Biltong, Gout, and Cows

Biltong (ˈbɪlˌtɒŋ) strips of spiced meat, cured by drying in the open air.

Now I do enjoy biltong and when my brother Anthony offered me a large packet, how could I say no. I even ignored the reason he gave when offering over such a prize. “It is giving me gout”. So there I enjoyed my day in Nature Reserve yesterday along with some tasty biltong.

This morning I woke up with such bad gout on my knee that I was struggling to function. In such pain and agony, I wondered what I could have eaten or drunk that could have caused such severe gout. And then it dawned on me that it could only have been the biltong. It never occurred to me that biltong could cause the gout. Last time I got it this bad was when I drove up from KwaZulu Natal and stopped to buy some biltong at my favourite biltong butchery in Mooiriver. Clickety click, barba trick, biltong was the only common element.

I overdosed on puricos and pain killers but to no avail. Later in the afternoon I had to drive to Benoni to take Matthew back and could barely drive, but drive I had to. Just outside our yard we came across a herd of cattle and noticed two freshly born calves.

Ahhhhh biltong which I ate was made from beef aka cows. These four legged beasts caused all my agony and pain but how could I not stop and look at these strips of biltong, sorry cows and swear never again.

Sigh I still love biltong!