Argentine · Main
Tira de Asado
- Intermediate
- 1 h 30 m
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with char used as punctuation, wood-smoke running underneath.
Ingredients
- 1.5kg beef short ribs, cut ACROSS the bones in 3cm strips (flanken cut; ask for tira de asado)
- Coarse salt (sal parrillera), the only seasoning; Argentina is firm on this
- Real wood or lump charcoal, burned to steady gray embers
- A parrilla or grill grate set HIGH above the coals
- Chimichurri and salad criolla at the table; a Malbec breathing nearby
Equipment
Grill
The skills inside
Asado fireGrilling over live coals
The words inside
MalbecMalbec, Zinfandel & the New World Crowd-PleasersShort Ribs (English vs. Flanken)
Allergen screen
None found among the 14 screened.
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Light the fire an hour ahead; the asador's rule is embers, never flame: you should be able to hold your hand over the grate for 7–8 seconds.
- Salt the tira generously; lay it BONE SIDE DOWN first and leave it there 25–30 min: the bones are the roasting rack and the heat shield. 30 min
- Flip once. Only once. 15–20 min on the meat side until deep-crusted and bronze. 20 min
- Rest 5 min; cut between the bones; serve on a wooden board, standing around the fire, as intended. 5 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Grilling over live coals 77 recipes
- The fire was ready before the food was: coals evenly covered in grey ash with no flames licking through and no raw smoke coming off, and a hot zone and a cooler one both available.
- The grate was hot and clean when the food landed, and the food released cleanly from it when the time came to turn rather than tearing away.
- Marks are browned, not burnt: deep colour where the metal touched, with no carbon flaking off and no soot transferred onto the food.
- The interior reaches its target with a thin gradient, not charred outside and cold within, and not driven through by a flare-up.
- What comes off the fire smells of fire and food only: no raw wood smoke, no fuel, nothing acrid at the back of the nose.
Where it goes wrong It went on over live flames instead of settled coals, so the outside charred bitter in the flare-ups while the middle stayed cold, and everything on the plate tastes of soot.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Zinfandel (old-vine)
- Also Right
- Shiraz or Malbec
- From the Taps
- Smoked porter
- Zero-Proof
- Cherry cola, honestly
Barbecue’s sweet-smoke wants jammy fruit that shakes hands with the sauce; dry austere reds argue with sugar and lose.
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