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Cape Braai
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Meat

Skilpadjies

Seasoned lamb's liver wrapped in caul fat and cooked crisp over medium coals. The name means little tortoises, and it describes exactly what ends up on the grid.

Skilpadjies are farm and hunting cookery: what was left after slaughtering went into the caul fat that surrounds the kidneys and over the fire. Regionally they are also called muise or vlermuise — mice or bats.

Prep
35 min
On the fire
12 min
Serves
6
Effort
demanding

How hot

Medium

You can hold your hand over the grid for 6 seconds · ≈ 175–200 °C

Every coal stage explained →

Which wood

Rooikrans

spicy, resinous

More on this wood →

When it goes on

The main round

The actual food: wors, chicken, fish, skewers.

Equipment: Hinged grid

This line

Trekboers and Voortrekkers1652 to about 1900Shisa nyama20th century to today

The three-legged pot, sausage as a way of keeping meat, bread without an oven.

Method

  1. Soak the caul fat

    Soak the caul in lukewarm water for ten minutes until soft and stretchy, then drain and pat dry. Torn cold, it is useless.

  2. Prepare the liver

    Rinse the liver cold, pat dry and cut away every membrane and sinew. Then chop it very finely or grind it coarsely.

  3. Mix the filling

    Combine liver with onion, garlic, coriander, pepper, Worcestershire, parsley and salt. The coriander is not decoration here — it is what makes liver bearable at a fire.

  4. Wrap

    Cut the caul into squares of about 12 cm. Put two heaped tablespoons of filling on each and fold the caul tightly around it into a small parcel. The seam goes underneath on the grid.

  5. Clamp them

    Lay the parcels in a hinged grid and close it firmly. Without one they fall apart as soon as the fat starts to melt.

  6. Braai

    Over medium coals, six seconds on the hand test, eight to twelve minutes. Turn often. The caul fat melts and crisps — which is the entire point. Put the lemon halves alongside, cut side down.

  7. Serve with lemon

    Serve at once with the grilled lemons. Without acid, skilpadjies are a very rich business.

Tips

  • Liver goes tough over coals within minutes. At six seconds and no more than twelve minutes it stays pink and soft inside; beyond that it is gone.
  • Caul fat is not a supermarket item. Order it from a butcher and you will usually get it free or for very little.
  • If liver is a step too far, mix it half and half with minced lamb. That is a common version and tastes milder.

Skilpadjies are the dish that divides a South African fire — with good reason. It is offal cookery, it smells like it, and nobody who dislikes liver is converted here.

Anyone who does like it gets something available nowhere else. Caul fat is a membrane of fat veins that melts almost entirely as it cooks: it fries the filling from the inside and leaves a paper-thin crisp shell. What is left is seasoned liver that never touched the grid.

Two things are not negotiable: coriander and lemon. One binds the liver's own flavour, the other cuts the fat. Without both it is hard going.

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Total time
40 min
Serves
6
Heat of the coals
medium
Equipment
Hinged grid