Slow, dense, aromatic. Mopane is the wood you buy for the fire that has to last: a potjie that simmers all afternoon, a smoker, an open fireplace on a wet July night. Kameeldoring is the king of braai wood and we are not about to argue with that. Mopane is the slow one, and for some fires slow is exactly what you want.
The tree
Colophospermum mopane grows where not much else does: the hot, dry north of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Limpopo, on alkaline soils, through months without rain. You know it by the butterfly-shaped leaves that fold shut in the heat of the day. Elephants eat it; the mopane worm lives on it. Because it grows slowly in hard country, the wood it makes is very dense, and that density is the whole story of why it burns the way it does. Mopane is a protected tree in Namibia, which is where ours comes from.
Density, in numbers
Mopane runs at roughly 1,000 to 1,200 kg per cubic metre. Water is 1,000. A piece of dry mopane dropped in a bucket sinks. Bloekom, the everyday fireplace wood, sits around 800 to 900; kameeldoring is up in mopane’s range.
What that means at the fire is simple. Each piece carries more fuel than the same-sized piece of anything lighter, so it burns down slowly, and when it does burn down it leaves a thick bed of coals rather than a thin layer of ash. You feed the fire less and you get a steadier heat. That is the trade: it takes longer to get going, and it repays you for the rest of the evening.
Heat and coals
A sear needs a hot bed of coals under the grid and time to keep it there. Mopane coals hold. Set the fire up in two zones, coals raked high on one side for the chops and low on the other for the boerewors and the sosaties, and the zones stay put through a long braai instead of collapsing halfway through.
It is also the wood for anything that cooks for hours. A potjie wants a small, steady heat that does not need watching; a smoker wants the same. Mopane’s slow burn does both without you rebuilding the fire.
Smoke and aroma
Once it is properly alight, mopane makes little smoke and hardly any sparks. What smoke there is carries a musky, bushveld smell that people who grew up on it recognise from across the garden. It sits in the background on red meat, and it is gentle enough for fish and chicken, which stronger-smoking woods can overpower.
Mopane or kameeldoring?
Both are dense Namibian hardwoods and either will make a serious braai. The honest difference: kameeldoring lights a little more easily and is the braai default, the wood most of our regulars order for a Saturday. Mopane is slower and more aromatic, and it earns its place on the long, low fires, the potjie, the smoker, the open fireplace. Plenty of braaiers keep a bag of each.
Lighting it
Dense wood needs a hot start. Build a proper base with kindling first; hardwood kindling fed stick by stick, or a bag of pine starters and one firelighter. Add mopane a piece at a time once the base is roaring, not all at once. Then leave it alone. Let it burn down to coals before the meat goes on; the flames are for looking at, the coals do the cooking.
Control the heat by moving coals, not by adding wood. Pile them for a sear, spread them for chicken, rake a few to one side to keep a potjie ticking.
Storing it
Under cover, off the ground, air around it. Mopane is naturally resistant to termites and borers, which is one reason it stores so well, but rain is rain. Keep it dry and a bag bought in September is as good in July.
The bag
Mopane, 15kg, bagged and stacked. Brought in from Namibia by our sister company.
Questions we get asked
Is mopane expensive?
On our shop it is one of the more affordable Namibian hardwoods, not the dearest; the price is on the card above. Because it burns slowly you also get through less of it.
Does it spark?
Very little once it is going. It is a calm wood.
Can I burn it indoors?
In an open fireplace, yes: slow, low smoke, a long bed of coals, with a hot start from kindling as above. For a closed-combustion unit we recommend blue gum or blackwattle instead.
Is it good for a pizza oven?
It will hold a coal bed for a long service, but it is slow to flame. Sekeldoring is the better oven wood; mopane underneath if you are cooking all night.
Delivered across Cape Town, carried in and stacked, or collect free from 35 Tredoux Street, Parow. WhatsApp 060 978 8945 with your suburb and we will tell you the delivery fee.
