How to cook an asado

The person that starts the asado is known as the asador and he or she starts by lighting the stack of wood, which sits on top of a heap of charcoal on the left hand side of your parilla (a cast-iron grill which can be adjusted at different heights). If you’re having difficulty getting the fire to light chuck in a few pine cones. Once your grill has warmed up, scrub it down with some newspaper to give it a big old clean. When your flames have calmed down you should have a pile of glowing charcoal on the left of your grill which you can spread across evenly to the right hand side. Take the grill down to roughly 15cm above the smouldering embers. Then add you cuts of meat starting with the biggest cuts first. Don’t marinade the meat, simply rub in a bit of salt. Keep the hottest coal aside so you don’t have fat dripping and big flares of smoke. The temperature is right when you hear a gentle but constant sizzling. It normally takes about 2 hours to cook an asado so don’t worry about overcooking the meat, locals have it medium to well-done. Now sit back and enjoy a glass of Malbec whilst your meat is cooking because fiddling with the meat is in fact frowned upon! If you’re peckish you can also serve a few picadas (snacks) of cheese, ham, salami and olives.

The history of the asado