During his travels to visit primative peoples from every continent on earth, Weston Price found that while human diets are very diverse, there are some definite similarities - Raw animal food is one of those similarities. Price found that each group of people had some form of raw animal food in their diet, whether it be raw meat, insects or milk. Raw meat is a bounty of essential vitamins and enzymes, some that can not be found in any other source. B6 and B12 can only be found in animal foods, coenzyme Q10 and other unresearched anti fatigue factors as well as enzymes to help you digest the protein make raw meat a super food.
It may prove a little difficult to get anyone older than 3 to slug down a chunk of raw steak, so here’s a recipe for a South African delicacy, Biltong. When you dry meat at just below 65 Deg C, all the afor mentioned nutrients stay intact, the enzymes are still alive and it is preserved very well.
You’ll need:
1kg round steak or top side (If you can get it try game meat such as buffalo, deer or ostrich) sliced into 1cm thick pieces.
1 cup soy sauce or tamari
2 cups Apple Cider Vinegar
A dehydrator (Excalibur is best)
Flavour of your choice, I’ve tried crushed coriander seed, garlic, honey and maple syrup. all received glowing praise from kids and husband alike.
Mix the marinade in a glass bowl and drop the meat in, strip by strip to allow full coverage of each piece. If the marinade doesn’t cover the meat, top it up with whey or more apple cider vinegar.
Marinade over night in the fridge and dry in a dehydrator until crisp. If you can still bend the meat strip and it doesn’t snap, it’s not dry enough and will harbour dangerous bacteria. Once dried properly, Biltong will keep for weeks, if you can keep the kids mits off your stash.
Biltong is great for kids lunches cut into bit sized pieces. It’s like having a tasty snack like flavoured potato chips, without vegetable oil and all the scary chemicals. I just need a couple of pieces and I feel satisfied and well nourished.
About the Author...
Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine, Chief Nourisher and Mother of three is very grateful to live in Byron Bay and be able to share all she has learned about Nourishment. She has trained as an Acupuncturist (unfinished), Kinesiologist (finished) and parent (never finished). She serves the Weston A Price Foundation as a chapter leader. She loves sauerkraut, kangaroo tail stew, home made ice cream, her husband Wes and her kids Isaiah, Brynn and Ronin (in no particular order…well maybe ice cream first).
Aug 29th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for the idea - I’ve got some steaks marinating in the fridge as we speak!
Aug 29th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Let us know how they go Josh.
Joanne
Mar 9th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Ive seen nice Biltong at the African food stall at the Queen Vic Market in Melbourne!
Jun 20th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Sounds great.
Is there anything I can use instead of soy sauce? We avoid it here because my son has reactions to it.
Thanks!
Jun 20th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Mary I guess seasalt would work ?!
Jun 20th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Try Tamari, if it’s the wheat in soy sauce he reacts to, Tamari will fix it. It has no wheat. If you use just salt, you’ll have to add another wet ingredient to make up the marinade.
Jul 6th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Thanks for this article. I wished I had read it before I had my first go at dehydrating pasture fed raw liver. I marinated fine strips in lemon juice and salt and put the wet strips into the dehydrator. The liver had been frozen for a couple of months before I defrosted it to prepare. I dried at a very low temp for 10 or 12 hours by accident. I forgot to turn off the dehyrdator after 5 hours. I realised later that I should have dried at a higher temp for a shorter time. The strips were tacky probably from the lemon juice and were brittle. I stored them in a container and put them into the fridge. This was about a week ago. I didn’t want to throw out until I got more info. If the meat has the potential to cause illness because of the way it was prepared then I will just give it to the dog. I am hesitant to try them or give them to the children as I am concerned about bacteria that may have formed during the dehydrating process because the temp was so low and on for much longer than recommended for raw meat.
Jul 6th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Judy, I dehydrate my meat for 10 to 12 hours. It should be fine. Did you defrost in the fridge before marinading? Perhaps you could cut when frozen and defrost in the marinade just to be sure. I’m sure the Inuit dehydrated their fish for longer than 10 hours in much cooler temperatures (hanging in the breeze for a few days - perhaps the sun and wind make it difficult for bacteria to grow).
I’ve made the mistake of turning the dehydrator off and forgetting it, then a few hours later turning it on again and finishing the job. The resulting husband projectile vomitting until his eyelids were bruised was enough to teach me the lesson: don’t sit the meat without air blowing on it. I have also caused poisoning by dehydrating only partially and giving to a friend. Straight out of the dehydrator was alright but the next day bacteria had grown on the still moist meat. She was very forgiving and said it was enjoyable for her to have a good bowel cleansing day of diarrhoea. I was so embarrassed and learned that lesson well.
All these tribulations I, The Nourisher, willingly go through so that you don’t have to. LOL Seriously Judy, I think what you did sounds exactly right for preparing biltong. Which dehydrators do you use?
Jul 9th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Thanks for your reply to my querie. I did defrost in the fridge but will
cut when frozen next time and defrost in marinade as you suggest. Thanks
for sharing all your good and not-so-good experiences so I can learn from
these. I look forward to getting better with drying raw meats.
You asked me which dehydrator I use. I recently purchased the ezidri
dehydrator largest model 1000w.
Blessings
Judy
Jul 11th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Has anyone tried kangaroo for this?? - or pemmican??
Apr 5th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Hi, do you think it will be ok if i dry the meat out in the oven at a very low tempertaure?
Apr 7th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Yes Sophie. Just don’t do what I did. Take the half dried meat out, refrigerate while I made a roast, then put the meat back in the oven. My husband retches at the word Pemmican now. He won’t even consider putting it in his mouth. Lessons from the Nourishers kitchen - commetnt 8 above tells the sad tale.
Jun 16th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Very nice,
I am building a box at the moment (check the site http://www.biltongbuilding.blogspot.com , i will let you know how I go and I might end up building more for everyone!!
Aug 9th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Joanne this is great.
My family are from South Africa and I was there this July!
We had biltong almost everyday! I actually did a blog post on foods from South Africa (that i had there)
if any one wants to have a look its at: http://www.michellesfoodandhealthsite.com/healthy-recipes-and-food/foods-and-plants-of-south-africa
Michelle.