By Polly Hale – Founder, The Fit Mum Formula and Gymbag Brand Ambassador
Why eat Jerky or Biltong?
Protein is absolutely essential for muscle repair and growth, especially for those who exercise often. Weight training creates micro-tears in the muscles that need to be repaired, while endurance sports like long-distance running cause muscle breakdown from gluconeogenesis because a large amount of calories are burned.
This is common knowledge in the fitness world, but many people don’t realise that protein and the amino acids that form it are essential for so many bodily functions including metabolism regulation, immunity, blood clotting, fatty acid transportation, oxygen storage and collagen formation in joints.
In short, you can’t live without protein!
An incredibly convenient food
Unfortunately, fresh meat, fish, eggs and dairy products can’t be left out of a refrigerator for long before they start to go off, so long-life protein foods can be convenient when out of the house working or away from a fridge all day.
Not everyone enjoys using protein powders and some people may be looking for a change, so dried meats like jerky are a great option.
What’s The Difference between Biltong & Jerky?
Both Jerky and Biltong are dried meats that are preserved to prevent them from going rotten. Biltong is originally from South Africa, whereas Jerky originates from North and South America.
Jerky is simply dried meat, usually for around 2-8 hours, and sometimes has marinades, salt, vinegar, sugar and spices added, but doesn’t always. The drying can be in an oven, dehydrator, smoker, sun dried, or air dried. Jerky is sliced first before drying, and even minced meat can be used. The resulting product is thinner than biltong. Brands of jerky can taste wildly different depending on the methods and additional ingredients used. In fact the name ‘jerky’ can also be applied to other dried foods such as fish, mushroom, soy, poultry and other meats such as bacon.
Biltong has a much more specific method applied; it is air dried for anywhere between 3-7 days, and is doused in vinegar and rubbed with salt, as well as various other spices. Biltong is always dried as a large chunk of meat, and is always whole meat, sliced afterwards, and is usually sold as thicker slices than jerky. Due to the more stringent production methods, it will have more similarities in taste between brands. Biltong is always made from red meat.
Four Popular Jerky and Biltong products compared
Bio Synergy Biltong, Original flavour, 50g pack
Produced in the UK and contains no artificial preservatives, flavour enhancers, MSG or colorants.
Ingredients: Beef 200g per 100g of biltong, spirit vinegar, spices, hydrolysed soya protein, salt, yeast extract, caster sugar, colour (E150c, paprika extract), preservative: potassium sorbate, acidity regulator: citric acid
My thoughts: Thumbs up for no MSG but the addition of soya protein may make this a no-go for people sensitive to soy (it can cause bloating and other digestive upsets in some people). As much as appearance matters I’m not convinced colouring was necessary.
Pro-Beef Original Biltong, 35g pack
Grass Fed, British Pure Beef which is naturally dried in Great Britain for a minimum of 14 days and then lightly seasoned, containing only naturally occurring sugars and no MSG.
Ingredients: Beef (220g used per 100g finished product), Salt, Coriander, Pepper, Distilled spirit vinegar, garlic, chilli, nutmeg, pepper, preservatives: Sodium Nitrate, potassium sorbate.
My thoughts: It’s nice to see the individual ingredients listed as opposed to a generic ‘spices’, and no added sugars is a plus as most people need to cut back on sugar. Great for days when keeping carbohydrates low but protein high is your goal.
Wild West Original Beef Nuggets, 25g pack
“Made in the old fashioned way” with a smoky flavour.
Ingredients: 200g beef per 100g product, salt, sugar, spices, flavour enhancer: monosodium glutamate, preservative: sodium nitrate, potassium sorbate, sweetapplewood-smoke
My thoughts: The debate about whether MSG is a problem or not still rages on. It appears that whilst MSG is naturally occurring in many foods (such as cheese), it’s the artificially added type that people are adverse to. With the first three ingredients (after meat) being salt, sugar, and spices, it makes me suspicious of the quality of the meat itself as to why it would need further flavour enhancers.
Wild West Original Beef Jerky, 25g pack
Made with beef from Britain and Europe, with nothing artificial added.
Ingredients: Beef (made with 180g beef per 100g product), demerara sugar, gluten free soy sauce (water, soybeans, salt, vinegar), natural flavouring, salt, apple cider vinegar, pineapple concentrate, black pepper, dried garlic, dried onion, paprika.
My thoughts: No added preservatives makes this the most natural in terms of ingredient choices. I would have liked to have seen sugar further down the list (meaning less was used) but with sugar being a preservative it does mean that no artificial or added preservatives are needed.
Nutrition Comparison
Note: values per 100g are on bold
Calories, fat, fibre and salt are pretty similar across all four products. What jumps out however is the huge different in protein and carbohydrates between the Wild West products compared to the other two, indicating much more added sugar, at the compromise of less protein.
Of the remaining two, my favourite ingredient-wise would be the Pro-Beef due to the lack of added soy and MSG.
The Taste Test
I tried all these products with my husband James the day after writing the nutritional review, and had in that short space of time forgotten which came up tops. I didn’t look at the labels so as to not skew my opinions. Here’s what we thought - and remember, this order is purely for taste.
1st – BioSynergy Biltong
Much darker in colour than the other three choices (remember the added colouring), the deep meaty flavour of this one really stands out from the rest. The thin cuts are tender and moister than the others, making it not so tough to chew, and the spices are balanced just right.
2nd – Wild West Jerky
You can definitely taste the sweetness which matches brilliantly with the savoury meat, even if it’s not so great if you’re cutting back on sugar. Nice, tender meat slices than were thin with just the right amount of chewiness.
3rd – Pro Beef Biltong
Quite dry but with a really good meaty taste. You can’t taste the spices and other flavourings very strongly though.
4th – Wild West Nuggets
This was hard and tough, and didn’t taste nearly as meaty, spicy or tasty as the others.
In conclusion
So there you have it – you’ve got the nutritional info, you’ve read my opinions on taste, now it’s your turn – try them yourself, which do you prefer? Is taste or nutrition the more important factor for you?
We love your feedback so do let us know!
Find out more about these products on Polly’s store here:
BioSynergy Products
Pro Beef Products
Wild West Products
Love nutrition and want to start selling supplements and other health products with your own online store? You can get a customised webstore set up in minutes with Gymbag.