Traditional Boerewors

[Robert May]

The following recipe was sent to me by cousin in South Africa it is taken from "Biltong en Boerewors" published by the South African Meat Board in 1991, and won First Prize in a National competition.

TRADITIONAL BOEREWORS

INGREDIENTS
� 2 kg prime beef
� 1 kg pork
� 20 g Coriander (50 ml)
� 2 ml ground cloves
� 2 ml ground nutmeg
� 30 g fine salt (25 ml)
� 5 ml freshly ground black pepper
� 500 g bacon
� 100 ml vinegar
� approx 90 g intestinal casing (Pork is better)

METHOD
1) Cut meat into 50mm blocks.
2) Mix in with herbs.
3) Mince pork beef and herb mixture. Not too fine.
4) Cut bacon into small blocks.
5) Add vinegar and bacon to minced meat and mix.
6) Stuff casing with mixture. (NOT too tightly.)

TO PREPARE CORIANDER: 15ml (1 Tblspn) produces 5ml (1 tspn)
� Place in dry pan, heat and stir until light brown.
� Grind, sieve to remove husk.
� Grind remainder to a fine powder

I hope it works out as I have never made it

best wishes

RM

[bern]

that the reciepe that i use and it tastes great!

[aris]

These are my recipes:

http://www.biltongbox.com/boer.html
http://www.biltongbox.com/boer2.html

Personally, I don't like using nutmeg or clove. Nugmeg gives me a headache (I must be allergic or something), and I have an aversion to clove ever since a chef friend told me that in the trade, it is used to mask the taste of rancid meat

[bern]

aversion to clove ever since a chef friend told me that in the trade, it is used to mask the taste of rancid meat

never knew that good to know when one eats out

[Erikht]

I think the book is called "Biltong en Dr�ewors". If so, I bought it this spring.

[aris]

Could you post some of the recipes and techniques in there? Particularly for Droewors.

[Erikht]

It's nothing new in this book. The biltong recipes is as they usually are:

-Cut the meat in 25-50 mm strips.
-Plase them in a container of enamel, glass or plastic, in layers with saltmix sprinkeled in between. Put the thickest pieces in the bottom.
-sprinkle a little brown vinegar over each layer. Place cool.
- The next day, dip each piese quickly in hot vinegar water to remove salt, then hang in a cool and airy place.

Saltmix for 25 kg of meat:

500g-1 kg of salt
180g sugar
20g saltpetre
20 g bicarbonate of soda
15 ml pepper



Spices(use one of theese. When you get better, make your own mix).

100g aniseed
80-160g wholecoriander()
5 ml allspice
15 ml garlic salt.

Vinegar water:
350 ml brown vinegar
4,5 liters boiling water.

Dro�wors.

4,5 kg beef or mutton
1 kg sheeps tail fat(I think any mutton fat will do)
34g fine salt
20g whole coriander(Roast them, crush them, and sieve them)
5 ml ground cloves
10 ml freshly ground black pepper
90g casings(preferably mutton casings when making mutton sausage)

Make sausages. Dip them in vinegar water. Hang them over thick wooden rods(they shall not touch)
Dry in a cool, draughty place(like biltong)for 24 hours. Flatten them to get rid of air pockets. Let them hang until dry.

It's important to understand that biltong and dro�wors was traditionaly made in the winter, because of the temperature. We have the posibility to use more of the year. Even so, dryness and wind are very important for dro�wors and biltong to succeed. Still, I think it's hard to fail. Just try it.

[Bob]

TRADITIONAL BOEREWORS

Your recipe is similar to one I found in a compendium of sausage recipes (posted earlier). It also had

ground dried thyme
ground allspice
clove garlic, crushed
Worcestershire sauce

A few comments about your recipe:

1. I would not use prime beef as it is far too expensive to grind up for sausage of any kind. Use ground chuck.

2. Use prepared ground coriander availble from any of the major spice packagers.

3. As usual sausage recipes do not give the fat percentage. When I asked about that for the recipe I posted, someone said use the traditional fat percentages you find for most sausages, namely anything from 25% to 50%.

