"ATW2014" - Brazilian Picanha

We love Brazilian style Churraso Meats done on the BBQ and since we have spent the week studying the Latin American countries, we thought today would be a great day to feature PICANHA.  What is a picanha? It is a particular cut from the top of the rump of the cow that has a beautiful layer of fat. When you ask about picanha, people often refer to churrasco. It became popular after it was introduced by Hungarian butchers in São Paulo in the 1960's and By the 1970's picanha became a sensation and the star of the show at any churracaria.  Today it has come symbolize “authentic” churrasco.

To get the full Brazilian churrasco experience, you need to use organic charcoal. Most Brazilians use reforested, eucalyptus charcoal lit with a couple of wads of newspaper and a good douse of clean-burning, sugar-cane alcohol. Just be careful that you use a good tasting wood and let your embers burn down to a glow before you grill.

When preparing your meat make sure you criss-cross cut into the fatty side of the picanha. By scoring the fat, you can prevent the piece from curling and dis-forming while it grills. Next, Roll the pieces of picanha in rock salt to seal in its juiciness and enhance its natural goodness. We have discovered that using  table salt or kosher salt does not work as well as Rock salt.  We use the kind used for making ice cream. Grill the steaks fat-side up for a few minutes until a little juice leaks out of the top of the steaks.  If you are grilling on the big skewer, both sides are the same, there is no fat-side.  Turn the steaks onto their sides to grill for a few more minutes.  Finally grill fat-side down moving the steaks away from the hottest part of the fire to avoid over-cooking and to reduce the chance of the fire flaring up from the dripping fat.  Grill to your desired doneness.  I use the finger poke to know if the meat is done.  Try not to puncture the meat when grilling.