It’s a delicious dried meat snack that’s made from big chunks of beef steak, marinated in vinegar and other spices. Various spices can be used to add flavour but the most common include black pepper, coriander and sea salt. The marinated steaks are then hung in a room that circulates air around the pieces to slowly dry them out at ambient temperatures. This keeps biltong soft and tender during the drying process. Once dried, you’re left an air dried steak aka biltong, that can easily be sliced into thin, easy-to-enjoy strips.

At this point, some of you are probably thinking, “Oh, so it’s like beef jerky, right?”.

Well — only in that they’re both dried meats. But otherwise, hell no! Most beef jerky is very processed, where thin strips of meat are covered in artificial sauces and then cooked at high temperatures over a few hours inside drying ovens. To be frank, the team at Barbell Foods have never been beef jerky fans as most commercial jerky is loaded with preservatives, sugars, and other bad stuff. Barbell Biltong is healthier and tastier than beef jerky and contains no preservatives, dairy, gluten, soy or added sugar.

It takes 7 days to dry our biltong to perfection, and no heat is used to cook the meat during this process. This gives it a softer texture and makes it less chewy compared to jerky — it’s a welcome contrast to the often-leathery texture and artificial taste that comes with most commercial jerky on the market.