By Donwynne and Amy Bergh
Biltong is cured, air-dried sliced beef. Droewors is a thin dried sausage. Our beef sticks are droewors-style, with the same ingredients as our Original biltong. If you've ever stood in a farm shop wondering which packet is which, that's the distinction.
What is biltong?
Biltong is whole beef, cured in vinegar, salt and spices, then air-dried and sliced. The word comes from Dutch: "bil" (rump) and "tong" (strip). It's South African, it's usually eaten from the pack, and the classic flavour is coriander and black pepper.
Ours is made from 100% pasture-fed British beef and air-dried in the traditional way. What is biltong? is the longer introduction. Our flavours are Original, Garlic & Black Pepper, Chilli and Cape Curry (contains mustard and celery).
What is droewors?
Droewors (often written droëwors, and said "droo-uh-vors") means "dry sausage". It's biltong's close cousin. Instead of a whole piece of beef, the meat is minced, seasoned, stuffed into a thin casing and air-dried in the same spirit as biltong.
The result is a firm, savoury stick you can snap and eat without slicing. In South Africa it's a staple snack in its own right, not a second-best version of biltong.
What are Inyama beef sticks, then?
Our Original Beef Sticks are made in the style of droewors. They use the same ingredients as our Original biltong: 100% pasture-fed British beef, apple cider vinegar, and the same spice blend. They're the ones we think of as the pocket version of our biltong: handy for lunchboxes, glove boxes and walks. If you're packing for a long day out, see High-protein snacks for walkers and runners.
They are not jerky. Jerky is usually sliced thin and dried with heat, often with a sweeter marinade. There's a fuller comparison in Biltong vs jerky.
How do they compare on nutrition?
The method and the shape change the numbers. Our biltong is the leaner, higher-protein snack. Our beef sticks are richer, because a droewors-style stick carries more fat, which is a big part of how they taste.
| Typical values | Biltong per 100g | Biltong per 35g pack | Beef sticks per 100g | Beef sticks per 40g pack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 310kcal | 109kcal | 483kcal | 193kcal |
| Protein | 53.7g | 18.8g | 38.3g | 15.3g |
| Fat | 9.7g | 3.4g | 35.3g | 14.1g |
| of which saturates | 4.2g | 1.5g | 18g | 7.2g |
| Carbohydrate | 1.7g | 0.6g | 2.8g | 1.1g |
| Salt | 2.7g | 0.9g | 2.4g | 1.0g |
Per-pack figures are worked out from the per-100g values on our packs. Nutrition is the same across all four biltong flavours. More detail is in How much protein is in biltong? and What's in our biltong.
Which should I buy?
If you want sliced, traditional biltong, start with Original, or with The Whole Herd if you'd like to try every flavour plus two beef sticks, for £24.99. If you want something you can eat one-handed on a walk, pick the beef sticks.
Both store in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight, at room temperature, and should be eaten within 24 hours of opening. There's more in How to store biltong. A 6-pack is £24.99 and a 12-pack is £44.99, with free delivery from £65.
All our beef comes from Farm Wilder farms across South West England, where the cattle are 100% pasture-fed. Farm Wilder audits those farms in-house every two years against standards developed with FWAG South West. There's more on Our Beef.