Beef Jerky vs. Beef Biltong: What’s Your Preference?

Offering a thorough pleasure to fulfill the craving of your taste buds are the dried meat recipes that are natives to South Africa. South African Beef jerky and biltong are among these recipes that now draw customers from almost all across the world.

Scrumptious they both might be, jerky and biltong are two very different products. Both are dried meats, which could be made up of beef, but differ a lot in their process, thickness or style. 

Beef Biltong or Beef Jerky? What is your preference? Maybe you would get a better idea when you know about them well.

Beef Jerky: 

Jerky is a Quechuan word which means dried and salted meat. These are pieces of lean meats that contain negligible fat, and are dried to prevent spoilage, even devoid of refrigeration.

During drying, the professionals use salt and other preservatives to prevent bacteria from growing on the meat surface. Salt also ensures the removal of moisture. Additionally, it experiences marinates and seasonings to acquire a bold and healthy flavor which makes a permanent impact on your taste palette. 

Beef Biltong:

Biltong means meat strips and these are scrumptious South African delicacies made up prominently of beef. While preparing these, the meat is treated with a mix of salt, spices and vinegar. Following this, the strips are transferred to drying cabinets for a few days.

Beef Biltong is highly popular almost all over the world and apart from South Africa, Biltong of USA too have gained worldwide prominence.

So What’s Your Call? 

Both are dried meats and delicious as the most delicious elements of earth. Yet, they are different! 

The aspects where they differ are their production processes and their ingredients. Biltong and Jerky meats may vary in the thickness of strips. While jerky is chopped in thinner strips, the meat for biltong could be about one to two inches wide. After drying, biltong could be sliced into thinner strips.

Beef jerky is not always cured with vinegar. 

It may be made only of meat and spices for its taste and smoky flavor. Beef biltong however, experiences vinegar preservation in most of the cases. Also, both these products taste highly unique and are with an appealing texture to lure the appetite

And these are the most important points of consideration, when you opt to choose one between jerky and biltong. Their tastes are magnificent and appearance- out-of-this-world. However, a bit of knowledge of their

composition and preparation procedure is always a handy aspect to understand well its nutritional concept- something which could pose a lot of difference.