Batch logs

Biltong Batch 2

5.98 kg of Irish silverside, 15 pieces. The only batch with a complete record of both initial and final weights, which is where the 4.21%/day drying figure comes from.

Biltong Batch 3

6.02 kg from Gourmet Experts, 18 pieces. Initial weights and per-piece costs recorded; the batch was never weighed out at cutting.

Biltong Batch 4

7.98 kg of Irish silverside. No per-piece log kept; the useful output was the discovery that the dredge ran out.

Biltong Batch 5

8.2 kg of Irish silverside in 21 pieces (hook 10 missing). Larger loins meant fewer, bigger sections than previous batches.

Biltong Batch 7

Black Angus silverside from Ireland, 8.7 kg raw and about 7.5 kg after trimming silverskin and fat. Hung 3 September 2026 at 13h00 across 25 pieces, 7944 g net of hooks at 12 g each. First batch cut to a thickness spec rather than to the seam, and first with MSG in the dredge. Nitrite was specified and then dropped for lack of supply. In progress: 9 pieces cut as of 11 September, 16 still hanging.

Mixed-bone demi-glace, batch 1

First demi-glace from frozen bone scraps. Mixed chicken, duck and beef, majority chicken. Single oven extraction at 88-92 C, no staggering by species. Came out of extraction noticeably bitter. Traced to roasted garlic, rescued with kombu.

Braai, upright grid, South Africa

One spatchcocked chicken, marinated in the paste, cooked upright in a hinged grid beside wood coals. The cook moved the coals during the cook. The bird weight is not recorded in this log.