From: Hugh Leslie - Isle of Man Dear Aris, I have followed your recipe on How To Make Real South African Biltong. It has been in the box for 3 days now and the smell in the room is truly wonderful. By this weekend my wife and I will be sampling your recipe.
From: Donald Cumming - Canada Aris, I tried your method and I was really lekker !
From: Darryl Lazarow I made the box you show on your page with some modifications, and the biltong came out great, it took 24 hours for some of the thin slices to dry, some a little longer, I guess I have to work on the consistancy thing. I also modified your recipe slightly, but the results are terrific.
From: Ernie Evans <iago@thenet.co.uk> AT LAST SUCCESS!!! All your advice has paid off. The greyish powder is table salt as I used a mix of that and rock salt as the rock salt ran out. It tastes great and my whole family is really pleased. We also made your Boerwors which we have been looking for a recipe ever since we bought a sausage maker. We just had it on our braai and I had to write to tell you how good they were. If I get some photos done on a Kodak Cd i`ll send you a picture of my Biltong box. We changed the design so that it is collapsable and it also has two sliding lids on the front. one where the meat is and one where the light is. This as well as making it easy to take to pieces for strorage made a quick and easy way of looking at the meat. We had a little problem on the last day as it got hot outside and there were a lot of flys buzzin about. I found one in the box and so made modifications to the holes (just some gauze over the holes) it didn`t seem to affect the airflow and stops moths and flys gettin in.- how come you got no flys etc? Anyway, Thanks for your top class page and advice, it`s paid off and my whole family is forever gratefull, No more buying Biltong from Selfridges for about £15 a slice!!!
From: Andr‚ Venter<ajventer@mindspring.com> I just printed up some of your recipies. Thanks very much for a wonderful resource. Thanks Andr‚ Venter Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
From: Steven <godfrey@iafrica.com> My name is Steven. I have built the Biltong Box which I found on your web page, and it has worked very well. My brother and I have made a lot of very good biltong with it. Cheers and thanks a lot. Steven.
From: Rona Sissons <rsissons@magna.com.au> I am not South African but I had the pleasure of living there for three years between '84 and '87. I really miss the biltong and droe wors, but I have now made your biltong box (in Sydney the biltong box is essential for successful biltong) using a 40 watt lamp and fly screen to cover the holes (you want to see the bugs we get here). Great results and I recommend using what is called here "New York" cut steak but in RSA it would be called Porterhouse steak.
From:Caroline Tigeressi <Tigeress@ethergate.com>
Well the closest I ever got to South Africa was an archeology
teacher I had, but your biltong box is fantastic! I personally
reccomend soaking the meat in worschishire sauce, as it will make things
nothing short of fantastic! I prefer a roast cut, yes, higher in fat,
but it's very, very, good :)
From:Wim and Mieke Muller<biltong@dds.nl> Dear Aris, I just want you to know that we enjoy your homepage and became real biltong homemakers in Amsterdam.
From:Marius Elsebeth<MariusE@automakers.com> Hi there, I've decided to reply on your biltong recipe. I have tried ( only once so far ), but I can say that it is definitely a winner ! Well done and thank you !
Ronel & Dirk Uys - New Jersey, USA Dear Aris We found your recipe for Biltong on the net and tried it out. What a great success! Now I don't have to bug my husband for biltong anymore. He first tried to dry the biltong with a normal carton box and it worked great, but now he wants to build his own biltong box with timber. This is just a short note to say thankyou and yes we all are very homesick South Africans! Ronel & Dirk Uys New Jersey, USA
Crawshaw Family - USA Aris, you have no idea how excited my husband and I are with the biltong we have made thanks to your great recipe. We have been living in Boston since February 98. Of the many things that we miss most about SA, biltong is definitely near the top of the list. Because smuggling it in to the US is stupid and unlawful, we decided to try and make our own. I was really sceptical about it, however that did not dampen my husband's enthusiasm. He went straight along and made some last sunday. We have been watching patiently as it dries, finding it hard not to touch and taste at every opportunity. It gets an inspection frequently throughout the day. Finally last night we were able to try one of the drier pieces. What a success! My husband has been bragging about it ever since and is determined to build a bigger and better box for the next batch! Thank you so much for being able to bring a little bit of SA into our lives.
Charles and Greta Thompson - Rockhampton, Australia Dear Aris, Greetings and a happy New Year to you from Rockhampton, Australia A number of ex SA friends and myself have for some time been trying to make biltong as we used to have in SA without to much success due in no small way to the high humidity levels which have restricted our efforts to the winter months of the year. Around September last year I found your biltong box and recipe on the net and decided to give it a try out. This was held over to the Xmas holidays when I constructed a box and prepared to try it out. Using about 2 kilos of meat to reduce the cost of failure we used your recipe and switched on. Needless to say this corresponded with a period when we had 5 days of rain with humidity in the 70/90%. It took about 5 days to reach an acceptable dryness but was totally successful and tasted regtig lekker. We now have a 10kg batch on the go as the first lot is finished. I can only say it works perfectly. If it does such a good job under rocky summer conditions it is sure to work anywhere I can think of and is totally recommended. We will now be able to make biltong at any time of the year. Charles and Greta Thompson Greta Thompson Library. ext.6310 Educational Services. ext.9059 Central Queensland University.
Thomas Moscheni - Switzerland
Your Biltongbox works perfekt. The Recepies i tryd came out very well!
Thank You .
Many Greetings from Switzerland
Thomas
Moscheni
Norman and Heather Lotter - Ontario Canada 07 April 99 Dear Aris: We made your biltong box on a smaller scale than your drawing. We built a 25 x 29 x 63 mm (outside dimensions) box using 20 mm shelving. The light globe is 40 watts, in keeping with the smaller box volume. The separating shelf between the globe and the drying chamber is located 13 cm above the inner base of the box, and is made of 2 mm plywood. The ventilation holes on the shelf are 3 mm dia, drilled in circles centred on the midpoint of this shelf. The intake draught holes are either side of the box base and are 5mm dia, total 4 each side; the exit holes are the same diameter but are located at the top rear of the box. We have just sampled our first batch of beef biltong, prepared in accordance with your specifications, and conclude that this is very 'lekker'. Curing time was 4 days. Congratulations - SA cultural technology succeeds again. Norman and Heather Lotter Sudbury, Ontario
Denise Samuel - Pennsylvania, USA At last! I was given your web address for the Biltong Box instructions a month ago, and we made ours in cardboard first, to try. It's been wonderful and so has the recipe. I've been making made biltong every week since, and I'm freezing it to give a supply to my son when he gets up from Florida. I can't tell you how I've missed my biltong over the years! I want to make the boerewors next. I've run into a problem of getting "natural "casings where I live, in Pennsylvania. Do you have a source that you could suggest? I love the website....Aris, you're the greatest! Thanks again.
Pnz Stockl - Sydney, Australia Hi, It's a winner. I have heard about Biltong some time ago and finally searched the internet. I have since built a Biltong box as you suggested. Have since dried about 10 batches of biltong. I use unsalted Silverside, olso known as roasting beef here in Sydney. I experimented a bit with various spices. I quite like the standard coriander and black peper one. Another one I have taken a liking to is coriander, black pepper and a sprinkling of all purpose curry or Tabasco. Son #1 refused to tough the stuff at first but now can't be kept away from it. I just keep on biltonging. Cheers Franz
Steven Groblelaar - South Africa Dear Aris, Could not believe it! Using your design I put together a "Biltong Box" on Saturday morning and could not believe it when I check the biltong today (Monday) it was ready to eat! Amazing Thanks Steven Grobbelaar
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