Every cut and dish that meets the fire.
The Argentine asado cuts, the Santa Maria tri-tip, the chimichurri and the salsas, and how I cook each one over coals. This is the working kitchen behind the grills: start with what you are cooking, and the method is here.
A grill is only ever half the answer. The other half is knowing what you are putting on it, and an asado is not one dish, it is a progression of cuts, each cooked its own way over the same bed of coals.
So this is the kitchen behind the guides. The Argentine cuts I grew up on, the Santa Maria tri-tip I came to as a Californian, and the condiments that tie the table together. Each one links to its own method, and all of them lead back to the same place: the fire, read by feel, and the grill that lets you cook over it.
The Argentine cuts
The cuts of a real asado, in the order you learn them. Start with the map, then go deep on each.
Argentine beef cuts, explained
The whole map: entraña, vacío, tira de asado, bife de chorizo, and the achuras. What each one is in English and where it sits on the animal.
Read the guideAsado de tira (short ribs)
The signature asado cut: short ribs sliced across the bone, cooked slow over embers, bone-side down and patient.
Read the guideVacío (flank)
The loose-grained flank wrapped in a fat membrane that crisps over the coals. Low, slow, and forgiving.
Read the guideEntraña (skirt steak)
The thin, intensely beefy cut the asador cooks fast and keeps for himself. Hot, quick, medium-rare.
Read the guideBife de chorizo (sirloin)
The steakhouse cut, and despite the name, not a sausage. Thick, hard-seared, rested, served whole.
Read the guideThe Santa Maria tri-tip
California's contribution to live-fire beef, and the bridge between the two traditions on this site.
Tri-tip, the Santa Maria cut
The triangle of beef a whole barbecue tradition is built on. What it is and how to cook it right.
Read the guideHow to grill tri-tip
The reverse sear that lands a lean cut on medium-rare, with the slice that keeps it tender.
Read the guideSanta Maria tri-tip recipe
The Central Coast original: salt, pepper, garlic, red oak, and the plate it rides on.
Read the guideTri-tip internal temperature
The doneness chart, the pull number, and the carryover math a lean cut demands.
Read the guideDishes & condiments
What rides alongside the beef. The sauces and the small plates that make a pile of grilled meat into an asado.
Chimichurri
The green condiment that rides alongside every asado, never as a marinade. The real Argentine recipe.
Read the guideRed chimichurri (rojo)
The smoky, paprika-and-pepper cousin of the green sauce. What makes it red and the cuts it belongs on.
Read the guideChoripán
Grilled chorizo split into crusty bread with chimichurri. The first thing off the fire at every asado.
Read the guideSalsa criolla
The fresh onion, tomato, and pepper relish that cuts the richness of grilled beef. Cool, vinegary, simple.
Read the guideProvoleta
A thick disc of provolone grilled crisp outside and molten inside. The starter that opens the asado.
Read the guideAll of it needs a fire to cook on
Every cut here is cooked over live wood and coal with the heat controlled by the grate. Here is the grill that does it.
Pick a cut. Learn the fire.
Start with what you are cooking tonight, and let the method and the grill follow from there.