Braai guide · 6 min read
How to read your coals
There is no thermometer on a braai. There is a layer of grey ash, the colour underneath it, and your hand.
The single thing that separates people who braai well from people who braai anxiously is knowing when to start. Not a time — a look. Once you can read it, you stop guessing.
Grey ash is the signal
Coals are ready when the flames have gone and the coals have an even coat of pale grey ash. Not black with red cracks: that is too early, and the fire is still burning off what it needs to. Not glowing bright orange and flaring: too hot, and whatever you put on will char.
That grey coat is ash insulating the coal, which is exactly what you want. It turns a fierce, uneven flame into steady radiant heat. In daylight the coals look dusty and almost dead; put your hand over them and you will find they are not.
If it is still flaming, wait. Flames cook the outside and nothing else, and dripping fat feeds them. The only time you want flame is for something very thin that you want marked and off in two minutes.
The hand test
Hold your palm about 12 centimetres above the grid — roughly a hand's width — and count how long you can keep it there before you have to move.
| Seconds | Heat | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | High | Steak, thin chops, anything you want seared and off quickly |
| 3–4 | Medium-high | Boerewors, lamb chops, burgers, prawns |
| 5–7 | Medium | Chicken pieces, thick pork chops, fish |
| 8–10 | Low | Whole chicken, ribs, anything with a bone in the middle |
It feels crude and it is accurate enough. The reason it works is that you are measuring the thing that matters — radiant heat at grid height — rather than the temperature of a coal you are not cooking on.
Build two zones, always
Rake two thirds of the coals into a thick bed on one side and spread the rest thin on the other. Now you have somewhere to sear and somewhere to finish, and you can move food instead of standing there hoping.
This is how everything comes off together. Chicken goes on the cool side first and finishes over the hot side for colour. Steak does the opposite: hard sear over the hot side, then rest on the cool side while the wors finishes. Something flaring up gets moved rather than sprayed with water, which only throws ash onto your food.
Coals fade, and you can feel it
A bed of coals gives you roughly 40 minutes of good cooking heat, and the drop is gradual. Do the hand test again halfway through: if you have gone from three seconds to six, you have drifted from searing heat to roasting heat, which is why the second batch of wors is taking twice as long.
If you need to go longer, light a second small fire alongside and feed fresh coals across as the first bed fades. Adding raw wood directly under food gives you flame and smoke at exactly the wrong moment.
Four things that go wrong
- Starting too early. If the coals are black and red and the braai smells of smoke rather than heat, you are ten minutes early. Have another drink.
- One flat layer everywhere. No cool zone means no way to rescue anything.
- Lid down on a charcoal braai with no vents open. You will smother it and get a sooty taste. Air in at the bottom, out at the top.
- Spraying flare-ups with water. Move the food, close the lid briefly, or let it burn out. Water makes steam, ash and a mess.
What to practise
Next braai, do the hand test three times — when you think the coals are ready, twenty minutes in, and when you are taking the last thing off. Three readings is enough to calibrate your own hand, and after that you will stop needing to count.