Braaibroodjie

cheese, tomato, onion and chutney pressed between buttered bread and grilled in a hinged wire rack over dying coals

Origin: South Africa

From the journey of Tomato.

The braaibroodjie is a grilled sandwich and it is not a toastie. What makes it its own thing is the fire, the rack, and the timing. It goes into a hinged wire grid, the toastie rooster, and onto the coals only after the meat has come off, when the fire has died back to a low glow. Put on too early it chars before the cheese moves; put on correctly it comes off smoky, compressed, and crisp on both faces. The filling is fixed by consensus rather than by rule, and the consensus is firm: mature cheddar, sliced tomato, thinly sliced raw onion, and a spoonful of fruit chutney, between two slices of white bread buttered on the outside. The chutney is the argument. It is sweet, it is fruit-based, and its presence against sharp cheese and raw onion strikes visitors as odd until they have eaten one, at which point the case rather makes itself. The tomato is doing more work than it appears to. It supplies the moisture that steams the inside whilst the outside toasts, and a braaibroodjie made without it is dry. It also has to be sliced thinly and salted, because a thick wet slice will soak the bread and the sandwich will fall apart in the rack. It belongs to the same occasion as boerewors and is eaten at the same point in it, which is to say late, standing up, and usually by people who have already said they were not hungry. The braai itself is a fire and a social event rather than a dish; this is one of the two things it actually cooks.

Ingredients

  • 8 thick slices white bread
  • 80 g butter, softened
  • 250 g mature cheddar, grated or thickly sliced
  • 3 firm tomatoes, thinly sliced
  • 1 onion, very thinly sliced
  • 4 tbsp fruit chutney
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper

Method

  1. Slice the tomatoes thinly and lay them on kitchen paper. Salt them lightly and leave for five minutes, then blot. This draws out water that would otherwise soak the bread.
  2. Butter all eight slices of bread on one side only. That side faces outward and meets the grid; the inside stays dry.
  3. Lay four slices butter side down. Spread chutney on the dry face of each.
  4. Build in this order: cheese, then tomato, then onion, then a little more cheese. The cheese on both faces is deliberate, since melting it against each slice glues the sandwich together.
  5. Season with pepper and a little salt, and close with the remaining slices, butter side out.
  6. Clamp into a hinged wire braai rack, tightly enough to compress the sandwiches without crushing them.
  7. Wait for the fire. The coals must have died back to a low, even, ash-covered glow, which in practice means after the meat has come off. High heat will blacken the bread long before the cheese melts.
  8. Grill for four to five minutes a side, turning the whole rack once, until deep gold and crisp and the cheese has run to the edges.
  9. Cut in half on the diagonal and eat immediately, standing up, off the rack.

Notes

Timing on the fire is the whole skill and it is the one thing a recipe cannot give you: wait until you think the coals are too cool, then wait a little longer. Butter on the outside only, or the inside steams into sogginess. Salting and blotting the tomato takes five minutes and is the difference between a sandwich that holds and one that collapses. Any sweet fruit chutney works, though a South African would use Mrs Ball's and say so.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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