Asado (Argentine Wood-Fired Short Ribs and Chorizo)

Variations

• Cuts other than tira de asado: vacío (flank), entraña (skirt) and matambre (thin flap) are the common ones. Skirt is thin and done inside ten minutes, so it goes on the same fire last, not alongside the ribs.
• Achuras: chinchulines (small intestine), kidney, sweetbreads and morcilla (blood sausage) go on before the ribs and are eaten before them. In Argentina that order is a timetable rather than a custom.
• Asado al asador (a la estaca): a whole side of ribs strapped to an iron cross, stood upright away from the coals and cooked by radiant heat alone for three to five hours. No grill needed; instead the fire needs tending the whole time.
• On charcoal: if wood is impractical, use lump charcoal. Less aroma, but steadier temperature. Lighter fluid and briquettes leave their smell in the meat.
• Asado al disco: cooked in a plough disc set over the fire. The name says asado but this is a stir-fry, not a grill — the same heat-control problem over a far shorter time.
• On a gas grill: light one burner and put the meat over the unlit side, indirect. The timings come out close, but there is no wood aroma. An oven will not do this dish — the intensity of radiant heat is a different thing, as dry heat and moist heat sets out.
• Charcoal beef elsewhere: yakiniku takes the same short ribs sliced thin and finishes in minutes; bulgogi marinates them. Nyama choma is the closest in spirit — salt only, cooked long, sauce applied at the table.

Tips

• The fire is the recipe. Almost everything that goes wrong with an asado goes wrong at the fire. Meat put over live flames blackens outside and stays cold inside. Wait until the red flames have gone entirely and the coals have taken on a grey coat of ash (grilling).
• Spread the coals, and keep the meat far from them. The standard for asado is not fierce direct heat but gentle radiance. Five to seven seconds of palm tolerance is the measure, and at that intensity nothing scorches across more than an hour (heat control).
• Coarse salt is the only seasoning, and that is a choice, not a shortage. Over an hour of cooking, sugar burns and acid toughens the surface. As what marinades do explains, a marinade pays off over short fierce heat and costs you over a long slow cook.
• The reason it is coarse salt is time. Fine salt dissolves on contact and starts pulling water to the surface; coarse salt dissolves slowly and leaves the surface dry, and a dry surface is what browns (salt and seasoning, browning).
• Bone side first, and for a long time. The bone is a heat shield. Start on the meat side and the outside is done before the fat has rendered. Those 35-45 minutes bone-down are the single longest wait in the dish, and there is nothing to do during them.
• Turn once. Frequent turning cools the surface each time and it never browns. Twice is plenty even for the chorizo.
• When it flares, move the meat — do not splash water. Water throws ash onto the food and kills the coals. That is why part of the grill is always kept empty.
• Short ribs are not eaten rare. They carry a lot of connective tissue, so 60-63°C in the centre is the mark. Applying a sirloin's 52°C to a rib gives you something chewy (cooking meat and resting).
• Rest five minutes, not more. Unlike a steak, asado is food eaten hot, and rib fat sets as it cools. Ribs left on the board too long feel waxy in the mouth (serving temperature).
• Chimichurri is a sauce, and the parsley is chopped last. Blended it looks darker but loses its aroma quickly and turns bitter (fresh herbs). The dried oregano is the opposite case and has to go in early to take up liquid — oregano is the reason this sauce needs its thirty minutes.
• Serve in sequence. Chorizo, then achuras, then the ribs. Wait for everything and the things that finished first are cold. This is a progression, not a spread.
• Leftover ribs are cooled on the bone, then picked and used as the filling for empanadas. That is what actually happens in Argentina, and it beats reheating them.