No, biltong is not raw, and it is not cooked either. It is spiced beef that has been cured with salt and vinegar and then air-dried in cool air for about five days, which draws out the moisture and makes it safe and delicious to eat straight from the bag. So while no heat ever touches it, calling it raw would be wrong: the curing and drying change the meat completely, turning fresh, wet beef into something firm, dark and stable that keeps without refrigeration.
If you are new to all this, our beginner's guide to biltong is a good place to start, but the short version is that air-drying is an old, honest way of preserving good beef that people have relied on for generations.
Is biltong raw or cooked?
Neither, and that trips people up. Cooking uses heat to change meat. Biltong uses time, salt, vinegar and moving air instead. The beef is trimmed, coated in vinegar and spices, hung up, and left in cool, dry air until enough water has left the meat that bacteria cannot thrive. The result is firm, dark and ready to eat, but it was never sat over a flame or in an oven at any point.
That is exactly why biltong keeps its deep beef flavour. Heat can flatten and grey the taste of meat, and it changes the texture into something quite different from the original cut. Air-drying concentrates the flavour instead, so what you bite into tastes more of the beef, not less, and the texture stays closer to real meat.
What does air-dried actually mean?
Air-dried means the beef loses its moisture slowly, in open, moving air, rather than being blasted with heat or sealed and steamed. In our case that air is the cool Atlantic air of Sintra, at around 400m, which is part of why we make it here. Over roughly five days the strips lose a large share of their water weight and turn into something firm you can slice, tear and carry in a pocket.
Removing the water is the whole trick. Bacteria and spoilage need moisture to grow, so take enough of it away and the meat becomes stable and safe without any preservatives or additives. It is a simple idea: good beef, a proper cure and patient drying in the right climate.
How is biltong safe to eat if it is not cooked?
Two things do the work: the cure and the drying. The vinegar and salt lower the surface conditions that bacteria like, right from the first day the meat is hung. Then the days of air-drying pull the moisture down far enough that the meat is preserved. This is the same principle behind other traditional air-dried meats that people have eaten safely for centuries across many countries.
It is worth saying we use good, fresh Portuguese beef to begin with. Air-drying preserves quality meat, it does not rescue poor meat, so where you start matters as much as how you dry. A careful producer controls the temperature, the airflow and the timing, which is why biltong is best made by people who understand the craft.
Is biltong the same as jerky?
No, and this is the most common mix-up. Jerky is cooked, usually at low heat for hours, and it is very often sweetened with sugar or sticky marinades. Biltong is air-dried, not cooked, and ours has no sugar in it at all. The texture is different too: jerky tends to be dry and chewy in a uniform way, while biltong is meatier and more tender, closer to the beef it came from.
If you have only ever had sweet, cooked jerky, biltong will feel like a different food entirely. It is savoury, clean and driven by the beef and spice rather than a sugary glaze. Once people taste proper biltong, they rarely go back to the sweeter, more processed alternative.
Does the climate really change the biltong?
It does, more than most people expect. Biltong is drying in the open air rather than in a sealed machine, so the temperature and humidity around it shape how evenly and how gently it dries. Air that is too warm or damp can rush the process or spoil it, while cool, dry, moving air lets the moisture leave slowly and evenly, which gives a better texture right through the strip.
Sintra suits this well. Sitting at around 400m in cool Atlantic air, it gives us conditions that are steady and kind to the meat. That is one of the reasons we chose to make it here by hand.
What goes into Raw Sintra biltong?
Just six ingredients: Portuguese beef, Worcester sauce, vinegar, salt, coriander and black pepper. That is the whole recipe. No sugar, no additives, nothing you would not recognise. A lean cut gives you over 60g of protein per 100g and only about 3g of carbs per 100g, which is a lot of honest protein for very little else.
Because the list is so short, the quality of each part shows. Good beef, a proper cure and patient air-drying are what make it taste the way it does. There is no long list of numbers and names on the back of the pack to wade through, just real food you can understand at a glance.
Is raw biltong a thing?
Not really. All proper biltong is cured and air-dried, so it is never truly raw. If something is sold as biltong but is still wet and fresh like uncured steak, it has not been made correctly and should not be eaten that way.
Can you eat biltong straight from the bag?
Yes. That is the point of it. It is ready to eat with no cooking, no heating and no preparation, which is what makes it such easy protein to carry with you through the day.
Does biltong need to be refrigerated?
Drier biltong keeps well in a cool, dry place. Once opened, if it is on the moister side, keep it somewhere cool and eat it within a few days. It rarely lasts that long anyway.
Is air-dried beef better than cooked beef products?
For flavour and protein, many people think so. Air-drying keeps the beef taste and concentrates the protein, without the sugar that cooked, sweetened products often carry.
If that sounds like your kind of food, shop our biltong and try it for yourself. Packs are 17.50 EUR, there is a monthly subscription if you want it to keep arriving, and every batch is made by hand in Sintra and ships within Portugal.
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