There’s a reason snoek has fed the West Coast for generations. It’s affordable, it’s plentiful, and when it hits a hot braai grid with the right basting, there’s genuinely nothing better. This is deeply South African food — and right now, in April, the fish are running.
Snoek season runs from April through July along the Western Cape coastline and up towards Namibia. If you’ve never cooked a whole snoek on the braai, this is the one to start with. The recipe is simple — butterflied snoek on a hinged grid over medium-hot coals, basted throughout with a smoky paprika garlic butter made with Wilson’s Foods Garlic Flavoured Oil. It smells like a Saturday afternoon is supposed to smell.
Start with a Good Snoek
Ask your fishmonger to clean and butterfly the snoek for you. Most will do it without blinking. A butterflied snoek opens out flat like a book — skin on one side, flesh on the other — which is exactly what you want for the braai. If whole snoek isn’t available, thick snoek fillets work just as well.
The long thin bones that run through snoek are distinctive but nothing to worry about. They pull out cleanly once the flesh is cooked, and most people who grew up eating snoek navigate them without thinking. Pat the fish completely dry before it goes on the grid — surface moisture is the enemy of good colour and a proper sear.
The Paprika Garlic Butter
The traditional version of this recipe uses plain melted butter as the basting base. We’ve kept the butter — you need it for the richness and body — but we’ve added Wilson’s Foods Garlic Flavoured Oil alongside it. The oil brings a rounded, slow-cooked garlic warmth to the basting without any risk of raw garlic burning over the coals.
The Garlic Flavoured Oil also doubles as the skin-brushing oil. Brush it over the skin side before the fish goes on the grid and you get a clean, golden result that lifts right off the foil. It’s built on a canola-olive oil blend, so it handles the heat of a braai comfortably.
Spanish smoked paprika gives the butter its colour and a deep, earthy warmth — different from regular paprika, and worth seeking out. The garlic goes in fresh and crushed, softening gently in the warm butter rather than frying. Keep the heat low and keep stirring. You want the basting sauce warm and fragrant, not split.
On the Braai
Use a hinged grid lined with foil. Snoek is an oily fish with relatively delicate flesh — it will fall apart if you try to flip it directly on an open grid. The foil also catches all the basting butter and keeps the underside of the fish sitting in its own juices as it cooks.
Start flesh-side down for about three minutes to get some colour, then flip so the skin is taking the heat. From there it’s basting and patience. The snoek needs 10 to 15 minutes skin-side down — baste every few minutes and don’t rush it. Medium-hot coals, not raging ones.
The Rosemary Brush
Use a few sprigs of fresh rosemary as your basting brush. It’s a small thing, but it adds a subtle herby note with each baste and it looks genuinely good on the braai grid. The rosemary picks up the paprika and garlic from the butter as you brush, and leaves traces of its own flavour in the flesh. A pastry brush works perfectly well too — but the rosemary is worth trying once.
How to Know It’s Ready
Press a fork gently into the thickest part of the flesh. If it flakes apart easily but still looks moist, it’s done. Overcooked snoek goes dry fast — pull it off the coals while it still looks like it has a bit of life in it. It will carry over and finish perfectly on the plate.
Serve it straight from the grid with a green salad and garlic bread. Or tear into it with bread and the rest of the paprika butter poured over the top. It doesn’t need much else.
Full recipe below: Snoek with paprika garlic butter — serves 6, prep 10 minutes, braai time 15–18 minutes.
Snoek with Paprika Garlic Butter
Ingredients
Method
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat — on the stove or over the coals. Add the Garlic Flavoured Oil, smoked paprika and crushed garlic. Stir gently and keep warm. You want the garlic to soften and go fragrant, not catch and burn.
- Pat the snoek completely dry on both sides with kitchen paper. Brush the skin side lightly with a little extra Garlic Flavoured Oil to stop it sticking to the grid.
- Open the butterflied snoek out flat, skin-side down, on a hinged braai grid lined with foil. Brush the flesh side generously with the paprika garlic butter.
- Place the grid over medium-hot coals, flesh-side down. Grill for about 3 minutes until the flesh has some colour and is just starting to pull away from the foil.
- Flip the grid so the snoek is now skin-side down. Use your rosemary sprigs as a basting brush and baste the flesh side with the remaining paprika garlic butter. Grill for a further 10–15 minutes, basting regularly throughout.
- The snoek is ready when the flesh flakes easily under a fork but still looks moist and juicy. Serve immediately with a green salad or garlic bread.
Notes
Snoek is one of those fish that belongs to this coastline. It’s been caught, smoked, dried, fried and braaid along the West Coast for as long as people have been cooking here. This version — simple, smoky, a little garlicky — is the kind of thing you make once and then make every snoek season after that.
Make sure you’ve got enough Garlic Flavoured Oil on hand — you’ll want to drizzle a little more over the top just before serving.
Get the oil you need: Wilson’s Foods Garlic Flavoured Oil is available online and in select retailers across South Africa.