Howard wants me to let everyone out there know that I’m the one calling this Biltong — NOT HIM.

We may have followed — (to a T) — the hundreds years old recipe dictated to him by a Boer grandmother during his time in South Africa in the late 80′s, but because I subjected the marinated beef to 90 minutes of smoke in our smoker/dehydrator it was NO LONGER AUTHENTIC.

Now that the necessary disclaimer is out of the way, I assume it’s safe to continue.

We used Bottom Round (beef) — not our first choice (that would have been flank) — and we sliced it on the bias and across the grain into strips about 1/4″ thick.

Then we toasted some coriander seeds until golden and fragrant, and coarsely ground them, together with an equal amount of peppercorns, in a coffee grinder.

Next, we very lightly sprinkled powdered cloves onto the base of a level-bottomed container.  On top of that went a thick layer of coriander & pepper.

Using one hand, we quickly dipped each strip of beef into apple cider vinegar.  With the other hand, we sprinkled a little salt onto each piece before laying it on top of the spices.  Between each layer of beef, we sprinkled more coriander & pepper.  We covered the last layer of beef with the last of the spices, and another very light sprinkling of ground cloves.

The beef went into the fridge, covered, for 6 hours.  Then we flipped the container onto its lid and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, we loaded it onto the racks, and after a couple of hours air drying, it went into the smoker.  Ninety minutes of smoke (my mistake), then 3.5 hours of straight dehydration.

And voilà:  Smoked Biltong.  Spicy, tasty, but not quite authentic.  Shall we call it fusion cuisine?

Created from a piece of beef flank (rescued from the expiring bin in the butcher’s dept.), trimmed slightly, sliced across the grain, marinated, racked, smoked and then dehydrated the rest of the way.

Howard is very, very good at drying meat.  See the little nodules of fat?  I’d never eat raw fat, but I’d wrestle my Grandma to the ground for the last piece of this stuff.

We ARE, of course, talking about bacon lardons. Very good bacon, cut into small strips about 3/8″ wide, then blanched or fried.

Howard insisted that I show you these particular lardons, which he fried the other night as a component of our dinner using smoked tuna, spaghettini, shallots, cream and parmesan.  Very yummy.  So good that I didn’t pause to take a picture of the finished dish.  So you’re stuck graced with these, entitled “Series:  Lardons“  Think of them as an LPT, or Lardon Photo Tutorial:

(Howard would like to thank you for stopping by.)