The Potting Shed

Guides, gift ideas and honest answers from the people who hand-pack every kit.

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A slab of pork belly coated in dry curing salt and spices resting in a dish on a rustic wooden kitchen table.

How long to cure bacon: a day-by-day guide to dry curing

Dry curing bacon takes about a week. Here is what happens on each day, why the joint changes the timing, and how to tell when the cure is done.

Thin strips of seasoned beef resting in a marinade dish beside bowls of spices on a rustic wooden table.

Jerky marinades: five flavour directions and how to build your own

Wet marinade or dry rub, what a marinade really does to beef, five flavour directions to try and a simple five-slot formula for building your own.

A piece of pork belly being rubbed with dry cure and spices on a wooden board in a farmhouse kitchen.

Curing salt explained: what it does and why bacon needs it

What is actually in a bacon cure, what the salt and the nitrites each do, the two rules you should never bend, and how the cure works step by step at home.

Biltong vs jerky comparison with homemade biltong and beef jerky strips side by side

Biltong vs Jerky: What's Actually the Difference?

The real difference between biltong and jerky: origin, cut, marinade, drying and texture compared fairly, plus which one you should make at home first.

Home cured bacon on a board, showing how to cure bacon at home with a dry cure

How to Cure Bacon at Home: A Simple Dry-Cure Guide

How to cure bacon at home with a simple dry cure: what curing is, dry cure vs brine, the honest nitrite answer, a step-by-step method and fixes.

Homemade biltong strips made without a biltong box using the Sandy Leaf Farm Biltong Making Kit

Do You Need a Biltong Box? An Honest Answer for Home Biltong Makers

What a biltong box does, when one is worth buying or building, and how to make proper biltong at home in a couple of hours with no box at all.

Homemade biltong strips seasoned with coriander and black pepper from a biltong making kit

What Is Biltong? South Africa's Great Dried Beef, Explained

What biltong is, where it comes from, how vinegar and coriander make it unique, how it differs from jerky and how to make your own batch at home.

Ultimate meat making kit with dry cure and seasonings for bacon, jerky and biltong

Meat Making Kits: Cure Bacon, Dry Jerky and Make Biltong from One Box

What meat making kits are, how curing, drying and marinating differ, which kit suits you, and the one box that makes bacon, jerky and biltong at home.

Beef jerky making kit with seasoning blends and strips of homemade beef jerky

Jerky Making Kits: Make Your Own Beef Jerky at Home

What a jerky making kit contains, how a batch of beef jerky works from slicing to drying, jerky vs biltong, the best cuts to buy and how to store it.

Gifts for kebab lovers: a kebab making kit with a homemade doner kebab carved thin at home

Gifts for Kebab Lovers: What to Buy Someone Whose Happy Place Is the Doner Van

Why a kebab making kit beats a takeaway voucher, who it suits and what to pair it with: a gift guide for anyone whose happy place is the doner van.

Homemade biltong strips made with a biltong making kit, seasoned with coriander and black pepper

Biltong Making Kits: Authentic South African Biltong at Home

Where biltong comes from, how it differs from jerky, and how a biltong making kit turns 500g of lean beef into proper biltong in your own oven.

Bacon curing kit with dry cure, three seasoning sachets and sliced home-cured streaky bacon on a board

Bacon Curing Kits: How to Cure Your Own Bacon at Home

Why dry cure beats supermarket bacon, what's in a bacon curing kit, buying the right pork, the full week-long process and the nitrite question answered.

Kebab making kit doner kebab carved thin at the table with a sharp knife

Kebab Making Kits: Make a Takeaway-Style Doner at Home

What's inside a kebab making kit, the Bursa-born doner you carve at the table, timings for all three kebabs and the casing trick for the smooth finish.