Asado

ASADO = BBQ

When BBQ comes to my mind, I don't think of hot dog or hamburgers at first. Being the carnivorous person that I am, I think of the country that I came from. I was born in Argentina and the typical BBQ is really pretty simple.....Charcoal over Gas EVERY TIME, Salt over Rubs and MEAT and lots of it.

Charcoal over Gas EVERY TIME

At first, Charcoal can be a very bothersome method of cooking, but I perfer it because of the smokey flavor that it add to the meat over gas. I personally do not like to use a predipped charcoal since the smell of the lighter fluid is very strong and can stick to your meat and it is easier to control the heat. Rule of thumb, you know when you have the right temperature when you can hold your hand 6 inches from the grill area and hold it for about 5 to 6 seconds with out burning your hand. You want to be able to feel the heat but not burn your hand. Temperature is able to be controlled on how you distribute the charcoal once it is ready to cook.

Salt over Rubs 

Meat has such wonderful flavor which can overshadowed by powerful rubs. I prefer to use coarse sea salt, the trick to is just apply to the meat and let it sit for about 10 minutes outside the fridge. What the meat will do is soak up as much salt as it needs and you will never over salt your meat. Whatever salt is not drawn into the meat will fall to the charcoal when you flip it over.

MEAT and lots of it

When you add all these condiments to the beef you hide the natural flavor of the beef. At our grill there is always a hierarchy of meat which needs to be followed. BBQ is a concert of the grill master where he spends a great deal of time making sure all his instruments are making the right sound to then go for the grand finale which is the food. As you practice and get better acclimated to your grill you will know how long on average it takes the meat to cook. As with any meat the cardinal rule is you never want to under cook or overcook the meat because people will not enjoy it. Pork sausage usually takes about 30 to 45 minutes to be done depending on the thickness. Turning 1/4 of the way every 10 to 15 minutes not to burn any side. As a grill master you want to control what your guess will eat, you never want to overwhelm them with all that meat. By this time you Skirt steak will be ready for  different people the way you get skirt steak you want to make sure they take none of the fat or "skin" away as this helps in the cooking. This is a tender piece of meat and even if you burn the outside the membrane is able to pull off to display a very juicy unburned piece of meat. In our traditional BBQ the Beef ribs will go out before the skirt steak but this time we bought the Ribs untouched from the butcher so they were still in the slab and now the rules for the ribs changed a bit you still want your bone to get the heat and assist you in the cooking because about 2/3 of the way thru when you can feel the heat on the top of the beef slab and you turn over your ribs the heat that comes of the bones will help you cook it from top and bottom. Not everyone is going to enjjoy medium beef so you may have to precut them and once the cooking is almost done sear both side to cook it even longer.

Thank you for taking your time to read this any comments post them. Questions, suggestions, hate mail, fan mail or anything you can write to me CookingMyBrain@hotmail.com

See you tomorrow

Leo