Everything that happens on the grid is decided half an hour earlier, in the wood you chose and the fire you built. Get this part right and the rest is tongs and confidence.
Ask ten braaiers, get ten sermons. But the fundamentals are simple: dense hardwood burns long and settles into hot, long-lasting coals; soft or resinous wood burns fast, flares, and leaves you nursing a lukewarm grid. This is what you're choosing between:
| Wood | Coals | Burn | The honest verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kameeldoring | Exceptional — dense, hot, long-lasting | Slow | The gold standard for a serious braai. Costs more; worth it when the meat matters. Buy from a reputable, permitted supplier — this is a protected tree, and legal stock is part of being a good braaier. |
| Rooikrans | Very good — hot and steady | Medium | The Cape's workhorse. It's an invasive alien, so burning it is practically an act of conservation. Lights easily, smells right, priced right. |
| Sekelbos | Excellent — dense and fragrant | Slow | The bushveld favourite. Wonderful aroma, serious coals. If you find good sekelbos, don't tell too many people where. |
| Bluegum | Decent | Fast-ish | The budget option. Burns hot with more ash and less staying power — fine for wors and a weeknight fire. |
| Vine stumps (wingerd) | Good, quick | Fast | Fragrant and fast to coals — lovely for tjops and quick fires in wine country. |
| Briquettes | Consistent, even heat | Long | No romance, no surprises. Perfectly honourable for a midweek braai; keep real wood for the weekend. |
| Charcoal | Quick, hot, short-lived | Fast | Ready in 20 minutes, gone in 40. Good for a fast fire, thin cuts and impatient stomachs. |
You need three things: air, patience, and more wood than you think. The classic method has not been improved upon:
Home-made firelighters — a thrifty classic from this site's 2011 tips archive that still beats the shop kind: pack the cups of a cardboard egg box with tumble-dryer lint, sawdust or pine needles, pour melted candle-stub wax over, and tear off a cup per fire. Cotton-wool balls worked through with petroleum jelly do the same job and store forever in a jam jar. Both light with one match, burn for minutes, and cost approximately nothing.
The coals are ready when the flames have died and everything wears a coat of grey ash with a deep orange glow underneath. From there, use the oldest thermometer in the world — your hand, held palm-down at grid height:
| You can hold it for… | The fire is | Braai this |
|---|---|---|
| 4 seconds | Hot | Steak — hard sear, quick cook. Too fierce for almost everything else. |
| 6 seconds | Hot-medium | Lamb tjops, pork neck steaks, spatchcock chicken (with care). |
| 8 seconds | Medium | Boerewors, sosaties, ribs, snoek — the workhorse fire. |
| 10+ seconds | Gentle | Braaibroodjies, roosterkoek, keeping things warm without regret. |
The single most useful trick in braaiing: don't spread your coals evenly. Bank most of them to one side for a hot zone, leave a thinner layer (or none) on the other. Now you can sear on one side, finish gently on the other, and rescue anything that's cooking faster than your guests are arriving. The cool zone is also where the braaibroodjies live, and where wors waits without turning to leather.
Long tongs (your forearm hairs will thank you), a sturdy adjustable grid, a hinged toeklap-rooster for broodjies and fish, a wire brush for the grid, a small spade for moving coals, and a bucket of water or sand within reach — for the fire, not for the meat. That's it. The 48-piece stainless braai tool set stays in the box it was gifted in.
Let's be adults about this. A gas braai is a stove that lives outside — quick, clean, controllable, and very useful on a Tuesday. But it makes heat, not coals, and the coals are where the flavour and the ceremony live. Our ruling: gas for convenience, wood for the occasion. If that offends you from either direction, we're comfortable with that.
The distilled version — this page's greatest hits plus the hard-won rest, in the tradition of this site's original 2011 top-ten:
Mind the wind before you light. Keep the fire away from thatch, overhanging branches and unsupervised children. Fat flare-ups are managed by moving the meat, not by pouring water on your coals. And ash stays in the braai until it's stone cold — more veld fires have started in "cold" ash than anyone cares to admit.