Cattle Country Classic · Dried, Cured Meat
Segwapa (Botswana Biltong)
Photo: Biltong SA / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ghanzi's ranches alone supply roughly three-quarters of the beef Botswana exports to the UK and EU, which is part of why the district has become the country's biltong capital as much as its cattle capital.
Strips of beef or game meat, such as kudu, are rubbed with salt, vinegar and spices like coriander and black pepper, then air-dried until firm and intensely flavoured. Around Ghanzi's cattle ranches and farm stalls, it's sold sliced or whole as a snack that needs no refrigeration.
Why it's made this way: In a district built on free-range cattle farming, drying meat has long been the practical way to preserve a bumper slaughter through the dry Kalahari months without spoiling.
More from Botswana
Chibuku (Bojalwa)
Magwinya (Vetkoek)
Phane (Mopane Worms)
Seswaa
Bogobe (Sorghum Porridge)
Dikgobe (Samp and Beans)
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.