STS Bar & Grill: Asado

The gauchos of Patagonia know a thing or two about meat, and more than their fair share about staying well fed in open country. It’s only natural than that the tradition-rich South American cowboy culture invented asado. You don’t have to live your life horseback in the highlands to appreciate this immersive culinary experience though. A healthy appetite for campfires, camaraderie and slowly flame-roasted whole animals will do the trick just fine.

 STS Bar & Grill: Asado

What you’ll need…

1 Goat, lamb, wild pig or tasty animal of your choice, field dressed and skinned

Saltwater (preferably seawater) stored in empty red wine bottles

1 Ascador (cruciform iron roasting stake)

1 Day to while away under the sky

1 Cooler full of cold beverages

½ Cord of firewood

Sharp knives (1 per celebrant)

Enough friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances to devour an entire animal

Step 1: Show-up early. This is an all-day event, not some in-and-out, grab-and-go, RonCo rotisserie, set it and forget it affair. Asado is both verb and noun, and the firewood aint going to gather itself.

Step 2: While your fire is building a good bank of coals, fix your animal to the ascador with skewers and bailing wire. You’ll probably need to break a few ribs near the spine to splay it all the way out.

Step 3: Plant the ascador beside the fire, grab a beverage and settle in. Adjust angles, baste with seawater, tend the fire, shovel coals to and fro and periodically rotate the whole outfit in keeping with your best judgment. Then let someone else take over for a while. Go play bocce or look for trout in the creek.

Step 4: By midafternoon all that fresh air, wood smoke and sizzling grease will have your appetite going. It’s time to start selectively using those knives on the brown, bubbly, crispy bits.

Step 5: When the shadows grow long and the light shifts to gold, take a moment to appreciate the bone-deep satisfaction of a day in the sun, offer thanks for your collection of hearty companions, then, careful not to stab a cousin or lose a finger, wade into the knife wielding mob attacking the meat.