Snoek with apricot glaze

Method

1. 01

   Keep the coals gentle

   Fish wants medium coals — six seconds on the hand test. Over full heat the sugary glaze burns long before the fish is done.

2. 02

   Prepare the fish

   Pat the butterflied snoek dry and lay it skin side down on a sheet of foil. Season firmly with salt and pepper.

3. 03

   Cook the glaze

   Melt the butter in a small pot and soften the garlic in it for a minute without colouring. Add the chilli, then stir in jam, chutney and stock and simmer gently for five minutes. Off the heat, stir in coriander and lemon juice.

4. 04

   First side

   Put the fish and its foil into the hinged grid, flesh side up, and baste generously. Cook for eight to ten minutes, basting two or three more times.

5. 05

   Turn it

   Once the flesh has gone white and opaque, turn and baste again. Three to five minutes to finish. Pulling the foil away for the last minutes gives more smoke — and risks the fish sticking to the grid.

6. 06

   Serve

   Tip it straight out of the grid onto a board and spoon over what is left of the glaze. Serve with thinly sliced red onion and celery dressed in oil and lemon.

Where it comes from

Where the word comes from

Afrikaans, from Dutch · Literally „pike“ The name is wrong: *Thyrsites atun* is not a pike but a snake mackerel.

The name is a misunderstanding that has held for three hundred years. Dutch sailors named the fish after what they knew — snoek, pike — although Thyrsites atun has nothing to do with a pike. It is a predator of the cold Benguela current, fast, lean and full of bones.

For the fishing towns of the West Coast it is more than a fish. The snoek run is what makes the season there: when it runs the boats run, and when it does not, they do not. Catches swing widely from year to year, and worry about declining stocks has grown louder in recent years.

When it runs is where most guides get it wrong. At the Cape snoek is traditionally a winter fish; the old fishermen’s rule names the months without an r — May, June, July, August — and the sources put the run at roughly April to July.

The apricot glaze is younger than the fish and comes out of Afrikaans cooking: jam, butter, a little garlic. It goes on late, or the sugar burns before the flesh is done.

Sources for this section

• Wikipedia — Thyrsites
• PLAAS — Snoek, the lifeblood of West Coast fishing towns
• Hooked on Africa — Is it snoek weather?

Watch this

Linked, not embedded — opening this page contacts no outside server. The time marks jump straight to the moment.

• 33:03

  English

  Travel Trails Tastes

  The BEST Snoek Braai Recipe | I Also Tried Snoek Roe for the First Time

  Starts at the fishmonger rather than the recipe — and so shows the part that is hardest to replace outside South Africa.

  • 2:19„Making the Pot Bread“ — Potbrood and fish on the same fire — which is how both reach the table at once.
  • 22:10„Snoek on the Braai - The Final Reveal“ — The butterflied fish in a hinged grid, cooked from the skin side.

  Last checked 2026-09-05

• 8:46

  English

  Travel Gigolo

  National Braai Day - How to Braai Snoek (South Africa Heritage Day Recipe)

  Short, no detours, and with the ratio of cooking time to glazing time as the actual subject.

  • 4:14„Cooking the fish“ — How long snoek actually needs over the coals — shorter than most people think.
  • 6:41„Basting the fish“ — The apricot glaze goes on late. Any earlier and it blackens before the fish is done.

  Last checked 2026-09-05