Every time
I frequent a grocery store, I cannot help but notice the packaged meat in the
check out aisle where candy and chocolate would typically be found in grocery stores
in the United States. More often than not, the dark brown-black colored meat is
labeled ‘Ostrich Meat’ or something repulsive. I have never had the impulse to
try these… delicacies… but I was definitely interested in learning more about
it and why people like it so much.
Biltong
originated in South Africa and is a type of cured meat. “Many different types
of meat are used to produce it from beef through game meats to fillets of
ostrich from commercial farms.” It is very similar to beef jerky, but our
Garden Route driver was very adamant in insisting that it is nothing, nothing, like beef jerky. The main
similarity between beef jerky and biltong is that they are both spiced and
dried meats. However, because the production processes are so different and
biltong is thicker and has a slightly sweet taste that obviously makes the two
nothing alike.
Biltong is
a Dutch word literally translating to “rump strip/tongue.” Dutch settlers who
needed a way to preserve their meat from decay and insects were the first to
produce biltong. Since then, it has become South Africa's guilty
pleasure.
PB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltong
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