Biltong Isn't Just a Snack: 4 Ways to Cook With It

This article was created with AI assistance, in line with EU transparency requirements.

Most of us tear open a bag of biltong and eat it standing at the counter, and honestly, that's a fine way to live. But biltong has been a cooking ingredient in South African kitchens for generations, long before it became a grab-and-go snack. Its concentrated, salty-savoury flavour works the same way a good hard cheese or cured ham does: a little goes a long way, and it turns simple food into something you'd order in a restaurant. Here are four ways to put your biltong stash to work beyond the bag.

1. Biltong Butter

This is the fastest way to understand what biltong can do for a dish. Pulse 30-40g of QINA Beef Sliced Biltong in a food processor until it's fine crumbs, then work it into 100g of softened butter with a pinch of black pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Roll it into a log, chill it, and slice a coin onto a hot steak, grilled corn, or baked potatoes. The butter melts and carries the biltong's flavour into everything it touches, which is really the whole trick of cooking with biltong: treat it like a seasoning, not a topping.

2. Biltong Pasta

Biltong makes an excellent stand-in for guanciale or pancetta in a carbonara-style pasta, since it's already cured and packed with flavour. Fry finely chopped biltong in a little olive oil until it crisps at the edges, then toss it through hot spaghetti with egg yolk, plenty of grated hard cheese, and black pepper off the heat so the egg doesn't scramble. Cruga Biltong Original works well here because its saltiness is balanced rather than aggressive, so it seasons the dish instead of overwhelming it.

3. Biltong Salad Shavings

Shave biltong paper-thin with a vegetable peeler and scatter it over a green salad the way you'd use shaved parmesan. Rocket, pear, toasted walnuts, and a mustardy vinaigrette all play well against biltong's dry, chewy texture and deep flavour. It's a fast way to turn a side salad into something that could carry a light lunch on its own, and it's a good excuse to reach for a spicier cut like Cruga Biltong Chilli if you want the salad to have a bit of a kick.

4. Biltong Roosterkoek Topping

Roosterkoek, the South African braai bread cooked on a grill, is traditionally split and filled with whatever's on hand, and biltong is a classic choice. If a full roosterkoek recipe is more than you want to take on midweek, the same idea works on any crusty roll: butter it, load it with thin biltong slices, and add a sharp cheese and a spoonful of chutney if you have one. It's a five-minute lunch that tastes like it took longer.

Start With Good Biltong

Recipes like these only work if the biltong itself is worth eating on its own, which is where sourcing actually matters. Our biltong range covers everything from classic beef to springbok and ostrich, air-dried the traditional way rather than smoked or dehydrated, so the texture holds up whether you're eating it straight from the bag or shaving it over dinner. Browse the biltong collection and find the cut that fits what you're cooking.