The techniques

01

The hand-over-grid test

The hand test measures coal heat in seconds: hold your flat hand a hand’s width above the grid and count until you have to pull it away.

Why

Nobody has a thermometer at an open fire, and the colour of the coals says too little. The count is the one reading that works the same everywhere — and it stands on every recipe page here.

How you know

Two seconds is full heat, four is hot, six is medium, eight is gentle. If you fall between two stages, wait for the higher number.

How it goes

1. 1 Wait until there are no flames left and the coals have a grey coat.
2. 2 Hold your flat hand a hand’s width above the grid.
3. 3 Count until it gets too hot. That number is the coal stage.
4. 4 If it does not match, raise the grid or wait ten minutes — do not fan the coals.

In full on Braai →

02

Building two zones

Two zones means the coals sit under one half of the grid only, with the other half left clear.

Why

You get two temperatures at once and somewhere to move things when fat drips into the fire. Without a second zone, a flare-up leaves you only the option of taking the meat off.

How you know

Over the hot side you can hold your hand for two to four seconds, over the cool side six to eight.

How it goes

1. 1 Rake the coals to one half with a shovel or tongs.
2. 2 Sear on the hot side, then move across and let it come through on the cool side.
3. 3 Bread and braaibroodjies always belong on the cool side.

In full on Braai →

03

Cooking indirect

Cooking indirect means there are no coals under the food — the heat comes from the side and from above.

Why

Anything that takes longer than twenty minutes burns on the outside over direct coals before the middle is warm. A whole chicken, thick ribs, a pork belly: all cases for indirect.

How you know

Over the spot where the meat lies you can hold your hand for six seconds or more — even with full coals right beside it.

How it goes

1. 1 Split the coals to two sides and leave a gap in the middle.
2. 2 Put the food over the gap, fat side up.
3. 3 Use a lid or hood if you have one; without it you will need to feed the fire more often.

In full on Braai →

04

Spatchcocking

Spatchcocking means cutting the backbone out of a chicken so that it lies flat.

Why

A whole chicken is twice as thick at the breast as at the thigh. Laid flat it is roughly even all over and takes about forty minutes instead of an hour and a half — the technique came in with Portuguese-Mozambican cooking.

How you know

The bird lies flat across its whole surface; nothing sticks up and nothing rocks.

How it goes

1. 1 Cut down both sides of the backbone with poultry shears and lift it out.
2. 2 Turn the bird over and press the breastbone with the heel of your hand until it cracks.
3. 3 Skin side up over medium coals; only turn onto the skin at the end.

Watch this

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• 29:34

  English

  Travel Trails Tastes

  Spicy Piri Piri Chicken on the Braai | Authentic South African Cooking

  Ties technique and origin together in one video. For the line page, the chapter on how peri-peri arrived is the point.

  • 0:54„How to Spatchcock a Chicken“ — Backbone out, breastbone cracked. The whole technique in ninety seconds.
  • 5:45„How Peri Peri Came to South Africa“ — The origin as a chapter of its own — rare in a recipe video, and the reason this one is here.
  • 9:35„Cooking Over Fire“ — Laid flat over medium coals, skin side last.

  Last checked 2026-09-05

05

Layering in the potjie

Layering means meat at the bottom and everything else stacked above it in order of cooking time — and then you do not stir.

Why

The pot cooks with steam rising from below. Stir and you mix the cooking times, ending up with collapsed vegetables over half-raw meat. Not stirring is not a quirk, it is the method.

How you know

The lid stays on. When it hisses and rattles gently, the pot is working.

How it goes

1. 1 Brown the meat in the pot until it has colour.
2. 2 Onions and root vegetables on top, then everything quicker-cooking in layers.
3. 3 Add very little liquid — the pot should steam, not boil.
4. 4 Lid on, two to three hours over low coals, and no stirring.

In full on Potjiekos →

Watch this

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• 12:44

  English

  ChilliChump

  Potjiekos: South African Cast-Iron Pot Stew (How To)

  Explains not stirring as a method rather than a quirk — exactly where most guides stop.

  • 3:10„Brown the meat“ — Browning in the pot — the only moment when anything in a potjie gets stirred.
  • 8:35„Why you don't stir potjiekos“ — The heart of it, and why a potjie is not a casserole. Nobody else gives that its own chapter.

  Last checked 2026-09-05

• 18:57

  English

  Travel Trails Tastes

  This Lamb Neck Potjie Is the Best Comfort Food Ever

  Lamb neck is the cheap cut that works best in a potjie. The video makes it visible why the order of the layers is not decoration.

  • 1:27„Braaing the Lamb“ — The meat goes on the fire before it goes in the pot — a step many recipes leave out.
  • 10:10„Layering the Potjie the Right Way“ — The layering shown as a step of its own, from the bottom up.

