The secrets to preparing a good meat: eight infallible Argentine cuts

Strip of roast or flag, in an image provided by the restaurant Piantao.Peter Marconi

"Every time I try to organize my knowledge about Argentine beef cuts I end up absolutely disoriented," I told Javier Brichetto, owner of the two steakhouses that under the Piantao brand he runs successfully in Madrid. I was looking at the letter, undecided about the piece to choose, and his explanations at the table became a practical class on the cutting of his country. "You call chorizo steak a fresh meat that is neither stuffed in any casing nor seasoned with spices and paprika," I told him. "And you call the center of a chop the eye of steak, without any relation to the eye of the animal. It all seems capricious, doesn't it?" Without sparing smiles we began a conversation in which Brichetto pointed out the equivalences between the different Argentine and Spanish courts and the secrets of his trade as a master griller.

What is vacuum? "As simple as a cutting of the skirt, a cut that does not exist in Spain," he replied. "You use the skirt for stews and stews. Right at the edge of the last of the 13 ribs it has, where the bones end, already in the abdominal area, hides a triangular muscle that we call empty, a marginal cut. Roast it whole, slowly, over low heat. In Spain it is considered third and is used for snacking, while for us it is one of the stars of the best roasts. Argentines have a reputation for preferring old-fashioned meats, a habit that from Spain is considered a defect. Mere cultural issue that has begun to change. However, there are cuts that, due to their characteristics, require long roasting times."

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Do you mean the skirt you call ribs? "Indeed. Undercooked offers an unpleasant texture. Only when it is roasted slowly, and its connective tissues soften while being impregnated with the aromas of combustion, does it gain true value. We roast it whole on the side of the bones; In our menu you will find it under the statement Palo de Costillar. Well understood that when of its 13 ribs we select the four central ones we obtain an exclusive portion that we call central we obtain an exclusive portion that we call window roast".

Eye of steak, in an image provided by Piantao.Peter Marconi

And the eye of steak?, I questioned him again. "It is the high loin from which the famous Spanish chops are extracted. If they contain bone we call them rib steaks, and if they are stripped of the bone, steak eye. A terminology that seems capricious and has not stopped evolving. Formerly, the eye of steak was called wide steak. Their roasting times depend on the thickness of each piece. In Piantao we have adapted to the Spanish taste, five minutes are enough for each side".

What area of the beef does the chorizo steak come from? "It is nothing but the low back, devoid of bone. I don't know the reasons for its name, perhaps because of its elongated shape. Sparsely infiltrated piece that can be tasted little done, but that intensifies its flavor if you spend it a little more. In Piantao we grill portions of 330 grams." Suddenly our conversation took a radical turn. We stopped talking about beef cuts to make it about breeds, the configuration of grills, embers, woods and coals, and roasting techniques.

Firewood or charcoal? "Firewood provides approximately 10,000 calories, and charcoal 35,000. It is best to combine the aromas of firewood with the calories of charcoal. I like the Argentine quebracho for its durability, the Cuban marabú, of some similarity and, of course, the holm oak charcoal. The purest in the world is the Japanese binchotán. It is used in Japanese robatas, but its cost is excessive. As for firewood, none better than holm oak, although its ashes attenuate the calorific value of the embers.

Grills with iron in uve or round? "It is the issue that provokes the most debate. In a restaurant, roasting times should never be delayed. One of the reasons why I prefer irons in uve is because they collect the fats that the meats give off. The same ones that when precipitating generate undesirable combustions that hinder the point of the roasts. As if that were not enough, the larger surface area of the irons in uve transmits heat better to each piece. I shy away from flames and fumes, two distorting factors. What is the use of offering meats with dairy notes of grass and corn if fire and smoke cover their nuances?"

Grilled picaña cut, in an image provided by Piantao.Peter Marconi

What breeds do you roast in Piantao? "As a priority, two-year-old steers, Aberdeen Angus breeds and their crosses. And as a second line steers of breed herefor. In Argentina, where we are fortunate to have green pastures all year round, we raise abundant cattle in freedom. We are a meat-producing country, unlike Europe, which raises dairy cattle that are slaughtered at the end of their cycle after seven years or more. Meats that admit prolonged maturation. There we slaughter two-year-old male steers, while females are reserved for milk and breeding. We obtain meats less infiltrated, but of great finesse, healthy, that are digested well and we undergo short maturations, although for the Spanish taste they may lack some flavor. Through the mediation of the firm Pampeana we receive by air the refrigerated pieces, animals raised in the open field in the humid Argentine Pampas without protein supplements. Cuts with 15 days that we keep in chambers between 0ºC and 1ºC. As important or more than knowing the breeds, is to follow the trail to their diet. "

After this fleeting incise, our conversation returned to the labyrinth of cuts where we had begun. Taking into account that in Argentina the pieces of sirloin are called loin, I had to clarify three additional pieces.

Cut of entrails, in an image provided by Piantao.Peter Marconi

What is the gut? "An elongated muscle that sits inside the diaphragm, two pieces for each animal. Juicy, elegant, intense flavor cut, my favorite even before the eye of steak and the steak of chorizo".

And the famous strip of roast or flagerita? "This is our only indigenous cut, something you won't find in any other country. When the English set up refrigerators in the Río de la Plata, they took the noble parts of the animals. They rejected the ribs that the workers cut into thin strips with the meat adhered to the bones for their own consumption. The strip roasts or flags are our flagship cut, an icon, the most popular. In essence, the same skirt cut transversely that some call churrasco de falda".

Do you use the quadril cover? "Of course. Here it is known as picaña, tapilla, or hip corner. A muscle close to the tail that we cut into fillets of 400 grams vertically, quite the opposite, to conventional cuts. Pieces of pleasant texture and a lot of flavor".

Vacuum crescent, in an image provided by Piantao.Peter Marconi

In September 2019, Javier Brichetto opened Piantao Legazpi in an enclave far from the gastronomic circuits of Madrid with the only emotional plus of its proximity to the old Slaughterhouse. A neighborhood with history and distant links with the world of meat that soon became a destination for many fans. Three years later, in May 2022, it opened its second location faithful to the same spirit as the first in the Chamberí neighborhood, a contemporary steakhouse that enjoys similar success.

When I asked him about the meaning of Piantao, he did not hesitate to answer: "It defines Argentine madness from a romantic perspective. Word that comes from lunfardo, Italian-Spanish slang of our colloquial speech. Do not forget that for a master griller the great challenge is not only to control the techniques with precision, but to master the madness of fire and embers, soul of all roasts.