Churrasco

Churrasco is chunks of beef or mutton roasted over a wood or charcoal fire with a combination of salt and spices. Gauchos and other rural inhabitants of the Río de la Plata region relished fresh beef cooked in this way. In some cases, the cook wrapped the meat in a hide and laid it on a bed of hot coals. This technique better retained the meat's flavor and juices. Gauchos could seemingly subsist on a diet consisting largely of churrasco and their favorite beverage, Mate. A gaucho used only his long knife (Facón) to slice and eat the meat. Traditionalists in the Río de la Plata region continue to prepare churrasco, carne asado, and other beef delicacies. This style of cooking has been exported to other countries such as Chile, Peru, and Spain, where fine restaurants in Santiago, Lima, and Madrid offer choice cuts of beef roasted in the churrasco style. Brazilian steakhouses known as churrascarias where roasted meats are served rodizio style have become popular in the United States. In many cases the beef is eaten with a traditional chimichurri sauce made from olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and basil.

See alsoAsado; Food and Cookery; Gaucho.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bell, Stephen. Campanha Gaú cha: A Brazilian Ranching System, 1850–1920. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.

Cascudo, Luís da Câmara. História da alimentação no Brasil. São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, 1983.

Coluccio, Félix. Diccionario folklórico argentino, vol. 1 (1964), p. 121.

Slatta, Richard W. Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.

                                   Richard W. Slatta