The Potting Shed

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

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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.