The cuts that make an asado, explained.
An asado is not a steak, it is a progression: sausages first, then the ribs and the flank, the skirt for the cook, all off the fire in waves. Here is what each cut is, in plain English, where it comes from, and how it wants to be cooked.
The first thing to understand about Argentine cuts is that the butchery is different. Argentina breaks the animal along its own lines, so the names do not map cleanly onto American cuts, and translating them as "just a flank steak" loses what makes each one worth cooking.
The second thing: an asado is a sequence, not a plate. The food comes off the fire in waves, sausages and the quick cuts first, the big slow cuts last, with the cook's own strip eaten standing at the grill. Below are the cuts in roughly the order they appear, plus the achuras, the offal, that separate a real asado from a barbecue.
The cuts
The thin muscle off the inside of the ribcage, and the most intensely beefy cut on the animal. It cooks fast over a hot bed, so it goes on late and comes off quick, medium-rare at most. Cut against the grain or the chew turns to rope. This is the asador's cut: the strip you cook for yourself and eat standing in the smoke.
A loose-grained cut from the flank between the ribs and the hip, wrapped in a fat membrane that renders and protects the meat. Cooked low and slow over medium embers, fat-cap down, until that membrane crisps. Deep, beefy, forgiving. Slice against the grain and serve juicy.
Beef short ribs cut across the bones into thin strips, so each piece carries several little bone cross-sections. The signature asado cut. Cooked slow over embers, bone-side down first and patient, until the meat is tender and the edges crisp. Bold and rich.
Despite the name it has nothing to do with sausage: it is the boneless sirloin strip, the classic Argentine steakhouse cut. Thick, juicy, a clean band of fat on the edge. A hot bed, a hard sear, and a rest. The crowd-pleaser of the parrilla.
From matar (to kill) and hambre (hunger): the thin sheet of meat between the hide and the ribs. Grilled flat and crisp, or rolled and stuffed with egg, pepper, and herbs as matambre relleno. The early cut that takes the edge off while the big cuts cook.
The achuras (sausages and offal)
The part that makes it an asado and not a cookout. They go on early and reward the patient.
Fresh pork-and-beef sausage, grilled whole and split into bread as choripán. Goes on first, feeds the crowd while they arrive.
Soft, dark, spiced blood sausage. Warmed through on the grate until the skin tightens. Rich and divisive, and essential to a real asado.
The thymus gland, the prized achura. Cooked slow over a gentle bed, 60 to 75 minutes, never rushed, until the outside is golden and crisp. Finished with lemon and salt.
Braided or coiled and grilled long and slow until crackling-crisp. An acquired love, and a badge of a serious asado.
Two rules cut across every cut here. Salt is the only seasoning, coarse salt and nothing else, because the beef and the fire are the dish. And chimichurri rides alongside as a condiment, spooned over the meat at the table, never brushed on raw as a marinade. Get the cut, the salt, and the fire right and you do not need anything else.
These cuts need live fire
Every cut above is built for an adjustable-height grill over wood and coal, not a gas burner. Here is how to choose the grill and how to cook on it.
Argentine grills (parrillas)
The V-grate and brasero build made for cooking these cuts over live fire. What a real parrilla is and the best ones to buy.
Read the guideHow to make asado
The method: build the fire, read the bed by feel, cook the cuts in order, season like an Argentine.
Read the methodCommon questions
What is the best cut of beef for an Argentine asado?
There is no single best cut, an asado is a progression of several. The classics are tira de asado (short ribs), vacío (flank), entraña (skirt), and bife de chorizo (sirloin strip), usually served alongside chorizo and morcilla sausages. The short ribs and flank are the heart of most asados.
What is entraña in English?
Entraña is skirt steak, the thin, intensely flavorful muscle from the inside of the ribcage. It cooks very fast over a hot fire and should be served medium-rare and sliced against the grain.
What is the difference between vacío and tira de asado?
Vacío is the flank, a single loose-grained cut wrapped in fat, cooked whole and low. Tira de asado is short ribs cut across the bone into thin strips, so each piece has several bone cross-sections. Both are cooked slow over embers, but vacío is boneless flank and tira is bone-in ribs.
Why is bife de chorizo not a sausage?
Despite the name, bife de chorizo is a steak, the boneless sirloin strip (similar to a New York strip). The "chorizo" refers to the shape, not to sausage. It is the most popular cut in Argentine steakhouses.
How do you season Argentine beef for asado?
Coarse salt, and almost nothing else. Argentine asado does not use marinades or rubs on the beef; the meat and the fire do the work. Chimichurri is served alongside as a condiment, never as a marinade.
Why trust this guide
These are the cuts I grew up eating, from a mother born in Palermo Viejo, Buenos Aires, and twenty years of Sundays at the parrilla. The translations here are the ones that actually help you order and cook, not the dictionary ones that mislead. When a cut behaves differently than its American cousin, I say how, because that is the part that decides whether you cook it right.
Now cook them right.
Pick the grill that fits how you want to cook, then learn the method that turns these cuts into an asado.