🎁 MAKE THEIR GIFT EXTRA SPECIAL – FREE ENGRAVING ON INJECTORS UNTIL BRAAI DAY 24 SEPTEMBER
🎁 MAKE THEIR GIFT EXTRA SPECIAL – FREE ENGRAVING ON INJECTORS UNTIL BRAAI DAY 24 SEPTEMBER
Braai pap is made by cooking maize meal in boiling salted water, stirring continuously until it thickens to the consistency you want. For a braai, that consistency is stywe pap — stiff enough to hold its shape when spooned onto a plate, firm enough to eat with a fork alongside boerewors and chops, and dense enough to hold up under a generous pour of tomato and onion sous without turning to mush. The ratio is roughly one part maize meal to two parts water by volume, adjusted up or down depending on how stiff you want the final result.
This guide covers the three main types of braai pap, the full stywe pap recipe, a tomato and onion sous that holds up to scrutiny, and the common mistakes that produce lumpy, watery, or flavourless pap.
Not all pap is the same, and choosing the wrong type for the occasion is the first mistake people make.
Slap pap is soft, almost porridge-like in consistency. It is eaten at breakfast with milk and sugar, or alongside stews and gravies. It is not the right choice for a braai where meat juices and sous need something firmer to sit against. Slap pap collapses on the plate and loses its texture quickly.
Stywe pap is the braai standard. Stiff, dense, and dry enough to hold its shape on the plate. It can be eaten plain with butter, served alongside sous, or crumbled and fried in butter as a side the morning after the braai. For a traditional South African braai, stywe pap is the correct choice.
Phutu pap is cooked with less water than stywe pap and stirred to a crumbly, grainy texture rather than a smooth, dense mass. It is the style most associated with outdoor and campfire cooking in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of the Eastern Cape, and it pairs particularly well with chakalaka and relish. At a Garden Route braai it is less common than stywe but worth knowing if your crowd prefers it.
This recipe focuses on stywe pap and tomato and onion sous, since that is the combination most South Africans mean when they say pap and sous at a braai.
Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish
Ingredients:
500g maize meal (regular or fine ground — regular gives a slightly coarser texture, fine ground is smoother)
1 litre water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter (optional but recommended)
Method:
Bring the water to a rolling boil in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add the salt. Add the maize meal in a steady stream, pouring it slowly into the centre of the pot while stirring continuously with a wooden spoon or a whisk. Do not pour it all in at once — adding it slowly prevents lumps from forming as the meal hits the hot water.
Once all the maize meal is incorporated and the mixture is thick enough to hold the spoon upright, reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting. Place the lid on the pot and allow it to steam for 20 to 30 minutes. Do not stir during this time.
After 20 minutes, remove the lid and check the consistency. The pap should have pulled slightly away from the sides of the pot and formed a crust on the bottom. This bottom crust is normal and desirable — it adds texture. Stir the pap from the bottom up, incorporating the crust back into the mass. Add the butter at this stage if using and stir through.
The pap is ready when it holds its shape when spooned out and does not spread on the plate. If it is still too soft, replace the lid and cook for another 10 minutes on low heat.
On the braai: If you are cooking over a fire rather than a gas hob, the pot goes directly on the coals at the edge of the fire rather than over the hottest zone. Pap needs sustained, even heat at a moderate temperature. Too hot and the bottom burns before the centre cooks through.
The sous is the part of the pap and sous combination that most people either undercook or overcook, and the difference between a good sous and a mediocre one is mostly time on the heat. A sous that has cooked for 45 minutes has a depth and sweetness that a 15-minute sous cannot match.
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients:
3 large onions, peeled and finely diced
4 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped (or one 400g tin of whole peeled tomatoes, roughly crushed)
3 garlic cloves, finely crushed
2 tablespoons oil or butter
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Half a teaspoon dried chilli flakes (adjust to taste)
Salt and pepper
Fresh parsley or coriander to finish (optional)
Method:
Heat the oil or butter in a heavy pan over medium heat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook slowly for 15 to 20 minutes until they are soft, translucent, and beginning to colour at the edges. Do not rush this step. Onions that have been properly softened and lightly caramelised give the sous a natural sweetness that raw or quickly cooked onions don’t provide.
Add the garlic and cook for another two minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, paprika, and chilli flakes. Stir to combine and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook uncovered on low to medium heat for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have broken down completely and the sous has thickened to a consistency that coats the back of a spoon.
Taste and adjust salt, pepper, and chilli to your preference. Finish with fresh parsley or coriander if using.
The sous can be made ahead and reheated. It improves with time — made the day before a braai and reheated gently, it is noticeably better than made fresh on the day.
Variations: Add one finely diced green pepper with the onions for a more robust flavour. Add a tablespoon of Worcester sauce for depth. Add a tin of chakalaka in the last 10 minutes if you want something more spiced and substantial.
