South African Meat Sticks: The Complete Guide to Droëwors, Stokkies, Chilli Bites and More
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South African meat sticks come in two families. On one side are whole-muscle sticks cut from biltong: stokkies (snap sticks) and chilli bites. On the other is droëwors, an air-dried beef sausage. All of them are cured with vinegar, salt and coriander and dried in moving air rather than cooked, which is what makes them different from American beef sticks.
Americans are buying meat sticks faster than almost any other snack. Circana data reported by Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery put US dried meat snack sales at $6.8 billion for the year to August 2026, with the segment that holds meat sticks up 19.5% while jerky slipped. South Africa has been doing meat sticks for centuries. Here is the whole family, in order of how often you will meet them.
The South African meat stick family
| Stick | What it is | Made from | Texture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Droëwors | Air-dried sausage | Minced beef and fat in a casing | Snap, then crumble |
| Stokkies / snap sticks | Thin biltong sticks | Whole-muscle beef | Firm, dry, snaps |
| Chilli bites | Spicy biltong sticks | Whole-muscle beef plus chilli | Dry, hot, snaps |
| Cabanossi | Thin smoked sausage | Usually pork, or beef and pork | Smoky, chewy |
Droëwors: the sausage
The best-known South African meat stick. Beef and fat are minced, seasoned with coriander, black pepper, clove and nutmeg, stuffed into a thin casing and air-dried until the sticks snap. No smoking, no cooking, and, according to its Wikipedia entry, no curing agent of the kind found in cured sausage. It is the dried cousin of boerewors, the coiled sausage on every braai.
Everything else about it is in the droëwors hub: what it is, biltong vs droëwors, is it healthy, how to store it, where to buy it in the US, how to say it and the recipe.
Stokkies and snap sticks: biltong, thinner
Stokkies means "little sticks" in Afrikaans. They are whole-muscle biltong cut thin before drying and dried until they snap cleanly. Same beef, same cure as sliced biltong, completely different eating experience: firm, dry and intensely beefy. Snap sticks, snapsticks and biltong sticks are the same idea under different shop names. Full guide: biltong sticks.
Chilli bites: stokkies with a temper
Thin whole-muscle biltong strips seasoned with chilli and dried hard. The bar snack of South Africa. Watch for MSG on the label, because the most common commercial spice mixes contain it. See what are chilli bites, how to make them and how hot they get.
Cabanossi: the smoked outsider
Cabanossi is the South African name for kabanos, a long, thin Polish sausage that is usually made from pork and smoked. It is everywhere in South Africa, but it is a different tradition: smoked, often cooked, and usually pork. A South African will happily eat it. They will not call it droëwors.
How are South African meat sticks different from American beef sticks?
This is the bit that surprises Americans. Most US beef sticks are made in a smokehouse in a process that looks like this:
- Ground meat is mixed with spices, salt and an acidifier: either a starter culture that ferments sugar into acid, or encapsulated citric or lactic acid.
- It is stuffed into a collagen casing, typically 15 to 23 mm.
- It is cooked in stages, with industry guides describing a ramp from around 100°F up to 170°F, then dried.
That is laid out step by step by smokehouse maker FusionTech. The fermentation route needs sugar, usually dextrose, to feed the culture. Many sticks are also cured with sodium nitrite or celery powder.
South African sticks skip almost all of that. No starter culture, no smokehouse, no cook step. Vinegar does the acid job, salt does the preserving, and moving air does the drying. That is why the ingredient lists are so short.
Labels side by side
| Stick | Ingredients |
|---|---|
| Ayoba droëwors (US-made) | Beef, vinegar, sea salt, water, coriander, pepper, cloves, in a sheep casing |
| Brooklyn Biltong Classic Skinny Sticks | Grass-fed beef, kosher salt, apple cider vinegar |
| Slim Jim Original | Beef, pork, mechanically separated chicken, water, textured soy flour, corn syrup, salt, plus natural flavors, dextrose, paprika, hydrolyzed soy protein, maltodextrin, lactic acid starter culture, barley malt extract, citric acid, soy lecithin, sodium nitrite |
| Chomps Original | Grass-fed and finished beef, water, encapsulated lactic acid, sea salt, cultured celery powder, cherry powder, spices, in a beef collagen casing |
Ingredient lists from Open Food Facts, Brooklyn Biltong, Slim Jim and The Feed, abridged. Not every American stick is a Slim Jim; the newer zero-sugar sticks are much cleaner, and the best of them are ranked on their own labels in best beef sticks. The full label breakdown is in sugar-free meat sticks, and the droëwors-specific version in droëwors vs beef sticks.
What are South African dried meat sticks called?
Depends which one. The sausage is droëwors (or droewors, drywors, dry wors). The whole-muscle sticks are stokkies, snap sticks or biltong sticks, and the spicy ones are chilli bites. Americans tend to call all of them "South African beef jerky", which is wrong for all of them in slightly different ways.
Can you buy South African meat sticks in the US?
Yes, all made here, because South African-made meat cannot be imported. Droëwors makers are listed in where to buy droëwors and chilli bite makers in what are chilli bites. Whole Foods and Amazon carry some of the bigger brands.
Frequently asked questions
What are South African meat sticks called?
The sausage is called droëwors. Thin whole-muscle biltong sticks are called stokkies or snap sticks, and spicy ones are called chilli bites.
What is South African beef jerky called?
South Africa's equivalent is biltong, which is whole-muscle beef cured in vinegar and spices and air-dried rather than cooked. It is not technically jerky.
Are South African meat sticks cooked?
Traditional droëwors, stokkies and chilli bites are not cooked. They are cured with vinegar and salt and air-dried. Cabanossi, a smoked sausage also popular in South Africa, is different.
Are South African meat sticks healthier than American beef sticks?
They usually have shorter ingredient lists with no sugar, starter cultures or nitrites. Many newer American zero-sugar sticks are also clean, so compare the labels.
What is the difference between stokkies and droëwors?
Stokkies are thin sticks of whole-muscle biltong. Droëwors is minced beef and fat in a casing, dried as a sausage.
Billi Tong's is launching with sliced biltong, with droëwors and more of this family on the list. We are not open yet, so the only way in early is a Founding 50 spot: $100 for a first-batch founder box of biltong. Questions go to cal@btbiltong.com.
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