What a nice smell! The Gaucho churrasco!

It's roasted meat over charcoal fire in an open brick oven. But this laconic definition is far from saying all that "churrasco* gaúcho" represents. 

Gaucho churrasco is actually an institution in the Brazilian southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul. By institution I mean a set of spontaneous cultural practices surrounding the meal: family and friends gathering together on Sundays, a certain ritual related to its planning and preparation, birthday celebrations, fundraising events, religious feasts, specialized restaurants, football (soccer) matchdays, and much more.

Read on to learn more about this tradition. Check out the video below to see how a typical Sunday family churrasco is prepared:

Video doesn't show up? Watch here.

Churrasqueiro: Tasso Grivot Mandarino
Images and editing: Diego Mandarino
Music: https://www.bensound.com

IT GOES A LITTLE BIT LIKE THIS:

In a house garage on a sunny Sunday morning, family members sit on chairs in a circle or U-shaped row**. They chat about family matters and life in general, tell anecdotes, gossip, tell jokes, comment the latest and upcoming football (soccer) matches and telenovela episodes, sometimes discuss current affairs and politics (which often becomes disagreeable, mainly because of someone's condescending or radical attitude), and talk about various trivialities. 

Churrasco is traditionally served directly from the skewer

All the while, when there is no pandemic, they may pass around a drink known as chimarrão (hot and slightly bitter water with yerba mate in a "cuia", a cup made out of the shell of a dried "porongo", a type of gourd) and/or a large glass of "caipirinha" (a drink containing Brazilian distilled spirit - "cachaça" - lemon pieces, some sugar and a lot of ice cubes). At some point, a delicious, mouthwatering smoky smell joins the conversation and heightens the anticipation about the forthcoming meal, as the meat starts to roast. 

Fortunately to me, most of these gatherings have been agreeable in my life. I see them as very nice opportunities to chill out, eat good food, catch up with family and friends and have a wonderful time, especially when there are kids around playing and enjoying themselves. But I understand that this might not be the case for everybody.

Rump tail beef covered with coarse salt

In a typical gathering, the homeowner - the host - stands by a small table, piercing large pieces of meat on a number of long metal skewers. They carefully spread coarse (crystallized) salt on the surface of the meat chunks. They then start the fire in the open brick oven in the garage wall, a built-in masonry structure with its own chimney. It is similar in concept to a fireplace, but is higher up the ground so as to be operated by someone standing. Its "hearth", or bottom inside, is lower than the wall opening, so the heat is kept in. This wall oven is called "churrasqueira"***.

The car or cars usually kept in the garage have been parked out in the yard - if there is enough room - or  on the street. There may or may not be music being played by the speakers of such cars or in the house. Some families might be unmindful of their music volume and disturb neighbors. Most of them are very respectful, though.

Beef and chicken in the "churrasqueira"

The first meat to be ready is usually the "salsichão", a particular kind of sausage (a stout one,  usually made of pork, but sometimes also chicken). The sausages are commonly served as appetizers; they are sliced and passed around on a tray or plate, often with cassava flour or farofa, so that each guest can have one or a few small pieces. Similarly, chicken hearts are passed around as finger food appetizers. 

Next, when the beef cuts - which are the main meat - get close to being ready, the guests are invited to sit at a long trestle table**. On the table, plates containing salads and cassava flour or farofa  are usually laid, as well as soft drinks and beer. The host, or hosts, start taking each skewer from the oven at a time and they either serve each guest by walking around the table or put the meat on a tray and pass it around. Apart from beef, which is always the main and most expected dish, other meats are sometimes present, including chicken thighs, drumsticks and wings, pork cuts, less often lamb and, much less often, rabbit meat, boar meat and others.

CHURRASCARIA: a common type of restaurant

This Gaucho meal has gained reputation over time throughout the country, which brought about a particular kind of restaurant in Brazil: the "churrascaria". It is a very popular, widespread type of eatery. 

Charcoal fire burning in the churrasqueira

Churrascarias can be found in big cities, small towns and are common roadside restaurants, which makes them a favorite with truck drivers who travel across Brazil. They usually adopt the "rodízio" (rotation) system: several waiters walking around the restaurant from table to table with a piece of meat on a skewer supported by a tray, and a knife; they offer a piece of the meat they are carrying to each customer at each table, until they have passed at all tables or the meat they are carrying has run out, in which case they go back to the kitchen to bring more meat on a skewer. 

Speaking of the meal as a gathering of family and friends, in other Brazilian regions the churrasco preparation techniques and meeting styles change to a certain extent. It is, nonetheless, a national meal. But then again, the Gaucho churrasco as I know it is the one I described above.

