Braai (South African Open-Fire Grilling)
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Overview
A braai is South African cooking over an open wood or charcoal fire, and it is as much a social occasion as a cooking method. The word comes from braaivleis, Afrikaans for grilled meat, from the Dutch braden, to roast. The distinction South Africans draw between a braai and a barbecue is about the fire, and it is taken seriously. A braai is cooked over wood or charcoal, with wood preferred because of what it does to the flavour; gas is generally not accepted as a braai at all. The fire is also the point of the gathering rather than a means to an end, people build it, wait for it, cook on it and then stay around it long after the food is finished. And unlike a Northern Hemisphere barbecue, it is not seasonal. South Africans braai in any weather, and 24 September is a national braai day. What goes on the fire is broad: boerewors, lamb chops, steak, chicken, snoek and other fish, sweetcorn, and braaibroodjies, the grilled cheese, tomato and onion sandwiches that go on once the coals have died down. Potjiekos, cooked in a cast-iron pot over the same fire, is a close relative. The source for this page contains no recipe card at all. The method below is reconstructed from its description, and that is flagged.
AFN Heritage Note
Braai is the South African practice of cooking over an open wood or charcoal fire, from braaivleis, Afrikaans for grilled meat, derived from the Dutch braden. It is a year-round social occasion rather than a seasonal one, and 24 September is observed as National Braai Day.
Ingredients
Directions
- 1
Build the fire with hardwood or lump charcoal and let it burn down. This is not a step to hurry, you want a bed of glowing coals with no flames, which takes 30 to 45 minutes with wood.
- 2Test the heat by holding your hand above the grid
if you can keep it there for three or four seconds, the coals are ready for most meat.
- 3
Season the meat generously with coarse salt, pepper and braai spice, and let it come to room temperature before it goes near the fire.
- 4
Put the boerewors on first, coiled in one piece so it holds together, and turn it once. Do not pierce it, that is how the fat and juices escape.
- 5
Cook chops and steaks over the hottest part of the coals, turning once, and move them to a cooler edge to finish if the outside is colouring too fast.
- 6
Cook chicken over gentler heat and for longer, since it needs to be cooked through rather than seared.
- 7
Put whole corn cobs directly onto the coals, turning them until charred in patches.
- 8Once the coals have died down, make braaibroodjies
butter the outside of the bread, fill with cheese, tomato, onion and chutney, clamp in a hinged grid and toast on both sides.
- 9
Rest the meat for a few minutes before serving.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Nympha Nzeribe- Wait for the flames to die. Cooking over flames chars the outside and leaves the inside raw; you want glowing coals with a light ash coating.
- Wood over charcoal if you have the time. It is the difference South Africans point to, and it does affect the flavour.
- Never pierce boerewors. It is a fresh sausage in a natural casing and piercing it drains everything that makes it good.
- Set up hot and cool zones by banking the coals to one side, so you can move things away when they colour too fast.
- Braaibroodjies go on last, over dying coals. Any hotter and the bread burns before the cheese melts.
- Potjiekos, cooked in a cast-iron pot over the same fire, is the slow-cooked companion to a braai and worth knowing about.
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