Cape Town · Western Cape
Ons gaan nou braai.
A braai is not a barbecue. It starts hours earlier with a wood fire nobody hurries. Here is which wood you need, how to tell when the coals are ready — and what ends up on them.
Three things nobody explains first
The wood
Rooikrans, sekelbos, kameeldoring, black wattle. What sets them apart, which belongs in a fireplace, and why one of them is protected.
The fire
When the coals are ready, how to measure them without a thermometer, and which zone suits which cut.
The food
The classics off the grid — researched, cooked, and credited to where the recipe came from.
Four woods
Not interchangeable
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Dave Richardson · CC BY 4.0 Rooikrans
Acacia cyclops
The Western Cape default. Quick to temperature, very hot coals that fade sooner than the denser woods.
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Ajtjohnsingh · CC BY-SA 4.0 Sekelbos
Dichrostachys cinerea
The driest firewood you can buy — moisture content near zero. Very high heat and smoke that works like a spice.
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SAplants · CC BY-SA 4.0 Kameeldoring
Vachellia erioloba
Rock-hard, extremely dense, burns for hours with a calm flame and little smoke. Southern Africa's best fireplace wood — and the legally trickiest.
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SAplants · CC BY-SA 4.0 Black Wattle
Acacia mearnsii
Softer than the other hardwoods, but cheap, available everywhere, and good for long, even coals.
Why this exists
„There is no shortage of recipes. What is missing is the answer to which wood to buy when you stand in front of the shelf for the first time."
This site is being written in a rented house in Cape Town, with a fireplace inside and a built braai outside. Every question answered here was googled first, and turned up nothing useful.