A REGIONAL VOCATION: a little bit of history

It is no surprise that such a meal has come about in this part of Brazil. Beef cattle farming ("pecuária" in Portuguese) has been practiced on a large scale in this region for centuries. In the 17th century, Jesuit priests (the same religious order to which Argentine pope Francis belongs) brought cattle to Rio Grande do Sul in large amounts from other parts of South America****. The livestock in the continent is descended from head of cattle brought from Europe in the 16th century.

The cattle spread out in Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay. Millions of animals became wild at the time; Brazilian indigenous natives used to hunt them for food. It was not until the 18th century that cattle started to be farmed on a large scale in the state****. 

Medium rare churrasco beef

The prairies in a vast portion of the Rio Grande do Sul territory (known as the "pampas") are very suitable for cattle farming and also explain why the practice has prospered. The same goes for the territory of Uruguay and Argentina. Speaking of these two neighbors, each has also developed its own beef roasting method, called "parrilla". My wife and I have recently tried the one from Uruguay, which is astoundingly good! Unlike our churrasco, the Uruguayan method uses firewood to fuel the roasting fire, which results in a different, very pleasant aroma.

In Rio Grande do Sul, apart from the pampas, there is a huge plateau with fields on top of the mountain ranges, not far from the Atlantic Ocean and extending to the neighboring state of Santa Catarina, where cattle farming has been going on for a long time. In this region, they make excellent "Serrano" cheese from the milk of beef breeds*****. 

PLANNING FOR CHURRASCO

The planning part is really interesting about the meal.

Cassava flour and potato salad are traditional accompaniments

With the number of guests in mind,  the host goes shopping for the items they need: sacks of charcoal, the meat itself, coarse salt and accompaniments, like cassava flour, sometimes garlic bread, onions, and so on. 

For some "churrasqueiros", the quality of the charcoal plays a key role, and they stick to the same brand. Another thing is the quality of the meat; the place where one buys it might also make a difference. Plus, depending on the number of people and the nature of the event, the host may choose to buy more expensive or less expensive beef cuts; but they have to be careful, since cheaper options can negatively affect the outcome of the churrasco.

A SOCIAL EVENT

To sum it all up, churrasco is essentially a social event (with very good food, obviously!). Even when it is prepared in a household without having family and friends over, it makes neighbors jealous 😅 All they can do is smell that delicious aroma. As usual, it works like this: one day you are the jealous neighbor, the next day you are the one being envied 😉

The fire dies out, leaving just the embers

Notes:

*Churrasco is pronounced like "shoohasco", with the "oo" as in "food", the "a" as in "star" and the stress falling on the second syllable (shoo.HAS.co).

*I opted to use the term churrasco without translation. I would rather not call it a barbecue, since the latter is not prepared in a masonry oven and the meat is placed on a grill; this is not the case with churrasco.

*Gaúcho is how we call people from the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The term gaucho also applies to South American cowboys who live in the pampas.

**Or at a rectangular table consisting of a pair of wooden planks laid on a couple of removable wooden trestles at each end. That is, a trestle table.  

***The fire on the bottom of this large masonry stove is fueled by pieces of charcoal. These are sold in sacks of usually three to five kilos each in the supermarkets. 

Churrasqueira is a masonry, usually built-in oven

After the initial black smoke dies out, the host (who is preparing the churrasco) places the tip of each skewer in a small cavity in the back of the churrasqueira and rests their grips or handles on horizontally placed bars on the oven's opening. All the "churrasqueiro" (as the person who is preparing the churrasco is often called) needs to do from this point on is to make sure that the meat doesn't burn and that it roasts evenly, turning the skewers every now and then and sometimes placing the meat farther from, or closer to, the fire. In addition, they must be able to tell when the meat is ready and check its doneness in order to serve the guests according to how each person likes their meat: rare, medium or well-done.

In the fields of the countryside, churrasco is traditionally prepared over a firepit dug in the ground ("fogo de chão" or "ground fire"), not in a brick oven. The latter is an adaptation that has become the mainstream method, especially in the urban setting.

****SOURCE: SAGRILO, Lauro Pereira Zago. Origem e evolução da pecuária de corte no Rio Grande do Sul. Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso. UFRGS, 2015. Available at https://www.lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/127079

*****SOURCE: Conheça as diferenças entre os queijos colonial e serrano. GZH Campo e Lavoura, 2018. Available at https://gauchazh.clicrbs.com.br/economia/campo-e-lavoura/noticia/2018/02/conheca-as-diferencas-entre-os-queijos-colonial-e-serrano-cjdpvdf9c024n01rv67k7xqz2.html