Outdoor cooking - Part 2

When eating an Argentine asado you will be amazed by the excellent quality of the meat. And yet, not wanting to take anything away from the excellence of Argentine beef, you can achieve very similar results elsewhere in the world. The secret isn't so much in the quality of the meat as such, but rather in the way in which it is prepared. And the secret is painfully simple: SLOWLY! There is nothing rushed about a good asado. On the contrary, a slow pace and good timing is what delivers the best results.
Now I know that sounds easy but it took me a long time to overcome my own cultural heritage where braaing meat is about loads of heat, thin meat cuts and a nagging audience who want to eat ten minutes ago. With a lunchtime asado, for example, where the food is going to be ready to eat at say two in the afternoon, I start the fire between 11h30 and 12h00, allow it to burn down to coals and lay the meat out at 13h00 to be ready to start eating at 14h00. All of this naturally depends on what cuts of meat are being cooked.
The person preparing the asado will be aware that a thick meat cut like vacio (flank steak), asado de tira (short or chuck ribs) and bife de chorizo (strip loin steak) will all cook longer than entraña (skirt steak), for example. Then there are chorizos (sausages) which cook pretty quickly but are served ahead of the main meat cuts, often in a short bread roll, called a choripan. This is served as a starter and is well liked by most Argentines.
Pork is another favourite at an asado, with bondiola de cerdo (pork shoulder) and matambrito de cerdo (pork flank steak) topping the list. More difficult to cook is carre de cerdo (pork loin) due to its thickness and the risk of drying it out.
A "complete" asado will also have a variety of "achuras" (offal) which include rinoñes (kidneys), mollejas (sweetbreads) and chinchulin (initial portion of small intestines). For many people these items sound horrible because they are often discarded in other countries. They are, however, amazing when done properly at an asado.
Whole chicken split open and flattened down is also popular on the parilla (grill) while lamb is much less popular but amazingly tasty. Lamb tends to be reserved for "special" occasions like New Year when it is often prepared whole (or one half at least).
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