Braai is the Afrikaans word for grilling and literally means “to roast”. In South Africa it stands for one particular way of cooking: over wood you burn down yourself until nothing is left but coals. Gas does not count as a braai, charcoal only just. The word also means the gathering around it — you go to a braai, you do not go grilling.

What is the difference between a braai and a barbecue?

The difference is not the food, it is the hour beforehand. At a braai, hardwood is burned down until it collapses and turns grey — forty minutes to an hour, depending on the wood. Only then does the meat go on the grid. Light briquettes and start cooking twenty minutes later and you are grilling.

Which wood do you use at the Cape?

Rooikrans is the default wood of the Cape region: an introduced acacia, classed as invasive, and therefore sold cheaply as braai wood everywhere. It takes around forty minutes to reach coals and holds them a long time. Kameeldoring burns longer and costs more; pine is only good for getting things going.

How do I know the coals are ready?

By hand, not by thermometer: hold your flat hand a hand’s width above the grid and count until it gets too hot. Two seconds is full heat, four is hot, six medium, eight gentle. That number stands on every recipe here so you never have to guess it.

Cape Town · Western Cape

Braai from Cape Town.

“Ons gaan nou braai.” — We’re making fire now.

A braai is cooking over wood, not gas: 50 recipes, the wood that suits each one and the coal stages to go with them — written down at the Cape.

A built braai with a wood fire burning, the wood store with logs and charcoal beneath it — Own photograph, Cape Town

The fire

A cast-iron wood stove with a fire burning, a rack of logs beside it — Own photograph, Cape Town

The fireplace

Boerewors coiled into a spiral on a grid over the coals — Ossewa · CC BY-SA 4.0

Off the grid

In October

The whole calendar →

Six of 50

The recipes

See all recipes →

Sausage

Boerewors

The sausage without which there is no braai. You buy it ready-made — the whole skill is in the fire, and it consists of not making it too hot.

Total time: 35 min
Serves: 6
Heat of the coals: gentle
Equipment: Grid

Lamb chops over the coals, turned with the tongs — domdomegg · CC BY 4.0

Meat · Karoo-tjops

Karoo lamb chops

Thick lamb chops with rosemary, garlic and lemon, started on their fat edge and done over hot coals in ten minutes. Karoo lambs graze on aromatic semi-desert scrub, which is why this meat needs almost no seasoning.

Total time: 32 min
Serves: 4
Heat of the coals: hot
Equipment: Grid

Sosaties skewers over an open fire on a simple grid — Dumbassman · CC BY-SA 4.0

Meat · Sosaties

Sosaties with apricot

Lamb skewers in a curried apricot marinade, left overnight. The Cape Malay inheritance at the fire — sweet, sour and spiced at once.

Total time: 12 hr 47 min
Serves: 4
Heat of the coals: hot
Equipment: Grid

Cast-iron three-legged pot with stew, served with a portion of pap — Ji-Elle · CC BY-SA 4.0

Meat · Lamspotjie

Lamb potjiekos

Lamb on the bone, layered vegetables and very little liquid, three and a half hours in a cast-iron three-legged pot over low coals. It does not get stirred — that is not a quirk, it is the method.

Total time: 4 hr 15 min
Serves: 8
Heat of the coals: hot
Equipment: Potjie

Bread

Braaibroodjies

Toasted sandwiches with cheese, tomato, onion and fruit chutney, cooked in a hinged grid over the last of the coals. Reckon on two per person — there is never one left over.

Total time: 20 min
Serves: 6
Heat of the coals: gentle
Equipment: Hinged grid

Bread

Roosterkoek

Yeast dough rolls baked not in an oven but straight on the grid over the last of the coals. Crusty outside, soft inside, and at a push the only side dish you need.

Total time: 43 min
Serves: 12
Heat of the coals: gentle
Equipment: Grid

Where do you want to go?

Recipes, fire, fireplace

Recipes

50 of them. Each one tells you how hot the coals need to be, which wood suits it, and where the recipe came from.

Kindling under two heavy logs, the flame just catching — Own photograph, Cape Town

Braai

Light the fire, wait forty minutes, read the heat off the coals. The hour no recipe talks about.

Fireplace

Indoors everything changes: light it from the top, cut the air back, burn dry wood only. Otherwise it smokes and the glass goes black.

The short version

What a braai is

What is a braai?: Braai is the Afrikaans word for grilling and literally means “to roast”. In South Africa it stands for one particular way of cooking: over wood you burn down yourself until nothing is left but coals. Gas does not count as a braai, charcoal only just. The word also means the gathering around it — you go to a braai, you do not go grilling. From lighting up to coals →
What is the difference between a braai and a barbecue?: The difference is not the food, it is the hour beforehand. At a braai, hardwood is burned down until it collapses and turns grey — forty minutes to an hour, depending on the wood. Only then does the meat go on the grid. Light briquettes and start cooking twenty minutes later and you are grilling. How the fire runs →
Which wood do you use at the Cape?: Rooikrans is the default wood of the Cape region: an introduced acacia, classed as invasive, and therefore sold cheaply as braai wood everywhere. It takes around forty minutes to reach coals and holds them a long time. Kameeldoring burns longer and costs more; pine is only good for getting things going. Six woods compared →
How do I know the coals are ready?: By hand, not by thermometer: hold your flat hand a hand’s width above the grid and count until it gets too hot. Two seconds is full heat, four is hot, six medium, eight gentle. That number stands on every recipe here so you never have to guess it. The four coal stages →

What should I make today?

Six typical evenings

Why this exists

„There is no shortage of recipes. What is missing is the answer to which wood to buy when you stand in front of the shelf for the first time.“

This site is being written in a rented house in Cape Town, with a fireplace inside and a built braai outside. Every question answered here was googled first, and turned up nothing useful. Which is why every recipe says where it came from, and every wood says where its figures come from.