How Brazilians Barbecue

A few weeks ago I celebrated my second birthday in Brazil. If that grammatically lackadaisical statement leaves you in any doubt, I’m not 2 years old – I’ve had thirty-five birthdays in total, the last two of which were spent in Brazil. The first was spent drinking massively over-priced (but oooh so good) European beers in Ipanema; the second was spent having a churrasco [shu-HASH-co] (barbecue) with friends on what they refer to as our laje.

Churrasco na laje – precarious but fun! Note, this is someone else’s laje! Ours has a better health and safety rating… (Image: Edmir Silvestre)

Laje is an interesting word. Google gives a literal translation as “slab” or “paving stone”, but more often the word is used to refer to a fairly modest concrete roof. These lajes are often the venues for parties and churrascos and whilst our roof is probably a little bit more developed than the typical laje (our friends use this term to affectionately poke fun), it serves just the same purpose!

Former presidential candidate Jose Serra, attempting to demonstrate that he is a man of the people, whilst actually demonstrating that politicians the world over get talked into making themselves look ridiculous for votes.

Churrasco is the Brazilian word for barbecue and the differences don’t end with the name. But before I tell you about churrascos, I need to make something clear. Brazilians eat a lot. I think of myself as something of a glutton (though sometimes I euphemistically call it “a passion for food”), but I have a long way to go before I’ll be called greedy by a Brazilian. In fact my mother-in-law often remarks on how little I eat – she would be puzzled to hear that back in England my reputation for insisting on extra side orders during meals with friends earned me the nickname Tom “Needs More”!

And so to the churrasco itself: Like the English, Brazilians tend to cook over charcoal, but I was surprised at how much higher the meat was placed over the coals – as much as 30cm (12 inches). This means that the meat is roasted/grilled more slowly and seems to give a much tenderer result.

Many Brazilian cuts of meat not only have different names to those of other countries, but are in fact quite different cuts altogether – the butchers of most other countries simply don’t cut the meat the same way. The most prized cut of beef here in Brazil is called Picanha [pick-UN-ya], but a little research into what this would be in England or the US returns a dizzing array of answers as this post at Sweet Home Floripa describes. Well regardless of what it would be called in other countries, I can tell you that the Brazilians are onto a good thing – Picanha has great flavour and a delicious layer of fat on top. For our churrasco we also tried Coração de Alcatra, the best part of the rump (this also turned out to be very good ).

Picanha – Rump Cover? Tri-Tip? Top Sirloin? Rump Roast? All I know is that it tastes great (Image).

Thick steaks are cut and then liberally sprinkled with a very coarse, unrefined salt called Sal Grosso. The steaks are then placed on a grill or impaled on long skewers and slowly roasted until ready. The fat can be slit with a knife during cooking to help it achieve that delicious, crispy state that only a barbecue can bring.

As we reached this point I got another surprise. When a piece of meat was deemed ready, it was cut into thin slices and placed on a plate. The plate was passed round and people would grab one or two pieces as it went by. At first I thought this was just to give people a taste before more meat was ready. But no! This continued all night – at no point was someone given a single large steak to devour on their own. And although this method was new to me, I have to say it works really well.

Back in England people tend to eat a steak, burger, sausage, potato salad and some token salad in the space of 15 minutes – they then retire to a garden chair, groaning like some distended lion in the Serengeti. But the Brazilian method allows everyone to eat at the same time (=more sociable), to eat more gradually (=less bloatage) and I suspect most importantly, it allows them to eat more!

A small selection of the things that went on our churrasqueira over the course of the day.

Of course it wasn’t just beef on offer. There were also burgers, linguiça [lin-GWEE-sa] (sausages), farofa, camarão (shrimp/prawns), salad, and various other nibbles. And plenty of beer (bem gelada, naturally) and caipirinhas. But regardless of what people were eating, the approach was always to eat a little at a time, but eat continuously. I was really amazed at how much food had disappeared by the end of the evening. So once again, I find Brazilians doing things differently and once again, I have to say I’m in favour.