We catered for an event on Saturday for around 70 people. The brief was to create a real spectacle for the guests. We went for hung forerib of beef, cooked for 8 hours over fire.
Wiring up the beef: You need to be able to flip the beef during the cook so it needs wire hoops at the top and the bottom of the cut to make it easy to take off and flip during the cook. Wiring the beef takes some time, so depending on how many cuts you are cooking, factor that into the prep time. I did it the night before as I wanted to get it on the fire as soon as I arrived on site. I used 1mm stainless steel wire. Pliers & wire cutters are essential in most asado cooking!
Height: Now the height can vary as much as you want, it will just take much longer to cook. I opted for around 60cm from the fire. Too low and the fat will cause havoc with the fire and the outside of the meat will burn.
Fire: As I was cooking lots of other meats at the same time, I needed quite a large fire which meant I could push the cooking time to around 7.5/8 hrs. We used ash logs but any good dry hardwood does the job.
Flavour: I put the meat on naked first. Once it started to get a bit juicy after about 30 mins I gave the meat a nice even coverage of salt. About an hour and a half into the cook, I started to brush the meat with 'salmuera'. A warm salty, herby brine using a rosemary brush. For beef I like to infuse a bit of lemon into the brine too.
Kit: I was using my full cater set up. I used an asado cross and one of the cross arms I set the height. Then attached the meat using hooks. I did not alter the height at any point throughout the cook.
