Preparing for National Braai Day
Preparing for National Braai Day (Heritage Day – 24th September)
Braai Day, is a celebration of our country and its exclusive national activity. Use this opportunity to provide your customers with something out of the ordinary to boost their morale and your sales!
The local butcher can create and benefit from a striking National Braai Day display involving fold-up and box braais for travelling braaiers, wood and charcoal to include accessories that might not always be on top of his stock list, namely tongs, oven mitts and aprons with catchy braai phrases.
Braai Tongs are an important must have for all braaiers. There are many different types to choose from like LK’s, Megamaster Heavy Duty Tongs, Weber Original Tongs and Tonglite Champ BBQ Tongs to mention but a few.
Books with braai topics and recipes are sure-fire sellers. The South African Barbeque Book & Fireworks by Jan Braai, Weber’s Ultimate Braai Book by Jamie Purviance, Ina Paarman’s What’s on the braai? with step-by-step photographs for some recipes, Braai the Beloved Country & More Braai the Beloved Country by Jean Nel and Human & Rousseau’s YOU Let’s Braai by Carmen Niehaus are just a few good examples.
The latter is a comprehensive guide filled with more than 100 inspirational recipes and tips. Not only is all the different types of meat – including game and fish – turned on the coals, but there are chapters dedicated to salad and vegetables, bread and pudding. The book also covers coals, briquettes and gas, and a range of marinades, flavoured butters, sauces, rubs and spice mixes.
In addition to charcoal, make sure you stock good dry hardwood stored away from cold, damp areas. Using wood ensures a prolonged braai pleasure and a different flavour imparted to braai meat, and every consumer knows how frustrating it is when the kindle gets going and the wood simply sizzles and oozes tiny yellow bubbles announcing its wetness.
Firelighters are indispensable for those opting to braai with charcoal, and there are environmentally and human-friendly products to choose from like Blitz, Ignite, Lion, Charka Quickflame , Etosha Rhino , GreenLite and Bic to mention but a few.
Ignite have been producing specialised quality braai products since 1988. Their wide range of charcoal products includes Chunky Hardwood charcoal. They also have an easy, convenient instant lighting charcoal and briquettes as well as picnic and party size disposable braais and firelighters.
Charka’s Braaimeester Instant Lighting Lump Charcoal is a similar product. It consists of two smaller bags inside a bag containing everything one needs for a braai with no mess, no fuss and no firelighters. One small bag is placed in the centre of the braai and ignited directly.
In most butcheries and even supermarkets, the range of braai products lack imagination. One usually has the choice of two types of charcoal (briquettes or chips), two brands of firelighters, which all do the same job, and standard firewood. Why not go the extra mile by providing your customers with various options to keep the home fires burning on National Braai Day and beyond?
Since making the fire is part of the fun, and not many braais are made on gas fires, your customers will also need charcoal or wood, as well as firelighters, and it certainly is a great value add if they can pick it up along with the meat. The wood should never be from an endangered tree or any indigenous tree.
However, burning alien vegetation like Bluegum and Black Wattle is encouraged. Not just any wood should be used as some woods could be toxic. Rooikrans is a favourite used for its long lasting coals. Charcoal and briquettes are easy to use and could be the more effective option, as well as safer.
And of course, braaiers will need a braai and many butcheries have seen the value in making these available on the premises. The disposable braais are super convenient and easy to use – especially for picnics, braais on the beach or in the park, or simply for those who don’t want to clean their grills before getting into the festivities.
While you are adding value in this way, why not stock some tongs, aprons, seasonings and spices, marinades – especially the convenient spray bottle marinades, prepacked braai breads, some instant pap and perhaps a few bottles or cans of tomato and onion sauce, monkeygland sauce or the more spicy chakalaka to go with the pap. Add some sliced and packed biltong and droewors to snack on while waiting for the fire and your butchery could become the one-stop shop on National Braai Day.
Happy Braai-Day.
