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1
Build the charcoal fire well in advance and allow it to reach full heat — past the orange-flame stage, the coals uniformly ash-grey and radiating fierce, steady heat. The grelha must be screaming hot before the sardines are laid on.
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2
Place the sardines on the grelha whole: unscaled, ungutted, untouched. Do not salt them. Lay the slices of bread directly beneath the grill to catch the falling drips of sardine fat and charcoal smoke.
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3
Grill over full charcoal heat for 3 to 4 minutes per side for a medium sardine. This is where the dish lives or dies: the charcoal smoke is a flavour component no other heat source replicates, and the intact skin — never scaled, never broken — must blister and char at the edges while the flesh steams inside its own fat. Turn once only. The sardine is ready when the skin has visibly blistered and releases cleanly from the grill without tearing.
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4
Remove the sardines from the grill. Apply coarse sea salt immediately after cooking, never before. Press the thickest part of one sardine gently: the flesh should yield and separate from the backbone without resistance, confirming it has cooked through in its own interior steam.
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5
Serve at once, directly from the grill, alongside the bread that has been collecting the cooking drips — the pão com as gotas. Sardines must be eaten immediately; they do not hold.