Blog · Chef Juan Bernardini
Argentine Beef Cuts, Decoded: A Chef's Guide for Visitors
By Juan Bernardini · private chef, 30 years cooking
Order "bife de chorizo" expecting sausage and you'll get a thick strip steak instead. Argentina butchers a cow along different lines than the US or the UK, so the names, the shapes and even the cooking method don't translate directly. Here's the decoder I wish every visitor had before their first parrilla.
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Why the cuts don't line up
American and British butchery split a carcass for the supermarket case: individual steaks, trimmed, portioned, sold by weight. Argentine butchery — el despiece — grew up around the parrilla instead, where whole muscles go on the grill over wood coals and get sliced at the table, fat cap and all. That's the real difference: it's not just different names for the same steaks, it's a different idea of what a "cut" is for.
A few cuts map closely enough to be useful shorthand — lomo is tenderloin, ojo de bife is ribeye, no argument there. Others, like vacío or matambre, don't have a clean American or British equivalent because nobody there grills that muscle whole. I'll give you the closest match for each, but treat "closest" literally — close, not identical.
The cuts you'll see on a parrilla menu
Here's what typically ends up on a parrilla menu, and the closest match on each side of the Atlantic:
| Argentine cut | What it is | Closest US cut | Closest UK cut | How it's cooked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bife de chorizo | Boneless sirloin strip, cut thick (3–4 cm) | Strip steak / New York strip | Sirloin steak | Grilled whole over medium coals, fat cap left on, sliced at the table |
| Bife de lomo (lomo) | Tenderloin | Filet mignon | Fillet steak | The leanest cut on the grill — the one to order if you want it rare |
| Ojo de bife | Rib eye, off the bone | Ribeye | Rib-eye / entrecôte | Well-marbled; my pick over bife de chorizo when flavor matters more than size |
| Entraña | Skirt steak, from the diaphragm | Outside skirt steak | Skirt steak | Grilled fast and hot, sliced thin against the grain — past medium it turns to leather |
| Vacío | Flank, served with its fat cap on | Flank steak | Flank | Grilled whole over slower coals, an hour to an hour and a half, fat side down first |
| Asado de tira | Short ribs, cut across the bone in 3–4 cm strips | Flanken-style short ribs | Thin-cut ribs | The cut every asado opens with; bone side down for the first 35–40 minutes to render the fat |
| Matambre | Thin sheet of muscle between the skin and the ribs | No real equivalent — closest is a very thin flank steak | Same | Usually rolled and stuffed (matambre arrollado), not grilled flat |
| Colita de cuadril | Rump cap | Tri-tip / rump cap | Rump cap | Smaller cut, good for two or three — doesn't need a whole asado to justify it |
| Cuadril | Rump | Rump steak / sirloin tip | Rump steak | Leaner and needs care to stay tender; I cook it slower or marinate it first |
That covers what lands on your plate at a proper asado. A carnicería (butcher shop) sells dozens more cuts for stews and milanesas, but these nine are what you'll actually be served — or should ask for by name.
The achuras: the course before the steaks
Before the beef cuts hit the grill, a traditional asado opens with achuras — organ meats and sausage, cooked first because they take less time and give guests something to eat while the main cuts render slowly.
- Chorizo and morcilla — fresh pork sausage and blood sausage. Nothing exotic; the safest place to start if you're unsure about the rest.
- Mollejas — sweetbread (the thymus gland), crisped on the grill until the outside caramelizes and the inside stays custardy. This is the one I tell first-timers not to skip.
- Chinchulines — small intestine, cleaned, coiled and grilled until crisp. It's a genuine acquired taste; texture matters more than flavor here.
- Riñones — kidney, less common on menus now, but worth asking for if you see it offered.
You don't have to eat all of it to have a real asado experience. I'd just hate for you to skip mollejas out of nerves — it's the one achura that wins over almost everyone who tries it.
How to order it (the doneness scale is different)
Argentine steak culture runs more done than most Americans expect. The default when nobody specifies is a punto — medium, pink center, no red — not the medium-rare that's standard back home. If you want it rarer, say so specifically:
- Vuelta y vuelta — seared hard on each side, still rare in the middle. Ask for this if you want an American "rare."
- Jugoso — juicy, on the rare side of medium. Closest to a US medium-rare.
- A punto — medium; what you get if you order nothing specific.
- Bien cocido — well done. Fine for asado de tira and matambre, a waste on lomo or entraña.
One more habit worth adopting: at a real asado, cuts come off the grill and rest on a board before anyone touches a knife, then get sliced across the grain and shared — you're not served your own individual steak the way you would be at a steakhouse. Part of the ritual is everyone eating from the same cutting board.
If you want the full story behind that ritual — why the fire takes hours and nobody rushes it — I've written about it separately: What Is Asado, Really? For cuts beyond beef and what else is worth ordering on a trip through Buenos Aires, see the Argentine Food Guide.
If I only get you to one asado
Order bife de chorizo or ojo de bife if you want something familiar, entraña if you want the cut that best explains why Argentines take beef seriously, and at least a taste of mollejas even if your instinct says no. Thirty years of cooking asados for guests who'd never tried achuras, and mollejas is the one that changes minds almost every time.
Frequently asked questions
Is entraña the same as skirt steak?
Close enough to order it that way if you're at an American steakhouse, but on an Argentine parrilla entraña is grilled whole and fast over hot coals, then sliced thin — different handling than most US kitchens give skirt steak, and part of why it tastes different here.
What does "vuelta y vuelta" mean?
Literally "turn and turn" — seared hard and briefly on each side, rare in the middle. Say it if you want your steak rarer than the Argentine default, which runs closer to medium.
Do I have to eat the achuras?
No — a good asador will happily serve you straight through to the beef cuts. But I'd encourage at least trying mollejas before deciding; it wins over more skeptics than any other organ meat on the grill.
Why does Argentine steak taste different from American steak?
Mostly grass-fed cattle, slower cooking over wood coals instead of high direct heat, and cuts served with the fat cap left on rather than trimmed off before cooking. The breed and the cut matter less than how it's raised and how patiently it's cooked.
Rather have someone else read the fire and pick the cuts?
Knowing the names is useful — cooking a full asado well, at your rental or your table, is a different skill. If you'd rather be a guest at your own asado than the one working the grill, I'll choose the cuts, manage the fire and walk you through each course in English.
See how the Argentine Asado Experience works →