Traditions · cross border · AR, UY

Asado

Argentine asado

A live-fire cooking practice centred on the parrilla, in which wood or charcoal is burned down and embers are moved under the grill to control heat. Practised in Argentina and Uruguay, with the word naming both the food and the gathering.

What the sources establish

Documented in — AR
The cook is the asador and the grill is the parrilla; the asador lights and manages the fire while others prepare the accompaniments.
Well supported
Who documented this
The cook at an asado is the asador and the grill is the parrilla, with the asador lighting and managing the fire while others prepare the accompaniments.
Well supported
- Government of the City of Buenos Aires — States this directly
  The City of Buenos Aires names the cook of an asado the asador and the grill the parrilla, and describes the asador lighting the fire while others prepare accompaniments and drinks.
  Everyday Argentine usage as presented by the city's own tourism authority.
  What it covers:
  Buenos Aires. Argentina is large and this is one city's account.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Commonly associated with — AR
Tira de asado, colita de cuadril, entraña and vacío are among the cuts served, alongside chorizo and morcilla.
Well supported
Who documented this
Tira de asado, colita de cuadril, entraña and vacío are among the cuts documented at an asado in Buenos Aires, alongside chorizo and morcilla.
Well supported
- Government of the City of Buenos Aires — States this directly
  The City of Buenos Aires names tira de asado, colita de cuadril, entraña and vacío among the cuts of an asado, alongside chorizo and morcilla, and the sandwiches choripán and morcipán.
  These are Argentine cut names and several have no clean equivalent in British or American butchery.
  What it covers:
  Presented as typical, not as required.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
Documented in — AR
The order of service runs sausages first, then the meat in batches, ending with applause for the asador.
Well supported
Who documented this
The order of service documented in Buenos Aires runs sausages first, then meat in batches, ending with applause for the asador, and the occasion is described as a social ritual needing no particular reason.
Well supported
- Government of the City of Buenos Aires — States this directly
  The City of Buenos Aires describes the order of service at an asado as sausages first, then the meat in batches, ending with applause for the asador, and describes the occasion as a social ritual bringing friends and family together that needs no particular reason.
  What it covers:
  Documented by the city's tourism authority as how it is done there. Not stated as universal across Argentina or Uruguay.
  Explicitly social: the page frames the food as the occasion's excuse rather than its point.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13
History uncertain
BBQHQ holds no adequate historical source for the asado, and the one government source retrieved offers an unattributed folk etymology rather than an origin account.
Limited evidence
Who documented this
BBQHQ holds no adequate source for the history of the asado. The one government source retrieved offers an unattributed folk etymology for chimichurri and no account of the practice's origins, and is explicitly not treated as a historical source here.
Limited evidence — treat with caution
- Government of the City of Buenos Aires — Background and context
  The page repeats, without attribution, a theory that the name chimichurri derives from British troops demanding 'gimme curry' during the early nineteenth-century invasions.
  Offered as a theory, with no source and no evidence. A widely circulated folk etymology.
  Recorded so the source's weak spot is visible, and deliberately NOT built into a claim: this source is explicitly restricted from the historical domain, so it may not be cited for one.
  About this source · Original · retrieved 2026-08-13

History

Uncertain

BBQHQ has retrieved no academic or institutional history of the asado. The City of Buenos Aires source is good on how an asado runs today and offers no sourced account of where the practice came from, so none is given here. Popular accounts circulate widely and disagree with each other.

Foods documented in this tradition

Each of these is here because a source names it, and the source is named beside it. BBQHQ does not decide what belongs to somebody else’s tradition.

tira de asado — Beef short ribsDocumented in
The City of Buenos Aires names tira de asado — the crosscut rib strip — among the cuts of an asado.
chorizo — SausageDocumented in
The City of Buenos Aires names chorizo and morcilla among the cuts of an asado, and describes the order of service as sausages first, then the meat in batches. BBQHQ holds a general sausage record rather than a chorizo one, and that is the limit of what it can honestly point at.

Associated with this tradition

References, not identity. A tradition is not its equipment and not its method, and these links say “associated with” rather than “consists of”.

Grilling