I was at a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago and was seated next to someone I'd never met, and, inevitably, The Meat Club came up.  Turns out my new friend was South African and enamored with a South African dried meat called Biltong.  I was clueless, but it sounded great to me and a good way to use some of my leaner cuts of beef.  But, not having a good desert wind to dry it in, my plans were tabled.  Fortunately, fate intervened in the form of my wife's birthday, when she asked me to get her a dehydrator (which I quickly did before she decided to change her mind and ask for a pair of shoes).

So, the stars aligned, and I pulled out some of my lower grade beef from the freezer to give it a test drive.  I found a couple of sites on-line (http://www.3men.com/biltong.htm; http://www.markblumberg.com/biltong.html; there are tons of others), and then started cutting, mixing, mashing, and drying.  I used some generic "swiss steaks" and "cube steaks" from our last cow the Bud's processed, since I generally don't like to use these for other cooking and they looked pretty lean.  I cut them into 1-2" strips and then dried at 140 degrees F for 12 hours. 

Turned out pretty good, especially for a first effort and the quality of the meat I used.  Next time I'll carve up a piece of the round into thicker strips and probably turn down the heat a bit and go a little longer.  The dehydrator manual recommends 140-160F for jerky, but my sense from reading about biltong is that it's not supposed to be quite as dry/tough as typical American jerky.

If anyone has any insights or experience, feel free to chime in.