Boerewors (or South African Sausage) is a quintessential South African food. We are worldwide known for this food. But today, I am going to show you a strange way of cooking (braaing or BBQ) this South African food. There is nothing online I could find regarding the name or the style. This likely originated between people in industrial areas (like while people are constructing a building) who wanted to "braai" but did not have the proper tools and access to wood. My dad often tells me how they did this with only newspapers. They loaded an old bin with newspapers and in the open flames, they cooked the sausage. This technique requires a keen eye, it can burn and overcook really quickly. But when you get this technique right, you are rewarded with awesome "boerewors". We normally cook it in this style before we actually cook the main course, it is often done in the form of a snack before the main meal. So please read on to see how I make this strange version of a quintessential South African Dish.
Open Fire Cooking
Open fire cooking takes some skill. Things can burn very quickly. But when you get it right, you are rewarded with something special. I slow cook various thick cut meats on an open fire, but this can take hours. So what we normally do is to make what we call "banny boerewors". I do not know where the name originated but it is basically cooking a boerewors (sausage) over an open flame. Whilst the coals are getting ready for the other meats, we open flame cook the sausage and eat it as a snack. There is not much to it. Keep your eye on it and flip it constantly. See the video for how it is like cooking in this manner:
Yes, there are some burnt bits, but the majority of the sausage will be juicy and the exterior will have nice "maillarded" bits. It is seriously good especially with the wooded taste because of the open flames.
In the background, you see the "bigger" cut of meat that cooks for about an hour. This snack in between dinner and lunch whilst the dinner is cooking, is awesome. It is better when there are various friends around the fire, and people are happy and drinking a beer. But due to covid and all of the restrictions, this hasn't happened a lot. So enjoy the times you have with friends and family!
This is more a method, and a very lousy write-up as well! But I hope from the video you can see how to master this technique. At first, you might not succeed, but in due time you will have it mastered. Happy cooking.
Looks delicious, nothing like the smoky flavour of the grill.
I always end up pouring some beer on my braai, especially when the oil from the wors bring more flame hahaha.
Not a lousy write up, not bad at all!
Thanks! Things can get a bit tense when it flames up like that, but I cannot pour beef on it haha. I rather drink the beer to cope with the flames.
Yep that's what the buddies were always saying, and I always did it with Black Label 😁 but not Windhhoek or Flying Fish
You yes those you can! Haha but we never waste Black label! 🤣🤣