Talk:Biltong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] Origin of word
I am not satisfied with the explanation of the origin of the word. It is generally accepted that the word stems from the two Dutch words "bil", meaning buttocks, and "tong", meaning strips (or tongue, which is what the word means in Afrikaans. Has anyone found documentation to support this? My theory has always been that the word was adopted from the Cape Malay, from whom we also have the Afrikaans words "blatjang" (chutney), "piesang" (banana), and I believe "bobotie" also stems from there. The word phonetically has something in common with the other Cape Malay words. Also, it would make perfect sense that the Cape Malay brought such dried meat with them in the ships on which they arrived, and that it was possibly adopted as a culinary item together with bobotie and blatjang. --Mydoghasworms 20:17, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Merge into dried meat article?
Biltong & Beef jerky, or the concept of preserving meat by drying it, has been around for at least 50,000 years. It is one of Mankind's first, critical products, storable food. Beef jerky has been carried on expeditions since the dawn of time because it is nutritious, lightweight, and keeps a long time. Even today, beef jerky has cutting edge applications. The Beefjerky.com Space Program has flown beef jerky into Space several times, begining in 1996, aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, flight STS-79.
Perhaps these two articles could be merged into a single article on dried meat with the other 2 redirecting to it with additional information like that in the comment above included?
Biltong is also similar to the dried meat they have in etheopia which is usually very hot (spicy). the name escapes me though.
- I disagree. Biltong isn't jerky, neither is an enormous variety of regional dried meats. Rather WP
document all these idiosyncratic foods than bunch them under a single heading - someone looking for information is more likely to search the name of something he saw in a deli in Cape Town or Kraków than for the concept of dried meat. However the biltong and droëwors articles might be usefully merged. --Marinus 14:23, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Upgrade from stub to article?
I can't imagine anything else that needs to be added. Perhaps the next editor can go over this version and give it the ok for becoming a fully fledged, if short, article. --Marinus 14:23, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
- I've now removed the stub status - the article has been suitably wikified and needs no further additions. --Marinus 12:17, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Surely Trekboers not Voortrekkers?
I would think that biltong predates the Great Trek; it will take me a while to check sources, but I recall reading of biltong in Barrow's account of his journey through the Cape- Travels into the Interior of South Africa was published in 1806, so if my memory is correct then this should refer to Trekboers, not Voortrekkers. --Grant McKenna 04:36, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
