Biltong and beef jerky are forever being compared to each other. Most likely because they are comparable as a dried beef meat snack. Although they are both dried meat they are in-fact very different - both in the way they taste and the way that they are produced.
In general, beef jerky is far more commercially recognised than biltong due to the fact that you will find jerky available in most popular food retail chains, especially in America but in the last decade this has become the case globally too. There is an upward trend with meat snacks in general mostly because of the nutritional properties that dried meat contains.
What's the difference between jerky and biltong?
In essence jerky is cut much thinner (shaved), salted, spiced and then can often be smoked as well as cooked. Usually jerky is cooked at about 80 degrees Celsius to achieve the desired texture and result.
Biltong is cut into slabs (or steaks), it's also salted, spiced and marinated and then hung up to dry at an ambient temperature - maximum temperature of around 25 degrees Celsius.
Since biltong is not cooked it retains far more of its natural nutrition and yields better health attributes when you look at the nutritional stack of each product.
It's common to hear an avid biltong lover saying 'I do not like jerky' because of the long list of ingredients or it being too sweet or strange texture etc. But you will also often hear jerky enthusiasts saying how much they like biltong. It doesn’t seem to go vice versa but if you are a meat lover and you like jerky, we think you are going to love biltong, you just don’t know it yet.
You can order proper South African-style biltong here and have it delivered to your door across Europe. That way you can see for yourseklf and decide which you prefer.
Made with premium produce which is locally sourced and made in The Netherlands.