Everything we know about cooking over live wood, written down. No sponsored gear round-ups, no listicles: what actually works when eight people are waiting and the fire is not ready yet.
Most people ruin an asado before the meat touches the grate. Here is how to build a coal bed that holds an even 200 °C for four hours, why you burn the wood somewhere else, and the two-zone trick every Argentine asador uses without ever naming it.
Read the piece
The same bone, cut on a different axis, behaves completely differently over fire. A diagram, the Spanish names, and what to say in an American butcher shop.
We burned six woods side by side and measured how long each held cooking heat. The expensive one won, but not by as much as you would think.
Four pieces, in this order. Together they are about half an hour of reading and will save you a ruined first asado.
Why you burn the wood somewhere else, and how to read heat with the back of your hand instead of a thermometer.
Six woods burned side by side. The expensive one wins, but not by as much as the price suggests.
The Spanish names, the same bone cut two ways, and what to actually say at an American butcher counter.
Coarse, early, both sides. The myth about salt drying meat out has it backwards.
Paint blisters and flakes into your food. The óxido finish is rust we let happen on purpose, and it outlasts every coating we tried.
The dishwasher, the glass cutting board, and leaving it wet. None of them are about sharpening.
Federico and Franco built the first grill for their own backyard because nothing on the market would hang a lamb. Then the neighbours started asking.
We sell grills, so we have an obvious interest in you enjoying the thing you bought. Everything here is what we tell friends who ask, written the way we would say it standing next to the fire.