Recipe Translation help and check request

Question

Hi all,

I good friend of mine runs an excellent BBQ restaurant, the mostly does regular Texas BBQ, but does specials of other types of the worlds BBQ once a week. He´s been dabbling with a lot of Argentinian, large-parilla style dishes and BBQ, and has exhausted his Argentinian grill books in English, and has just bought one from his favorite Argentinian. As such, I seem to be the guy tapped to help with recipes. I suspect they´ll eventually be easy, but besides general food vocabulary, I don´t know many of the other materials and measurements.

I´m going to type what I have here in Spanish, and then a (possibly lame) attempt in Spanish.

I think I´m only really hosed on the very last bit.

All criticism and feedback welcome.

Muchísimas gracias.

Bueno, entonces:

1 cuarto/pierna de cordero o de capón. 1 quarter leg of lamb or (?).

2 tazas de ramitas de romero o de orégano fresco. 2 cups of rosemary sprigs or fresh orgegano.

4 dientes de ajo. 4 cloves of garlic

1 cdita. de ají molido. 1 teaspoon of chili powder

1 taza de aceite de oliva. 1 cup of olive oil

1/2 taza de sal gruesa. 1-2 cup of coarse ground salt.

Pimienta negra recién molida. Fresh ground black pepper.

5 m de hilo choricero (o de cocina) para atar (también puede usarse alambre). 5 meters of butcher´s or kitchen twine for tying. (can also use wire) .

1 vara de 1m de rama de árbol verde: sauce, ñire, lenga o coihue (también puede ser de hierro). . OK I´m going out on a limb on this one, if you´ll excuse what might be a pun, unless I understand the above even less than I thought. .

1 meter of green-wood skewers (or a 1 meter green wood rod from which to make skewers) ??? I think the last bit is a list of valid woods, including beech and willow. Anyone know more? They weren´t on this site´s dictionary.

Answer 1

capón is a castrated rooster (same term in English .. capon) It is not clear if the recipe asks for one 1/4 leg of lamb or 1/4 of capon or if it's a 1/4 kilogram (kg) (1/4 kg is not too much meat of either by the way... It's like 1/2 lb of meat)

1 meter green wood rod is more accurate. They are not making skewers. They stick the meat and veggies in the whole 1m rod and grill it like that. There is no mention of making skewers out the rod.

sauce is willow

ñire and lenga are types or beech trees

coihue is a type of oak tree

También puede ser de hierro .... it can also be an iron rod.

I hope this helps!

Thanks. I was having trouble reconciling lamb vs rooster. Seem like very different amounts. OK a single 1 meter rod, not small ones. Got it. Thanks! - rogspax, Jan 10, 2013

Answer 2

I think it might mean a quarter of a lamb, or the whole leg , which is after all, more or less quarter of the animal. Probably all of the rooster, otherwise there is an awful lot of herbs and spices for very little meat...( you would not need 5 meters of string to tie up 250 gr!)

This is only a thought.

¡Approveche!

Good logic, Annie! - francobollo, Jan 10, 2013

It DiD indeed seem a lot of string. Unless they were trying to tie the leg back on the animal. - rogspax, Jan 10, 2013