All over the world the best beef restaurants are Argentinean.
Ever wondered why that is?
What makes Argentine beef so extraordinary?
You are what you eat
Why does it taste so awesome? Well, simply enough, the Argentine barbecue masters know their trade like few others. And most importantly, they know their meat. The ‘you are what you eat’ principle does not only apply to people. Argentinean cattle is typically kept on vast expanses of poor pampa-land, with very little fostering. They live virtually in the wild. The pampa is not a rich, green pasture, so the animals feed on a wide variety of plants, shrubs and herbs and have to cover considerable distances. This gives them a lean but very tasty meat. The last month before butchering they are rounded up and fed a diet that finally adds some fat to the savoury meat.
The masters of de meat slow-cooking method
The prime beef is carefully cured for a while before it reaches its optimal quality. Then the masters of meat bbq chefs or ‘asadores’ take over. The argentinian style bbq demands pieces of meat that are relatively flat. Standing vertically and spread out, the inside of the meat cut is exposed to heat, radiatingdirectly from embers and flames of an adjacent fire. This takes more time than the ‘western’ bbq style. But it makes for a meat that is slow-cooked and nicely cured by tasty wood smoke, instead of charcoal fumes. Fat and juices emanating from he meat can be collected easily and used for basting or as a base for sauces.