[Erikht]

Could you post some of the recipes and techniques in there? Particularly for Droewors.

I saw your homepage, and liked the biltong box. But I think it should go well even without the box, it will just take some more time. But as a south african(I guess you are), do you think the box made or the oldfashioned(like Oupa used to make)wind dried is the best?

[Bob]

Nugmeg gives me a headache (I must be allergic or something)

Nutmeg in huge quantities is used by prisoners to get high. Coming down is agonizing.

I have an aversion to clove ever since a chef friend told me that in the trade, it is used to mask the taste of rancid meat

So are most spices, especially peppery spices. Cloves is not particularly special in that regard.

A little jalapeno on your roadkill and no one will notice. All the fast food joints in the US desert southwest serve jalapeno with sandwiches, so you know where the meat comes from.

[aris]

Could you post some of the recipes and techniques in there? Particularly for Droewors.

I saw your homepage, and liked the biltong box. But I think it should go well even without the box, it will just take some more time. But as a south african(I guess you are), do you think the box made or the oldfashioned(like Oupa used to make)wind dried is the best?

I lived in SA for 12 years. I make droewors in the biltongbox - it takes about 5 days to dry. I don't think that just hanging it somewhere will do - unless you have very low humidity. I dry it until it is bone dry. A good blend of fat in the dried sausage keeps it nice and moist.

Here is my recipe:

10lb Beef mince - but not too lean
5 tsp. salt
1 level tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. cloves
5 tablespoon rough ground coriander.

75ml white wine vinegar. Don't use malt vinegar.

50ml Worcester sauce

Sheep casing or a butcher who is willing to fill them
for you. The butcher will know them as chippolata
casings. These casings are much thinner than normal
casings.

Mix the dry ingredients.
Combine the wet ingredients.
Put the mince in a big plastic bowl. Sprinkle
about 1/4 of the dry mixture and mix it thoroughly with
your hands. Repeat the process with the wet mixture.
Repeat the process until all the mix is gone.

Stuff sausage casings. Don't stuff the casings to full
else it takes too long to dry and don't stuff them too
loosely else it tastes yucky with all the dry skin.
Don't forget that you will lose about half of the total
weight to moisture loss. If you are getting a butcher to
stuff the casing tell him to stuff it about 75% of the
amount that he stuffs chippolata's.

Hang in box

[Bob]

These are my recipes:
http://www.biltongbox.com/

Your "Real South African Biltong" looks just like solid beef jerky. You could also use beef brisket.

I would prefer to use curing salt for 8 hours in the refrigerator, either dry rub or brine. For one thing the nitrite makes the finished product a deep red color.

I have never seen vinegar used in a jerky recipe - I expect it to impart a really distinct flavor. You might try a little Worchestershire sauce - I spotted it in a recipe for Boerewors.

I have used an electric dehydrator to dry solid beef jerky with good success. It takes about 12-24 hours depending on the thickness of the meat. I may air dry for a while to set the surface before putting the meat in the dehydrator.

Your recipe looks delicious - I will try some next time I smoke a brisket and have some pieces available to use for this recipe.

[aris]

Yes, the vinegar does impart a particular flavour - that's why it is important to use something like apple-cider vinegar. The vinegar also helps with killing germs.

I wouldn't use brisket - it is too tough. As with anything - the better quality the ingredients, the better the finished product. When drying, it is best to dry as slow as possible. If you dry too quickly, you get a chewy product.

[Erikht]

My point exactly. And I should think that if the air is dry enough do dry fish(and here it is), then the biltong should not be a problem.

I have seen it dried in garages in South Africa. This was in the highveld, were it's aleays dry.

Even so, if you can dy salamis and hams, you should be able to dry biltong.

[aris]

Well, drying salami's actually requires HIGH humidity and low temperature. You need a humidity of around 70% - so the analogy is not the same.

We too dried biltong in the highveld - but always used the biltong box - both in summer and winter.