How-To: BBQ South African-Style
By Chuck CageThe Meat
Mutton/Lamb
The easiest meat to braai has to be mutton chops. The reason for this is that mutton and lamb are supposed to be overcooked. You can flip them over as many times as you like, so it’s a good activity to make you look macho. Try to get some from a young animal, and keep the bones in. Eat them with your hands.
(Picture: ”As you can see, braai is a social affair.”)
Pork
Pork chops are also easy but FIRE is a good word to keep in mind because pork has a lot of fat. Pork Fillet is also a good bet. It has almost no fat and tastes great. Cut it in 2″ pieces and smack it flat lengthways to make medallions. Dribble some oil on — I use goose fat – to get them started. (The fire really flares up with goose fat.) Make sure juices run clear with pork. Also try uncured bacon in thick slices with spices.
Steaks
(Picture: “This is actually not a very big steak. A big steak can weigh 5 to 8 Kg.”)
Steak takes practice. Connoisseurs like a 1-1/2″ steak four mins on each side over a really hot fire. Move it to a cool area of the gril or a 160 degree (Celsius) oven for eight minutes before you eat it. Leaving it longer than that will cause it to be more “done” — 25 minutes to half an hour for medium to well done. A steak this thick will be too thick for one so don’t be stingy: divide it.
Other steak hints:
- Try different cuts of steak. All steak is not equal. (Porterhouse is my personal favorite. My wife prefers Sirloin.)
- Buy the steak the day before you intend to braai.
- Go to your local butcher and ask him to cut you a piece no less than 1-1/2″ thick and to leave the bone and fat on. That is where all the flavour and taste is hidden.
- Make sure the meat is a dark ruby red. That’s a clear sign that the meat has been matured.
- Make sure the steak is dry or fresh cut just before you stick it on the fire.
One final note: Kids don’t like steak. Steak is hard to chew when you are four.
Beef
No, beef does not equal steak. Try asking for chuck. Chuck is good and very cheap. Try buying a rib roast and slicing it in 1″ slices.
Sosaties (Kebabs)
Meat on a stick: great for kids. Try using fillet or chicken breast with assorted veggies. Cut it nice and thin for the young ones and marinate it well.
Sausages
Sausage is hard to do well together with other meat. Keep the fire low for this one. Sausage likes to burn. I like to start it on the grill and then move it to an oven — or a nice cool part of the grill – to finish
Chicken
If you can do a whole chicken well, you have graduated. You don’t need to read this. Go away.
Turn chicken often. Keep one half of the grill empty to move it when the fat starts dripping and a small blow torch appears under your bird. Put your spices and salt on chicken beforehand, and cook it slowly on a low fire, turning often. Make sure the juices run clear before you eat it. I like to spread-eagle it to a separate grill for easy handling and I cover the wing tips in foil to stop them from burning.
(Picture: “This is pretty typical in the bushveld. Yes, they do own shoes.”)
Spices / Marinade
If you don’t have access to “braai spices,” keep it simple: just a little salt and pepper a few minutes before the meat comes off. Don’t salt meat before it starts cooking or it will be tough.
If you follow these guidelines you should be OK. And if not, at least you had fun poking at the fire.
Read on to page three for some of Freddie’s braai recipes.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Very neat, Thanks for sharing!
Tim
April 24th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Wow. Fantastic. I am salivating. And could not agree more–cilantro is terrible. Too bad my wife loves it. This causes for many ongoing battles in and around the kitchen.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Would the other readers consider Braai like open pit BBQ? That’s kind of what I’m equating it too but I’ve never done either. All I know is that this post made me really hungry. I’m going to have to go find some meat products for lunch.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:46 am
By the way, I love the Maker attitude that went into building the homemade grills in this post. It is inspiring me to crack out the welder and build my own grilling surface for the fire pit in the backyard.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Jeff: I recognized the similarity as well, but the recipes differ pretty signficantly. And I agree that Freddie’s attitude is contagious; it reminds us that all it takes to braai (or barbeque) is a desire and some friends to share the experience…
April 26th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Awesome!! Printed it out and am looking to give it a try!!!! Thanks for the post.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:51 am
This was a great article. My brother in law is from South Africa and has always mentioned how much he misses the food there. Our group of friends BBQ/GRILL probably twice a month and I have been looking for something to help my brother in law feel a little less homesick..He constantly mentions the sausage so now I have a recipe to make it with.
Cilantro doesnt suck by way it just has to be used sparingly. In the right recipes it is great. Chop it finely throw it in some tequila with some minced garlic, some cumin and chili powder and tumeric and marinate some chicken in it over night….Great stuff.
April 27th, 2007 at 8:14 am
To make your experience more complete, try to get “pap” or maize meal from a specialist shop or your local SA-goodies shop and cook it as a side-dish for your braai.
There is different ways to cook your pap: Putu pap, smooth pap, etc. It all have to do with the amount of water you add.
Why not try “paptert” or (porrage tart - literally translated)!
To make putu pap you need 2 cups water, a pinch of salt, 3-4 cups mealie/maize meal. Bring the water and salt to boil and add the maize meal. Reduce the heat to medium heat and then put the lid on. Stir and replace lid. Leave for more or less 10 minutes until it is well-cooked. Serve as a side-dish with a braai. Add a tomato-onion-and-herb-with-salt-sause with it and you have your traditional side-dish with your meat. Nice!
Alternatively, try a paptert: It is basically a salty tart with the main ingredient of pap or maize meal. Make the pap as instructed as on the packaging (Note: not as putu pap!!!). Then, when finished, do the following:
Fry one chopped onion with a a few handful of chopped mushrooms until soft and brown in a little bit of oil. Add 3 freshly chopped tomatoes to it.
Now this is the important part:
Take a baking caserole and pack as follows:
Pack one level of filling, then a level of pap and then a level of nice medium chedder cheese. Repeat until you packed the lot with the last top level that of cheese. On top, add 250 ml cream and add some nice herbs.
Put in oven until the cheese melted with a crisp brown layer. Serve. Nice!
April 29th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Re: all parts were used, including the trotters
I’m afraid to ask what “trotters” are, but my life won’t be complete until I know. A little help here.
April 29th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
trotters= feet.
May 1st, 2007 at 4:47 pm
How-To: BBQ South African-Style
After reading some of our recent posts regarding grilling here in the ‘States, one awesome reader named Freddie took the time to write in and tell us a bit about how BBQ works in his home of South Africa. They call it “Braai” (as in br-eye), and…
May 4th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Jeff was right, after reading that article, my mouth watered for some grilled anything! Nice article and nice of Freddie to share his pics of what was obviously a great family get together. They are the same everywhere on every continent, and the grill reminded me of old memories from my own past with chicken grilling….and he’s right, anyone who can grill a chicken properly is a barbeque god!
April 21st, 2008 at 3:07 am
[…] Brave, but I doubt there can be any forgiveness. For the full, awful story, click here. And for the Angry African, I hope the image above haunts you forever. (Said image comes courtesy of Chuck Cage at the excellent Toolmonger blog.) […]
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
[…] Toolmonger » Blog Archive » How-To: BBQ South African-Style They call it “Braai” (as in br-eye), and while the recipes differ a bit from what we’re used to, one thing is exactly the same: the comeraderie of burning some meat with friends. […]
July 28th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Hello,
I work for Men’s Health magazine, and I’m working on a piece about South African BBQ. I would love to set up a brief phone interview with the author of this post. Please let me know if that’s possible by emaling me at the address listed above. Thank you!