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Cattle Country Classic · Dried, Cured Meat

Segwapa (Botswana Biltong)

Segwapa (Botswana Biltong) — street food from Ghanzi, Botswana
Photo: Biltong SA / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Ghanzi's ranches on the Kalahari sandveld are among Botswana's main cattle country, part of the national herd whose beef is exported to the European Union.

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.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.