Viva Argentina

I don’t like to travel much. Except to the coast. And occasionally to Louisiana, especially New Orleans. I really love that filthy city for some reason, mostly for the food and music, I suppose.

Other than that, I’m pretty content here in this little part of Texas. But lately I’ve had an itch to visit Argentina, for a couple of reasons.

For one, they recently elected a libertarian president. After years of languishing in dystopia, the people of Argentina finally broke the chains of socialism by electing the world’s first libertarian leader - Javier Milei. The scruffy-haired economist often appeared at campaign events with a chainsaw, vowing to slash government spending and eliminate bureaucracies. You hear politicians in the U.S. make those kind of promises all the time. But he’s actually doing it. Argentina recently posted their first budget surplus in decades. This country, many years ago known as the “Jewel of South America,” may be on the way to its former glory.

I also love the culture of Argentina. It’s a country of cattle and ranches, much like Texas. Their cowboys, known as Gauchos, are a national icon, perhaps more so than the cowboy is to American culture. The Gaucho is seen as brave and unruly yet loyal. He is also a poet, musician, artist, lover, and connoisseur of good food and drink. The Marxists who ruled Argentina for the last century hated the Gauchos and their independent lifestyle – all the more reason to love them, if you ask me.

Most importantly, though, for me, the Argentinians have perfected the art of grilling meat. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say they have preserved an ancient art that has been forgotten in today’s complex culinary milieu.

I recently came across Al Frugoni’s YouTube channel. Frugoni is an Argentinian cook who now lives in Texas. He’s making a name for himself through collaborations with some of the top barbecue Youtubers such as Bradley Robinson of Chuds BBQ and Jeremy Yoder of Mad Scientist BBQ. Through Frugoni, I’m falling in love with the Argentinian style of open-fire cooking.

According to Frugoni, there are two basic syles of open-fire cooking in Argentina – asado and asador.

Asado in Spanish literally means “roast.” But throughout Latin America, the word mostly refers to what we think of in Texas as grilled meat or barbecue.

In both styles of cooking, the only seasoning used is salt. The meat is served with a couple of sauces – salsa criolla, which is made from tomatoes and sweet chilis, and chimichurri, which is a parsley and garlic-based sauce.

Asador-style cooking involves whole animal carcasses that are splayed open and hung on a rack known as a “cross” – think “crucifix.” This cross is set next to a wood fire burning in the open on the ground or in a shallow pit. The cross is placed upwind and slanted slightly towards the fire. The carcass may be goat, sheep, pig or even a whole steer. The cooking process takes several hours.

I haven’t tried the asador method yet. I don’t have access to any whole animal carcasses at the moment. I might try it with a wild hog one day.

I have tried the other method, asado, a couple of times now. It involves cooking cuts of meat, sausages and organs over an open fire. Frugoni uses an open pit similar to the ones used in California for Santa Maria-style cooking. The grill can be raised or lowered to the fire with a crank. The fire can be made with lump charcoal or wood. Furgoni uses a mix of both. He says post oak most resembles the kind of wood used in Argentina, but mesquite may also be used (although mesquite burns hotter).

Frugoni doesn’t use a thermometer. Instead, he uses his hand to judge the fire temperature. Place your hand close to the grill and count seconds. If you can hold your hand there for four seconds, that’s ideal. If the fire is too hot, raise the grill. If its too cold, lower the grill.

I use a Weber kettle grill, so I can’t raise or lower the grill. Instead, I can only add coals or move them around to adjust the temperature. It isn’t ideal, but it works.

The trick is to keep a supply of hot coals on hand – either in a charcoal chimney or an external fire box – but never let the coals under the meat flare up and start a grease fire.

The difference in this style of grilling from other techniques is the use of radiant heat. The meat is cooked by infrared energy from the burning fire. Conversely, in Texas-style barbecue, the meat is cooked by convection in the form of smoky hot air. Barbecue chicken and pork steaks are often barbecued over live coals with a closed lid. This results in a combination of radiant heat and convection heat.

But in asado-style cooking, only radiant heat is used. The meat still absorbs some smokey flavor from the burning fire, but the smoke does not cook the meat.

Larger cuts of meat, typically beef, work best in this method – beef ribs, tri-tip roasts and a lesser-known cut called “picanha.” It comes from the rump section of the animal. HE- B in La Grange often keeps picanha in stock. Last weekend I grilled one asado-style on my Weber kettle.

I seasoned it only with salt. Frugoni recommends coating the meat in coarse salt. He says you don’t have to worry about oversalting with coarse grains, because the meat will absorb the amount of salt it needs, and the rest will fall off while you turn and flip it during the cooking process.

It took about an hour and a half to two hours to reach a medium level of doneness. The rump section of beef isn’t particularly known for tenderness. But this method resulted in some of the most succulent, tender beef I have ever eaten. Jeremy Yoder of Mad Scientist BBQ speculates that the long cooking time with no lid to contain the heat allows the meat proteins to relax more than they do when you sear a steak over high heat.

I grilled some chicken thighs using this method Tuesday night, and it was some of the best chicken I ever ate, also.

I think I’m sold. Ditch the lid and try grilling over an open fire. It’s a lot of fun, too. You get to see the meat the whole time its cooking. Of course, you need to be extra diligent about flare-ups.

Check out Al Frugoni’s YouTube channel at https:// www.youtube.com/@alfrugoniofc and his website at https:// alfrugoni.com.

¡Viva Argentina!