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Biltong in Dubai: a straight guide to buying it
Biltong is air-dried beef. It is cured with vinegar, salt and spice, then dried slowly in moving air rather than cooked with heat. It comes from South Africa, and it is not beef jerky. Jerky is usually marinated, often sweetened, and dried with heat; biltong is vinegar-cured and hung to dry, which gives it a softer bite and a cleaner beef flavour. In Dubai you can buy it from the larger supermarket chains, South African specialist grocers, online stores and a small number of UAE-based brands. Most of what sits on a shelf here is imported, and most of that comes from South Africa. Judge a pack on four things: the cut of beef, how wet or dry it is, the length of the ingredients list, and the price per 100g rather than per pack. Halal biltong is widely sold here, but halal covers the recipe as well as the slaughter, so it is worth asking.
What is biltong, and how is it different from beef jerky?
Biltong starts as whole slices of beef, usually from the hindquarter. The meat is wiped or soaked in vinegar, rubbed with salt, coriander and pepper, and hung in a cool, moving airflow for days. Nothing is cooked. The vinegar and salt do the preserving work, the air does the drying, and the coriander is the flavour most South Africans would recognise blindfolded.
Jerky is a different process with a different result. The meat is sliced thinner, marinated in a sauce that usually carries sugar or soy, and dried with heat in a dehydrator or oven. That heat sets the proteins, which is why jerky is chewier and more uniform, and why jerky recipes tend to carry more sugar per pack.
| Biltong | Beef jerky | |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | South Africa | North and South America |
| Cure | Vinegar and salt | Marinade, often soy or sugar based |
| Drying | Cool moving air, no heat | Heat, oven or dehydrator |
| Cut | Thick slices, dried whole then cut | Thin strips, dried as strips |
| Texture | Tender, crumbles at the edge | Chewy and springy |
| Typical sugar | Low | Usually added |
Neither is better in the abstract. They are different snacks. If you are choosing between them for a specific reason, the detail is in biltong vs jerky.
Is biltong halal in the UAE?
Some is, some is not. Biltong is a South African product and much of the industry there is not built around halal production, so the halal packs sold in the UAE are a specific supply chain rather than the default. Three things decide it.
- The slaughter. The abattoir has to be approved and the slaughter has to be done to halal requirements. This is the part a certificate covers, and it is the part you should be able to ask about and get a straight answer.
- The vinegar. Biltong is cured in vinegar. Wine vinegar is common in traditional recipes. Spirit vinegar, grape vinegar and apple cider vinegar are the usual alternatives where wine vinegar is not acceptable.
- The rest of the line. Flavourings can be carried in alcohol, and South African dried-meat producers often run other dried sausage lines, some of which contain pork, on the same equipment.
Anything imported into the UAE for retail sale has to clear the country's own import and labelling rules, which is a real filter. Even so, the most reliable thing you can do is ask the seller where the beef was slaughtered and who certifies it. A brand that cannot answer that quickly is telling you something. There is more on what the word actually covers in is biltong halal.
How do you tell good biltong from bad?
Five checks, in the order they matter.
- Whole muscle, not reformed. Good biltong is sliced off a dried piece of beef, so every slice looks slightly different. If every piece in the bag is identical, it was probably minced, bound and pressed.
- The ingredients list. A traditional recipe is short. Ours is built on beef, vinegar, sea salt, coriander and ground black pepper, and the full declaration is printed on the back of every pack. A long list usually means the flavour is coming from the packet rather than the meat.
- Moisture. Wet, medium and dry are all legitimate. Wet biltong tastes richer and does not keep as well. Dry biltong lasts but can go tough. Medium is the safest first buy.
- Fat. A rim of fat on the edge of a slice is normal and carries most of the flavour. Fat-free biltong is a marketing choice, not a quality one.
- Sweetness. If it tastes sweet, check the label. Sugar is often used to soften meat that was dried too fast or cut from a cheaper muscle.
Open the bag and smell it. Biltong should smell of beef, vinegar and coriander. A sour or musty smell, or a damp feel inside the pack, means it was bagged before it was properly dry.
How much should biltong cost in Dubai?
Do not compare pack prices. Biltong is sold in everything from 25g bags to 250g tubs, so the only honest comparison is per 100g, and the better one is per gram of protein.
Here is the sum, using our own pricing as a worked example. A 35g pack is 15 AED, which is 42.9 AED per 100g. A 90g pack is 34 AED, which is 37.8 AED per 100g. A box of six 90g packs is 180 AED, which works out at 33.3 AED per 100g. Same product, three prices, purely because of pack size. Do that arithmetic on any two brands before you decide one is expensive.
The protein version tells you more. A 35g pack holds 19.4g of protein, so you are buying about 1.3g of protein per dirham. A 90g pack holds 49g, or roughly 1.4g per dirham. Biltong runs at about 55g of protein per 100g because most of the water has gone, which is why it looks dear next to fresh beef and stops looking dear once you weigh what is actually in the bag.
How should you store biltong in the Dubai climate?
Unopened, biltong does not need a fridge. It needs cool, dry and dark. Dubai makes that harder than it sounds: a car in August will cook a pack, and a humid kitchen will soften one. A cupboard away from the hob is fine.
Once a pack is open, the clock starts. Reseal it or move it to an airtight container and finish it within a few days. If you want to keep it longer, a paper bag inside a sealed container beats a fridge, because a fridge puts condensation on the meat and condensation is how mould starts. Go by the date printed on the pack rather than any general rule.
A light white bloom can be salt drawing out. Anything green, black or fuzzy means the pack goes in the bin, no debate.
Where can you buy biltong in Dubai?
Four routes, each with a trade-off.
- Large supermarket chains. They carry biltong on and off, sometimes as an own-brand line. Convenient, but stock comes and goes and you cannot always tell how long a pack has been sitting.
- South African specialist grocers. The best range, including droewors and the other things expats actually miss. Usually a drive.
- Online. Direct brands and the online grocers. You get the full ingredients list before you commit, which the shelf rarely gives you.
- Vending machines and cafes. Growing slowly. Useful when you want one pack rather than a shop.
Whichever route you take, two questions cut through most of it: what is in it, and where was the beef slaughtered. If you are buying for other people rather than yourself, biltong gift boxes in Dubai covers the occasions and what to put in one.
BulltongAfrica is a Dubai brand: South African cattle, cured and packed in South Africa the traditional way and flown here, in six flavours across 35g and 90g packs. You can also browse them as mild or spicy. If you want a specific place to start, Peri-Peri is a good middle-heat pack to judge a producer's spice work by.