Die tuiste van die Suid-Afrikaanse braai

Where there's smoke,
there's a story.

braai.co.za is the home of South Africa's favourite ritual — the definitive guide to fire, wood, meat and the people standing around it.

The manifesto

The Rules of the Fire

Unwritten for generations. Written down at last.

The braaier braais. Whoever holds the tongs holds the floor. Advice may be offered once, from a respectful distance, and never twice.
A braai starts when the fire is lit, not when the meat goes on. The hours in between are not waiting — they are the point.
Wood makes coals; coals make the braai. Flames are for show. Meat meets the grid only once the fire has calmed down and grown up.
Trust the hand test. Hold your palm over the coals at grid height: eight seconds is perfect for wors, six for tjops, four means wait.
Boerewors is turned seldom and never stabbed. Pierce the casing and the juice you lose is the flavour you promised everyone.
The braaibroodjie is not a side. It is the measure of the braaier. Low coals, patience, and butter on the outside — always on the outside.
Pap en sous feeds the nation. A pot of stywe pap and a proper tamatie-en-uie smoor turn a packet of wors into a feast for twelve.
Weather is a rumour. Rain moves the guests inside; it does not move the fire. That is what the garage, the stoep and the umbrella are for.
Never count the tjops. There is always room for one more person at a braai, and somehow always one more chop on the grid.
The fire dies down; the stories don't. The last hour around the coals, long after the food, is where the braai actually happens.