Talk:Biltong/Archives/2011/February

Sugar are not?

In the first paragraph it mentions that the one thing that separates biltong from jerky is that it never has sugar added. Then the list of typical ingredients for biltong lists sugar. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Liveupdate1 (talk • contribs) 22:36, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Both the recipies here[1] and here [2] mention brown sugar (both in refs at bottom of main page). A few people have been reverting sugar as a prime ingredient. I dont think this is fair, unless they can come up with better references than the ones provided. I've made biltong both with and without - both taste good, but we're looking for better confirmation, which is hard to fine. Jamsta (talk) 12:17, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

I believe the point is to distinguish it from jerky where sugar is a major ingredient. Jerky is definitely sweet whereas biltong is never sweet. Even though sugar is an ingredient of the cure - the salt, vinegar and spices such as pepper and corriander completely obscure the relatively small proportion of sugar. Unfortunately I can't cite a definitive source for this but my family has been producing biltong on a commercial scale for generations. This page has sometimes been "attacked" by people who claim it is just a variety of jerky and should be merged into that article. Another difference between biltong and jerky is that biltong is never sun-dried, it is cured slowly in cool dark conditions. Roger (talk) 12:35, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

That's a good distinction: the sweetness of taste vs sugar being present in small quantities - I'm sure that would be good to add to the main article, we'll just have to keep ref hunting. Agree on keeping Jerky and Biltong apart, voted against the merge when it was suggested. Anyway, hopefully a news org/historian group will put out a release confirming the original recipe/prep detalis, and we can cite that in the main page. Jamsta (talk) 14:21, 23 February 2011 (UTC)