Picanha, known as rump cap or top sirloin cap in English, is taken from the top of the rump and prized for its thick fat cap that bastes the meat as it cooks, creating incomparable flavour and tenderness.

Tip 1:

The gaucho's rock salt crust

When seasoning steak you can go one of two ways, seconds before cooking or at least one hour, nowhere in between. If you season meat for say 10, 20 or 30 minutes before cooking, the salt will draw moisture out of the meat. However, when you season a piece of meat one, two, three hours or more in advance the salt and moisture has time to be reabsorbed by the meat through diffusion. This dry brines the meat and seasons it throughout.

Churrascarias often take the simple but impactful approach seasoning picanha steak seconds before cooking to create a delicious salty mineral rich crust on the meat that is knocked off the meat before eating - creating a perfect seasoned crust.

Recipe essentials

Difficulty: Intermediate
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Serves: 4 people

Ingredients

For the beef

●    1 beef picanha, approximately 1.5kg (with a good fat cap, sirloin can also be used)

●    Rock salt, coarse

●    Chimichurri to serve, optional (find my chimichurri recipe online)

Method

Prepare your grill

Light your wood or charcoal in a large BBQ and wait until the coals turn white-hot. Push all the coals to one side of the grill to create two cooking zones – a direct heat zone over the coals and an indirect heat zone on the opposite side.

Prepare the picanha

Score the fat ontop of the picanha in a criss cross pattern then cut across the grain into thick steaks about two fingers thick. The steaks will get smaller as you cut through the triangular shaped piece of meat.

Sprinkle generously with coarse rock salt, on both sides including the fatty top which should speed up the fat rendering process.

Thread each steak onto a flat skewer, or use two thin parallel skewers for stability. Pierce through the fat cap on one side, then arch the meat over and push back through the fat on the opposite side. This traditional Brazilian churrasco technique creates a curved presentation, allowing the fat to baste the meat as it cooks.

Grill your steaks

Position the skewered picanha over the indirect heat zone, fat-cap facing down. This initial position allows the fat to begin rendering. Cook for approximately 7 minutes or until a crust forms, before turning the meat so the fat cap faces upward. Keep turning every 7 minutes or when the meat darkens and starts to form a crust. From this point, the melting fat will naturally baste the muscle beneath. Remember, the fat takes longer to cook than the muscle, which should remain pink at the centre so keep the fat closer to the heat source..

Continue cooking until your desired internal temperature is reached: 50°C for rare or 55°C for medium rare. If you don't have a thermometer, test the doneness by pressing the meat – it should be well caramelised on the surface but still feel tender to the touch. The smaller steaks will naturally be more cooked, than the larger ones.

Remove the skewers from the grill and rest in a warm place right on the edge of the grill for 10 minutes.

Remove the salt crust and serve

Knock or brush off any excess salt and slice the meat off the skewer in slithers and enjoy with chimichurri or your favourite sauce.