Instructions

1. Cut the beef along the grain into strips around 2.5 cm through, and keep the batch to one thickness. Every strip on the rack has to finish together, since they come down together.
2. Rub the coarse salt over the strips and stand them in a dish for an hour or so, then pour off what collects. That liquid is water the machine no longer has to remove.
3. Turn the salted strips through the white wine vinegar until every face is wet. A white wine vinegar is milder than the red or balsamic used on other biltong, which is deliberate here — it leaves room for the herbs to be tasted.
4. Crush the dried oregano and basil between your palms before they meet the meat, and mix them with the garlic and cracked pepper. A dried leaf tipped straight from the jar gives up almost nothing.
5. Press the herb mixture onto the wet strips with your hands and refrigerate them overnight in a covered glass dish. Pressing matters here — dried herbs have nothing to hold them on and will simply fall off a strip that is only sprinkled.
6. Hook the strips up with a gap between each, herbs facing outwards where you can. Anything pressed against a neighbour rubs bare.
7. Keep the cabinet at 25 °C and leave it 72 hours for a wet, fatty biltong with a slightly pink centre. For a drier, firmer one add another 24 hours at a time until it suits you. Both are correct.
8. Pinch a strip at its thickest to judge it: even firmness through the middle means it is done, and a soft core means more time. Slicing one open settles the argument — the colour should be consistent from edge to edge.
9. Slice it and keep it in a paper bag in a cool cupboard for a month. Biltong is never fully dry in the way jerky is, so it needs to breathe, and the herb crust will start smelling musty before the meat does if it is sealed up.