  Last checked 2026-09-05

06

Marinating overnight

Marinating means leaving meat for hours in a mix of acid, fat and spice before it goes on the fire.

Why

The acid — in South African marinades almost always vinegar — loosens the connective tissue at the surface and carries the spice in. Sugar from chutney or apricot jam caramelises later on the grid, which is why marinades like that must never see full coals.

How you know

By the next morning the meat is darker and slightly soft at the surface.

How it goes

1. 1 Meat and marinade into a bag or a bowl, everything covered.
2. 2 Overnight in the fridge, four hours at the very least.
3. 3 Take it out half an hour before it goes on and let it drain.
4. 4 Brush sugary marinade on in the last few minutes only, or it turns black.

07

Flare-ups

A flare-up is the flame that shoots up when fat drips off the meat into the coals.

Why

It burns the surface in seconds and then tastes of soot, not smoke. Water makes it worse: it throws up ash and scatters coals.

How you know

There is a sudden sharp smell and flame licking up between the bars.

How it goes

1. 1 Move the piece aside straight away, onto the cool zone.
2. 2 Wait for the flame to die by itself — it takes seconds.
3. 3 Never put it out with water. Frequent flare-ups mean too many coals under meat that is too fatty.

In full on Braai →

08

Resting

Resting means letting the meat sit for a few minutes after the fire, before you cut it.

Why

In the heat the juice moves inwards. Cut straight away and it ends up on the board — and the piece that was juicy a moment ago is dry.

How you know

If you waited properly, there is no puddle on the board.

How it goes

1. 1 Off the grid onto a board, not onto a cold plate.
2. 2 Cover loosely with foil rather than wrapping it — otherwise the crust goes soft.
3. 3 Five minutes for steaks and sausage, ten to fifteen for large cuts.

Watch this

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• 20:00

  English

  Travel Trails Tastes

  Seared Rump Steak at the Southernmost Tip of Africa | Cape Agulhas Braai

  Steak over open wood coals rather than gas, in a place with no shelter from the wind. More realistic than any studio kitchen.

  • 13:58„The Steak on the Braai/Grill“ — Going on over full coals. You can see how short the time on the first side is.
  • 14:45„The Steak Reveal & Topping Melt“ — The cut after resting — the proof that waiting is what makes the difference.

  Last checked 2026-09-05

09

Air-dried, never heated

Drying means treating meat with vinegar and salt and then hanging it in moving air at room temperature — with no heat at all.

Why

The vinegar drops the surface pH, the salt pulls out water; together they leave bacteria nowhere to grow. That is exactly where biltong parts company with jerky, which is sweetened and heated to at least 71 °C.

How you know

It is ready when the piece gives but no longer springs back. Dark red inside is fine — dried does not mean dried through.

How it goes

1. 1 Cut with the grain, turn in vinegar, season with salt and toasted coriander.
2. 2 Leave it a few hours, then pat dry.
3. 3 Hang it on hooks where air moves — no direct sun, no flies.
4. 4 Three to five days, depending on thickness and humidity.

Watch this

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

• 37:20

  English

  Coldsmoking Digital Cookery School

  5 DAY Biltong - Full Tutorial - PLUS Building a Biltong BOX

  The only run-through we found that measures the drying instead of estimating it — with scales, over five days.

  • 3:53„Curing“ — Vinegar and salt — the step that preserves biltong without any heat involved.
  • 7:54„Biltong Box“ — The box being built. In Europe it is not an accessory but a requirement — the humidity rules out an open window.
  • 27:28„Drying Analysis“ — Weight loss as the measure of done. That is the answer to the question every biltong recipe leaves open.

  Differs from us
  The channel works with curing salt. At the Cape the classic route is sea salt, vinegar and coriander only; so is our recipe.

  Last checked 2026-09-05

• 21:07

  English

  Biltong Depot

  How to Make Biltong at Home Using Grocery Store Meat

  Starts from what an ordinary supermarket has, rather than a special cut from a butcher.

  • 2:08„Cutting the Meat“ — Which way you cut. With the grain or across it decides whether you later bite or tear.
  • 9:42„Adding the Vinegar“ — How much vinegar actually goes on — the amount recipes like to dismiss as a splash.
  • 15:54„Testing the Biltong“ — The finger test: it should give, not spring back.

  Last checked 2026-09-05

• 20:32

  English

  Burning Speares

  The Easiest and Best Way to Make South African Biltong

  Shows the steps in the order you actually do them, without cutting away.

  • 8:19„Salting“ — Salting as a step of its own, before the vinegar — the order the recipes argue about.
  • 10:21„Soak in Vinegar“ — Dipping rather than brushing. You can see how short the bath is.
  • 14:22„Hanging“ — Spacing between the strips. Where they touch they do not dry, and that is where they spoil first.

  Last checked 2026-09-05