Un, dos, tres... sei pronto per una grigliata a prova di gaucho?
Today we want to turn up the heat for an amazing and delicious type of cooking: we are talking about the spectacular Argentinian asado!
If you are a member of the club of lovers of this method, but haven’t yet tried to cook meat this way, then you are in the right place to discover all the secrets of this technique. You’ll see that with our tips the process is really simple and you’re guaranteed to get a great result!
What is asado?
Let’s start with the basics. The word ‘asado‘ in Spanish simply means ‘roast’ and refers to the method of grilling meat used by the herdsmen of the Argentine pampas. It is a very different technique to the grilling we are used to and is also called ‘heat reverberation’.
The principle is similar to spit-roasting, but the arrangement of the meat to be cooked is the opposite, i.e. vertical, and fixed in front of the fire at a greater distance, so that the fat can drip from the food without giving rise to dangerous fumes in any way.
The rack must be rotated 180° from time to time in order to achieve even cooking on both sides. This is a very slow, almost old-fashioned process that offers the opportunity to enjoy unique and inimitable flavours.
How to cook perfect Argentinian asado
Argentinian asado is especially recommended for large pieces of meat, such as beef, lamb or pork, because the long cooking time eliminates fat, ensuring a very tasty and light result. The ample time required also has another advantage: this cooking method is well suited to inexperienced cooks, as it is difficult to burn the meat!
Getting good results is therefore quite simple. To be sure of achieving perfection, you just need to know a couple of tricks: let’s look at them together!
- The day before, prepare the meat Argentinian style: place it in a large bowl with a little coarse salt, pepper, rosemary and Argentine Chimichurri sauce.
- Massage the meat well to distribute the sauce and herbs evenly, then cover and leave to rest in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, take the meat out of the fridge about an hour before cooking, as sudden changes in temperature may lower the quality of the meat. To prepare the embers, choose oak wood or wood that is hard enough to burn slowly and distribute it evenly over the whole cooking area.
- Before putting the meat into position, dry it with kitchen roll.
Et voilà: now you can start cooking for real! At Palazzetti we recommend the Remy barbecue which is ideal for trying out this technique and you can also add the vertical cooking kit as an accessory.