Lumpy pap. Almost always caused by adding the maize meal too fast or not stirring continuously as it goes in. Add it slowly in a thin stream while stirring constantly and lumps don’t form. If you do get lumps, keep stirring vigorously over heat — most lumps will break down before the pap sets if you catch them early.
Watery pap. Either too much water in the ratio or not enough cooking time on low heat. If the pap is too soft after the initial cooking period, remove the lid, increase the heat slightly, and stir continuously for five to ten minutes until the excess moisture cooks off.
Burnt bottom. Caused by heat that is too high or a pot that is too thin. Use a heavy-bottomed pot and the lowest heat setting once the maize meal is incorporated. A thin pot with direct heat will burn the bottom before the pap cooks through.
Bland pap. Salt added too late or not enough water salted at the start. Salt the water generously before adding the maize meal — pap that is seasoned from the beginning tastes noticeably better than pap with salt stirred in at the end. Butter stirred in at the end adds richness and rounds out the flavour.
Watery sous. Cooked for too short a time or with too high a heat that has caused splattering rather than a steady simmer. The sous needs sustained low heat and time to reduce properly. If it is still too liquid after 40 minutes, increase the heat slightly and stir continuously until it reaches the right consistency.
Pap takes longer than most people expect and it needs to be started earlier than feels necessary. At a braai where meat goes on at 6pm and people expect to eat by 7pm, the pap should be started no later than 5:30pm, and the sous should be on before that.
A good timeline for a 7pm braai meal:
4:30pm — Start the sous on low heat. It needs 45 to 50 minutes and benefits from being made ahead.
5:30pm — Light the fire and start the pap. Pap needs 30 to 40 minutes of cooking and can hold in the pot with the lid on for up to 30 minutes after it’s done without deteriorating significantly.
6:00pm — Meat goes on. Pap and sous are both cooking steadily.
7:00pm — Meat comes off to rest. Stir the pap one final time, plate the sous warm. Everything arrives at the table at the same time.
For more on timing the rest of the braai properly, see the [braai South Africa guide]
Pap and sous is a complete side dish on its own but it sits alongside almost everything at a South African braai.
Boerewors is the classic pairing. The sous and the sausage juices run together on the plate and the pap soaks both up without losing its texture.
Lamb chops alongside pap and sous is a combination that appears at virtually every large South African braai. The richness of the lamb is balanced by the acidity of the tomato sous.
Braaibroodjies served alongside pap and sous might be unconventional but at a larger gathering where both are on the table, they work together without competing. See the [braaibroodjie recipe]
Chakalaka is a spiced vegetable relish that pairs naturally with both pap and braai meat. It can be added to the sous during cooking or served separately alongside it.
Pap is a traditional South African porridge made from maize meal cooked in boiling salted water. It is the most widely eaten staple food in South Africa and appears at braais, family meals, and celebrations across all cultural groups. At a braai, it is most commonly served as stywe pap — stiff pap — alongside a tomato and onion sous.
Both pap and polenta are made from ground maize but the maize variety, grind, and cooking method differ. South African pap uses white maize meal, which has a milder, slightly starchier flavour and a whiter colour. Italian polenta uses yellow maize meal, which has a more pronounced corn flavour and a golden colour. The texture and consistency of the finished dish are similar but the flavour profiles are different.
Stywe pap means stiff pap in Afrikaans. It is pap cooked to a firm, dense consistency that holds its shape on the plate, as opposed to slap pap which is soft and porridge-like. Stywe pap is the standard choice for a braai because it holds up alongside meat juices and sous without collapsing.
Sous is Afrikaans for sauce. In a braai context, pap and sous refers specifically to pap served with a tomato and onion sauce, which is a cooked relish of onions, tomatoes, garlic, and spices that accompanies the pap and the meat. The sous is what gives braai pap most of its flavour.
Stywe pap takes 30 to 40 minutes from the time the maize meal is added to the water. It needs to be started well before the meat goes on the braai to be ready on time. The tomato and onion sous takes 45 to 50 minutes to cook properly and can be made ahead and reheated.
Yes. Place the pot at the edge of the fire over moderate coals rather than directly over the hottest zone. Pap needs sustained, even heat at a moderate temperature. A potjie pot or a heavy-bottomed pot works well on a braai fire. The principle is the same as on a hob — add maize meal slowly while stirring, then cover and cook on low heat until done.
Regular white maize meal is the standard choice for stywe pap. Fine ground white maize meal produces a smoother, slightly silkier texture. Either works well — the choice is personal preference. Super-refined or instant maize meal cooks faster but produces a less dense, less flavourful pap than regular meal. For the best result at a braai, use regular white maize meal rather than an instant variety.