No idea about this product or how to make Biltongs (so cannot comment on how it will work as compared to traditional methods or products already on the market).
All i know is that good Biltong is amazing.
Luvele is a good brand, I have their vacuum sealer and have just ordered a waffle maker from them as well.
Yeah you can actually build your own quote easily, theres allot of tutorials out there. Basically you just need a plastic storage container, some dowel, a pc fan and a light. Biltong is more about the prep :)
Yeah it's all about the secret herbs & spices
Here's a simple recipe
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/142948/docs-best-beef-jerky/it
if you want to save money there's plenty of food dehydrators on Instructables.
Or you can use an oven on low fan forced.
That link does not work for me.
Best jerky is made on the coal/wood drum smoker, but its so much easier to make in the plastic food-dehydrator.
Or, if you want to save even more money, just use the time you would have spent making it/cleaning up thereafter/storing it to actually work/earn money instead, and buy the biltong already made/packaged from a company that makes it in bulk, and can thus make it way cheaper than you can.
This way you make money in the (considerable amount of) time you would have spent instead making biltong, you do not spend anything on the equipment or electricity required to dry it, and you do not spend up big on normal-price/consumer-level-price kilos of beef/ingredients, only to have it reduce by a factor of more than 3 as it becomes biltong (or a considerably larger factor if you are contemplating making jerky).
I bought a cheap-but-good dehydrator to muck around with a few years ago. After doing the experiments/maths, I have found that it is an awesomely cheap way to make 'sundried' tomatoes any time I can get a huge box or two of tomatoes from Preston or Vic market for just about nix (which is surprisingly often), but for biltong or jerky? Nuppers. Cheaper to actually buy it already made (as long as you buy a decent amount of course, not a fiddy gram bag), especially if you factor in the time etc. required (not just the cost of the beef).
Of course if you want to make your own for the enjoyment of doing so, or because you want something that is not readily available at the right price, that is another story. I do still make up a big batch of 'Skippy Jerky' whenever my local WW has too much roo-steak on their hands and knocks at least 3 kg down to half price.
Wow, I'm really hungry now. Over-and-out.
yeah but where's the fun in that?
I have a better plan, I've got a mate who makes it & I just visit him for samples & take home offerings. Maybe swap it for some homebrew.
@supabrudda:
Yeah, like I said if you're doing it for the fun of it (or to 'customise' your product) that's completely understandable… but peeps out there should not be under any illusion that making their own biltong or jerky will actually save them any money.
Granted, if you have a mate that makes good biltong/jerky, and you can pop a thimble or two of vodka into a cheap bottle of light beer or two and move it into a 'clean-skin', then swap that '$4 investment' for some of that biltong/jerky, that would be a good (but ethically questionable) swap.
If you're talking real home-brew though (and I think you are), then I need to find myself some friends like you guys!!! A decent chat over some homemade biltong/jerky and liberal splashings of home-brew is the stuff my dreams are made of. As long as I don't actually have to make the biltong/jerky, or the home-brew. 'Kinda' contradicts my previous post, but kinda doesn't. I'm time-poor.
It looks like a regular dehydrator, that you can get on ebay for less than half the price? The only difference I see is that the middle of the trays can be removed for hanging biltong, but you can easily modify most regular dehydrators yourself to do the same thing.