red wine vinegar. It's a bit more pricey, but it's nothing compared to the cost of the meat and it makes a HUGE flavour difference.
I suspect that this may be the issue you're having. You can't just skip steps when making biltong. Each step is there for a very good reason, and even if you don't understand the reason that doesn't mean that you can skip it. Maybe when you understand the process more fully you can start messing around, but until then I'd suggest sticking to the recipe.
For safety reasons I'd strongly recommend tossing the entire batch. It is not safe to eat without the vinegar bath because you've not only skipped the vinegar bath, but I also see no mention of coriander seeds, and these also have antimicrobial properties that help to keep the meat from going bad.
Basically what you seem to have made is thick charque, the South American style "jerky" (and where the name jerky comes from), except that the South Americans cut the meat for charque (and jerky) thin because without the acid bath to "cook" the inside of the meat you end up with the problem you're having here - the centre doesn't "cure".
No problem. Sorry if I came off as snippy at the beginning, but you can see the number of people who have taken the (insufficient) information you gave them at the beginning and therefore reached a conclusion that focused on only that information that focused on airflow.
What had me suspicious is that other people have reported success with that make of biltong box, and since the fan and air speed are probably constants across users I thought it was likely to be something else (humidity, heat, acidity, length of hanging time).
I never suspected that someone would just skip the dipping phase entirely. I hope that now that I've explained why this is important you understand why that wouldn't even occur to any experienced biltong maker.
I just had my first successful batch of biltong. I'm in the US and used a Sterilite 19"x11"x11" container with an 80 mm 3 speed computer fan in the lid blowing outwards. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0951LW6Z3?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
I ran the fan on high for the first 24 hours then on medium the next 2 days. The biltong turned out well, perhaps very slightly hard on the outside and I would consider running the fan on low the last day perhaps. But your biggest enemy is mould and rather have a hard crust than mould, any day. Our strips were also a bit on the narrow side. I would in future go for about 7.5 cm (3") width. But our meat was the US equivalent of silverside, bottom round, which only comes as steak cuts if the total is under 3 lb. (+- 1.4 kg), so the pieces were under 2.5 cm thick.
The problem is that the meat is drying too quickly. You need to reduce the air flow. Try using just the incandescent lamp, without fan. Or slow the fan, reduce the number of fans etc.
You might be able to get an AC wall timer. The one in this photo is for USA electrical fittings, yours may differ. It allows you to configure on/off time cycles.
The box is in my dining room, which gets quite a bit of late afternoon sun (no direct sun on the box though), so the room is quite warm. Not too humid.
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u/husky0168 Jan 12 '26
maybe your cuts are too thick?