AbstractKilishi is a sun‐dried traditional African meat product whose origin is lost in antiquity, but there is a dearth of scientific information regarding its physical, chemical and nutritional attributes and method of processing. This paper reports results of preliminary work carried out to study ingredient formulation, drying characteristics, chemical composition, taste‐panel evaluation and lipid stability at room temperature for 60 weeks. Results of two 4‐kg batches ofkilishiformulated using beef showed that fresh slices (0.17 ± 0.05 cm thick) gave a final product (0.31 ± 0.05 cm thick) consisting of 46.3% beef and 53.4% non‐meat ingredients. Proximate chemical composition in the finished product (g kg−1) was 75 ± 3.2 moisture, 502 ± 19 protein, 178 ± 2.5 fat and 96 ± 1.1 ash. The production process involved two drying stages. In the first, with the product before infusion, the critical moisture content was 1.75 kg H2O kg−1solid, and in the second, after infusion, the moisture content before drying was below the critical moisture content of the fresh meat. The formulated product was organoleptically superior to a commercial sample and was remarkably stable given an initial 2‐thiobarbituric acid test number of 1.53 and of 2.01 after