What Is Churrasco? One Word, Three Meanings: Spain, Argentina and Brazil

The same word in four countries

Spain: a strip of rib, bone and all

In Spain, and in Galicia more than anywhere, churrasco is the rib cut into thin crosswise strips. The butcher runs the saw through the ribs rather than between them, and what comes off is a long strip in which meat, fat and small pieces of bone alternate. In British terms it is short ribs (Jacob’s ladder) cut across the bones, and it is the exact equivalent of the Argentine asado de tira. Spanish shops sell the thicker version of the same strip as tira de asado.

There is also a dish called churrasco gallego: pork and beef ribs on one platter with chorizo criollo, potatoes and a churrasco sauce. The cut and the dish share a name and are not the same thing.

The pork trap

In Spain, “churrasco” with no surname is very often pork rib in strips, and that is what sits in many supermarket trays under that name. If you want beef, ask for “churrasco de ternera” or “churrasco de añojo” and check the label; our guide to reading a Spanish meat label shows where to look. Ours is beef rib from retinto yearlings, animals of 12 to 24 months, and there is no pork in it.

Argentina and Uruguay: a boneless steak

In Argentina and Uruguay a churrasco is a tender beef steak cooked on a griddle, normally boneless. It is the everyday steak. Put a bone in it and it stops being a churrasco and becomes a bife. An Argentine who orders churrasco in Galicia and receives ribs on the bone gets a surprise.

Brazil: not a cut, a way of cooking

In Brazil churrasco is the method. Meat is threaded on long skewers and roasted over the fire as it turns. From there come the churrascaria, the restaurant where waiters walk round with the skewers and carve on to your plate, and the rodizio, the format in which meat keeps coming until you say stop. What goes on the skewer can be picanha, ribs, chicken or whatever there is.

What to say at a Spanish counter

If what you want is the barbecue churrasco, the strips with bone, go in with three things clear.

• Name the animal: “churrasco de ternera”, “de añojo” or “de vaca”. If you do not, you may be handed pork (de cerdo).
• Name the thickness. About 1 cm, “de un centímetro”, is the thin churrasco strip. If you want the thick strip, ask for tira de asado, because it cooks in a different way.
• Ask the age. Spanish law separates ternera (up to 12 months), añojo (12–24), novillo (24–48) and vaca (over 48). Ternera is mild and dries out easily in so thin a strip; añojo has more fat and copes better with the fire; vaca has a deep flavour but asks for a thick strip and a longer cook.

Grilling beef churrasco

• Thin strips, a medium-high fire and not much time: 4–5 minutes a side. At 1 cm there is no room for a gentle fire, because the strips dry out.
• You are after a crust on the outside and a bone that comes away in your fingers.
• Coarse salt, then straight to the plate. Chimichurri suits it, and chorizo criollo on the same grill is the classic partner.
• Thick tira de asado goes the other way: a medium fire, bone side down first and a good deal longer.
• Do not mix the two in the same zone of the barbecue. One is overdone before the other has started.