Key Takeaways One of the questions I get asked surprisingly often is whether you should use wood or charcoal for Argentine asado. If you’ve watched enough videos of asado in Argentina, you’ve probably seen both. One parrilla might have large pieces of hardwood burning alongside the meat, while another has a bag of charcoal sitting […]
When most people think about Argentine asado, they picture meat sitting over an open parrilla with glowing embers underneath. That’s certainly at the heart of how I cook, but it isn’t the only cooking surface I use. One of the most useful components of my Argentine grill is actually a solid steel griddle, or plancha, […]
When most people picture an Argentine grill, one of the first things that comes to mind is the large wheel mounted beside the parrilla. Turn the wheel one way and the cooking grate rises away from the fire. Turn it the other way and the meat moves closer to the embers. It’s one of the […]
If you look closely at a traditional Argentine parrilla, you’ll often notice that the cooking grate is only part of the setup. Sitting alongside it, sometimes built directly into the brickwork and sometimes constructed as a separate steel basket, is another piece of equipment that plays an important role in how we cook asado: the […]
When people start researching an Argentine grill, one of the first design features they usually come across is the V-shaped grill grate. It has almost become part of the visual identity of the modern Argentine parrilla. Search for an Argentine grill online, particularly outside Argentina, and you’ll find manufacturers promoting V-shaped channels designed to catch […]
Spend enough time in Argentina and you quickly realize that mate isn’t simply another caffeinated drink. It sits on desks while people work, gets passed around between friends, travels with us in the car, and very often appears while the fire is being prepared for an asado. After more than two decades living in Argentina, […]
Spend enough time around asados in Argentina and you quickly realize something: the Argentine grill is only part of the equation. The parrilla matters, of course. But what really defines Argentine grilling is the relationship between the grill, the fire, the embers and the person cooking. I’ve lived in Argentina for more than 23 years, […]
Key Takeaways If you’re designing an outdoor grill station, it’s easy to start with the grill itself. In Argentina, we tend to think about it a little differently. The parrilla isn’t simply a metal grate sitting over a fire. It’s a complete cooking system built around controlling fire, embers, heat and cooking surface. I’ve cooked […]
KEY TAKEAWAYS Christmas in Argentina: A 23-Year Resident Explains Local Traditions Christmas in Argentina falls three days after the summer solstice, and everything else follows from that. The meal is cold or cooked outdoors. It starts at 10pm when the heat finally drops. The main event is the night of December 24 rather than the […]
KEY TAKEAWAYS Search for chimichurri and you will find seven or eight national versions presented as equivalent regional traditions. They are not equivalent, and pretending otherwise makes the whole subject harder to understand rather than easier. Two of them are genuinely chimichurri: the Argentine and the Uruguayan, which developed together in the Río de la […]
KEY TAKEAWAYS Argentina drinks differently from the rest of South America, and the difference is Italian. The immigration wave that arrived between 1880 and 1930 brought amaro, brought wine culture, brought the habit of drinking something bitter after a heavy meal. Layer that over a Guaraní stimulant, add a wine industry sitting at altitudes no […]
KEY TAKEAWAYS Flap Meat Steak: What It Is and How to Cook It the Argentine Way Flap meat steak is one of the most flavourful cuts on the animal and one of the most misunderstood. It is sold under a dozen names, confused with two other cuts it is not, and cooked wrong more often […]
