Tips for cooking on your braai
WOOD OR CHARCOAL FIRE
The amount of wood or charcoal needed will depend on the food to be cooked but ideally start with more rather than less. Allow 30-40 minutes for really hot coals that glow and are covered with a grey ash.
A guideline is to pack a mound of coals in the centre of the braai which will provide heat for cooking for up to an hour. Remember too that charcoal has a longer sustained burn than wood.
Vine cuttings or manuka are great for flavour.
The amount of wood or charcoal needed will depend on the food to be cooked but ideally start with more rather than less. Allow 30-40 minutes for really hot coals that glow and are covered with a grey ash.
A guideline is to pack a mound of coals in the centre of the braai which will provide heat for cooking for up to an hour. Remember too that charcoal has a longer sustained burn than wood.
Vine cuttings or manuka are great for flavour.
HOW HOT IS HOT?
Hot. Test the heat when the flames have died down, the coals glow red and are covered with a layer of white-grey ash. If you can hold your hand 15cm above the colas for only 2 seconds, then the coals are hot. This is an excellent temperature fro braaiing steak.
Medium. At this temperature the ash around the coals becomes thicker and there is less of a red glow. This is ideal for food that requires slightly longer cooking such as chops and chicken.
Low. At this stage the ash is thick & powdery and the coals are starting to loose their shape. This temperature is great for warming garlic loaves or making things that need limited heat, such as ingredients for chocolate sauce or to finish off chicken.
Hot. Test the heat when the flames have died down, the coals glow red and are covered with a layer of white-grey ash. If you can hold your hand 15cm above the colas for only 2 seconds, then the coals are hot. This is an excellent temperature fro braaiing steak.
Medium. At this temperature the ash around the coals becomes thicker and there is less of a red glow. This is ideal for food that requires slightly longer cooking such as chops and chicken.
Low. At this stage the ash is thick & powdery and the coals are starting to loose their shape. This temperature is great for warming garlic loaves or making things that need limited heat, such as ingredients for chocolate sauce or to finish off chicken.
You can cook with the doors open or shut, the fire won’t go out either way. As a general rule for whatever you are planning to cook - If you would BBQ it with the lid up, then cook it in the Braai with the doors open and if you’d cook it in an oven, then cook it with the Braai doors shut.
A thermostat, found at most BBQ stores, fitted onto the lower door of your Braai helps monitor the temperature. See our FAQs for where to place the thermostat.
Roasting is done in a similar manner to how you would roast in a conventional oven – similar temperatures and times. Allow longer to create a bigger fire base if you plan on cooking one or more roasts. One of the advantages with cooking roasts in a braai is that you can get a lot of roasts in at a time - enough for a wedding even! We recommend using foil trays with some foil over the meat for the main part of cooking then removing the foil towards the end of cooking.
If you are smoking fish, any of the foil bags and sealed fish smoking units that you heat on a shelf, generally found at the BBQ Factory etc, all work very well.
A thermostat, found at most BBQ stores, fitted onto the lower door of your Braai helps monitor the temperature. See our FAQs for where to place the thermostat.
Roasting is done in a similar manner to how you would roast in a conventional oven – similar temperatures and times. Allow longer to create a bigger fire base if you plan on cooking one or more roasts. One of the advantages with cooking roasts in a braai is that you can get a lot of roasts in at a time - enough for a wedding even! We recommend using foil trays with some foil over the meat for the main part of cooking then removing the foil towards the end of cooking.
If you are smoking fish, any of the foil bags and sealed fish smoking units that you heat on a shelf, generally found at the BBQ Factory etc, all work very well.