Lamb roasted asado-style is a favorite traditional meal of the gauchos who herd cattle and sheep across the Patagonian grasslands of South America. Asado is one of the few examples of true slow cooking done by radiant heat and is very effective as the heat is evenly distributed over the animals surface.

The gauchos are a tough bunch of cowboys and were known to slaughter a cow in the middle of nowhere, cut out the best parts, roast and eat. The remaining carcass was left for scavengers in the wild. Gauchos often took large chunks of meat and skewered them to metal or wooden spits next to a fire – hence Asado.