Cabrito Asado a la Parrilla

[Spaulding Smails 1585]

I mentioned this in the "I'm cooking for a lot of people" thread, but figured it may justify it's own home.  We hosted a pachanga at our house this weekend for my 40th.  Ended up with about 90 people.  Probably 60-30 between adults and kids.  I did four briskets.  We grilled a dozen chickens.  We also roasted two cabritos.  They were the star of the show.  I'm a gringo, but I had help from an Argentine buddy.  It turned out damn good.  Will do it again for sure.  Here's what we did:

First, I got a goat.  Two actually.  Picked them up Friday from Johnny G's off Manchaca.  These guys were a little over 17 lb each.  They were still kinda frozen but fit nicely in a 120 qt cooler.  Stacked ice on em for the day.

Saturday morning, I hung em up in the garage and let them thaw a bit. 

We built a little half wall with some stone I had laying around and rounded up some red oak from my back hillside.  Got the fire going mid morning.  The weather was glorious.

The beer was cold.

I built two parrillas.  I thought my design was great.  It actually sucked.  I made the legs collapsable with bolts and pins for easier storage.  The pins sheared when we tried to level the parrillas with a sledgehammer.  Hence the vice clamps.  Oops.  Also, I already know that I suck at welding, so let the fabrication criticism commence.  But, hobby welding's like golf and sex.  Even if you're no good at it, it's still pretty damn fun.  We started with a bunch of spatchcocked chickens to figure out the heat.  

My aggy Argentine parrillero buddy.  He's awesome.  For aggy.  One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.  He's also a damn fine cook.  His in-laws own a catering business and he's good and efficient and knows what he's doing.

Time to prep the cabrito.  Salt.  Pepper.  Some olive oil.

On to the parrillas.  I learned a lot here.  Coals under the hams.  Coals under the shoulders.  Not much under the ribs.  Murphy the dog approves.

We were thinking about two hours.  Ended up being closer to three.  That meant we pulled them off after dark, so I didn't get any good money shots prior to cutting them up.  Also, I got pretty drunk and forgot to take more pictures of the finished product.  I think my wife took a bunch, but I'm too lazy to go ask.  Lots of folks kind of gathered around while we were butchering them and ate pieces as they came off.  The mini-tomahawks with rib meat and backstrap / tenderloin was awesome.  Kidneys were pretty good too.  But, the shoulders and hams were legit.  Put some homemade chimichurri sauce on them over a fresh corn tortilla, a bit of diced onion and some cilantro.  Cabrito heaven.  Brisket did not suck either.  We had way too many leftovers and sent everyone home with meat for days.  I got the meat sweats.  Ate leftovers all day Sunday too.  The end.

[hornbri 1486]

Looks great

[Anastasis 23664]

Looks great. You talk about carving out the tomahawks. I assume that you broke out the shoulders and hams same thing at that you break down a deer and then butchered the rib cage section. Something like that? 

[Spaulding Smails 1585]

3 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Looks great. You talk about carving out the tomahawks. I assume that you broke out the shoulders and hams same thing at that you break down a deer and then butchered the rib cage section. Something like that? 

Yeah.  Pretty much.  Same as a deer.  Only difference being it was broken down after it was cooked.  I worked on the shoulders and hams and kind of broke those down further into bite sized chunks.  My buddy carved up the ribs.  I didn't get a pic of the tray with the shoulder meat, but it looked a little like pulled pork.  

[Judge Roybeanbag 11852]

Did you flip them at all?

[Spaulding Smails 1585]

9 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Did you flip them at all?

Yep.  We did just over two hours on the belly side.  Then, flipped them and did a little less than an hour on the back side.

[Dutch 4527]

I regret that I have but one affirmative Surly Internet with which to award your contribution.  The choice of beer did not go unnoticed either. Well done, good sir.

Edited January 7, 2020 by Dutch

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

POTY

[deadshank 24653]

My phone never rang and the mailman never delivered the invitation.

Nice work, Spaulding.

[Brisketexan 106283]

My old man brought back one of these asado "crosses" from his time in Argentina:

I've had it in my garage for years, never used it.  I really don't have a spot in the yard where I could use it.  BUT...we're building a stone fire pit in the back yard soon.  Maybe I should make sure that it has a place where I could mount it.  Man, I love cabrito asado.

Good work, man.  Much rep to you.

[Lat22 4061]

I love cabrito as long as I'm not within earshot of them getting their throats cut.

[C-Man 27596]

[Spaulding Smails 1585]

5 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

My old man brought back one of these asado "crosses" from his time in Argentina:

I've had it in my garage for years, never used it.  I really don't have a spot in the yard where I could use it.  BUT...we're building a stone fire pit in the back yard soon.  Maybe I should make sure that it has a place where I could mount it.  Man, I love cabrito asado.

Good work, man.  Much rep to you.

We damn near went this route.  My parrillero buddy had one already built with legs and whatnot.  When the guest list grew (except for @deadshank whose invite got lost in the mail, evidently) and we added the second cabrito and the chickens, I went with the parrilla style.  Just means I need to find another reason to try this alternative method.

Please do give it a spin once that fire pit is ready and report back on your pending cabrito iron cross success.

[USCATX 1086]

This is great work, I love it.  I did a slightly larger goat half on the open fire and half in my caja China on NYE and it was glorious.  Not my photos, but my cooking.  
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6wh4m2jHUJ/?igshid=3sjj99bqli0l

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6w4tm6jnzc/?igshid=2mx2d8oztrh6 

[Kyrie Eleison 9312]