BILTONG AND WINE? IT'S CATCHING ON

Southern California wine connoisseurs discovered a new snack item: biltong, traditional South African dried beef strips. At a recent product demo, they ate it up.

[ClickPress, Thu Apr 16 2009] On a recent Saturday afternoon at Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa, Calif., customers wheeled their shopping carts laden with bottles of wine and spirits to the register. As they exited, they nibbled free samples of biltong, a traditional South African dried beef product, made by 800Biltong (www.800BILTONG.com).

Larry Burnett, 800BILTONG’s founder and a Laguna Niguel resident, was introducing his product samples in a new type of venue –- an upscale liquor mega-store. Customers ate it up.

Although dried beef isn’t typically served with wine in the United States, many Hi-Time customers came back for more. John Shafer and his wife Patricia Susoeff bought four 3.65-ounce bags. “We love the flavor. The biltong product is much less salty, much softer and moister than any other dried meat I have ever had,” says Shafer.

By day’s end, the 800BILTONG was sold out. Hi-Time Wine Cellars and a growing number of other liquor stores now stock the dried beef snack.

One Hi-Time customer, Peter O'Neill, bought biltong to serve something unique to his friends – “huge meat eaters” -- at his Super Bowl party. “Nobody was familiar with biltong, and everybody wanted to try it,” says O’Neill. “What really surprised me was that my wife liked it. She normally doesn’t like beef jerky-type foods because they are so tough to chew, but the biltong was much softer and so easy to eat.

“The only issue I had with it was that I ran out of it a third of the way through the game,” O”Neill says.

To Burnett, this proves once again that people in this country have a big appetite for new, improved and different food products.

Burnett moved to the USA from Cape Town, South Africa, in 1977. For years, he searched without luck to satisfy his craving for a taste of home -- authentic biltong.

"I tried everyone's homemade biltong, but the spices were not consistent, and most of the time I was really disappointed with what I got," Burnett says. So he started making biltong for his own personal use. He experimented with recipes, flavors and production methods, finally hitting on the winning formula.

Burnett made biltong the traditional way, mixing coriander, vinegar and spices imported from Cape Town to create his own original marinade. Word got out about Burnett’s biltong with the authentic South African flavor, and he found himself making biltong for others.

After starting his 800BILTONG company in 2000, Burnett spent five years diligently working with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to obtain their stamp of approval. Since no standards existed for biltong, Burnett invented them.
“As far as I know, my biltong is the first and perhaps only USDA-approved biltong, with a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan, in the nation,” Burnett says. “The USDA wrote their rule book based on our biltong’s production process.”

In 2005, Burnett began shipping his biltong to retailers and consumers nationwide. He uses premium cuts of USDA-approved beef and a secret blend of herbs, spices and seasonings. Unlike regular beef jerky, which is cooked, biltong beef strips are air-dried in a strictly-controlled environment.

Biltong is one of the first “convenience” foods on record. Biltong originated more than 400 years ago, when Dutch settlers and African tribesmen sun-dried strips of meat, making ready-to-eat sustenance during their long treks across the African subcontinent.

Mothers in Southern Africa and Europe feed biltong to their teething infants. Chewing on the moist, tender biltong eases the pain and discomfort of teething, and it’s a nutritious treat for babies, Burnett says.

“In Europe, it’s a struggle to find beef jerky, but biltong is widely available there. People make it at home and sell it on street corners,” Burnett says. “In this country, because of the USDA control of the meat-processing industry, biltong was scarce -- until we came out with our product."

“Americans say biltong is like gourmet beefsteak because it’s so tender and moist,” Burnett says. “Biltong is 99 percent fat-free, making it an inexpensive, high-energy source of lean protein. It’s ideal for hunting and camping trips, and it goes great with beer.

“Once people try biltong, they never go back to regular jerky.”

For information, call 1-800-BILTONG.

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