Picanha. Meat that does not ask permission

Picanha is not a cutlet for people who order life without sauce, without risk, preferably to take away. It is a piece of beef with character. With a crown of fat. With a South American temperament. It steps onto the grill like an alpha male into a room full of civil servants. No bow, no form, no asking who is actually in charge here. The name comes from the picana, the stick used to drive cattle, prodding them precisely in the part of the body from which this noble muscle is cut. Anatomy meets history. History meets fire. And fire, as everyone knows, lays bare the truth faster than a commission of inquiry. In Brazil picanha is bent into the shape of a letter "C", skewered on a sword and held over the embers. Fat on the outside. Meat on the inside. As in politics. The protective layer has to be thick, because the centre is often surprisingly tender. It needs no marinade, no powder, no marketing duvet. Coarse salt is enough. The Brazilian school of seduction is simple: a good product does not have to beg for attention. It has to sizzle. An Argentine will lay it on the parrilla and wait. A Uruguayan will throw on more wood. A Brazilian will drive in the skewer. Each has his own technique of domination, but the goal stays the same. Seal the juices inside and do not release the tension too early. Picanha has even entered politics. Lula promised people picanha and cold beer. Because the voter does not live by GDP alone. The voter wants to smell fat dripping onto embers. He wants a weekend, a family and proof that prosperity is not a PowerPoint presentation. Bolsonaro got his own barbecue scandal. Military purchases of tonnes of luxury meat with money earmarked for fighting the pandemic. While the people were tightening their belts, the authorities were evidently making sure the tenderloin did not lose morale. They say that a true picanha should weigh no more than about 1–1.2 kilograms. Anything above that may already be someone else's muscle, tacked on to the legend. Not every big piece of meat is picanha. Not every loud guy is a leader. Not every promise that smells of the grill is fit to eat. When the fat begins to hiss, the salt bites into the surface and the blade cuts through the pink centre, ideologies fall silent. The flesh may be weak. The meat has no right to be. Whoever does not like barbecue is not a good person. ## A stick, an iron and a waiter's mistake Picanha is a cut known in Poland and in English-speaking countries as rump cap, sirloin cap or coulotte. Its hallmark is a thick layer of fat, the fat cap, which protects the lean meat from drying out and gives it a deep, buttery flavour. The rest is history, and the dispute about it. The shepherds' version leads to the Iberian Peninsula, to the Alentejo, for instance. The picana was a long stick with which herdsmen pushed and steered cattle, prodding the cows in the rear of the rump, exactly where this muscle lies. The technique reached southern Brazil together with the shout "picanha o bicho!", "prod the animal!". The tool became a place, and the place a piece of meat. The salon version is funnier. Francisco "Baby" Pignatari, an influential Brazilian industrialist, used to eat at the "Bambu" restaurant in São Paulo. He ordered his favourite cut and by mistake got a different one. Delighted, he asked the Argentine waiter where the meat came from. The waiter answered in broken Portuguese that it came from the place "donde se pica la aña", where cows are branded with a red-hot iron. From this garbling picanha was supposedly born. The veterinarian Pedro Eduardo de Felício proposes a third route: in southern Brazil the branding iron itself was called a picanha, and the part of the body burned with it took over the name. A stick, an iron or a mistake. Every etymology ends the same way, on a cow's rump. Language can be provincial, but it is anatomically precise. ## Three countries, three temperaments In Brazil the Nelore breed reigns, of Indian origin, well suited to the tropical climate. The meat is more muscular and has a distinct, deep flavour, and a portion of picanha weighs on average about 1–1.2 kilograms. Hence the barbecue myth that true picanha cannot be heavier. The meat is cut into thick slices along the grain, skewered in the shape of a "C", fat on the outside, and roasted directly over charcoal. The only seasoning is coarse sea salt, sal grosso. Argentina calls this cut tapa de cuadril and lays it on the traditional parrilla with an adjustable grill height. Instead of charcoal, hardwood is often burned, and the meat is seared first to seal the juices inside. The pampas are flat, and British breeds graze on them, Angus and Hereford. Their meat is softer, more heavily marbled and bigger, from one and a half to as much as two kilograms. Here the weight myth no longer applies, because the cow is simply different. Uruguay grills only over wood, lenha, and instead of coarse salt uses fine salt, sal fino. Grilling there also includes offal and sausages, and picanha has only recently been winning fans. The North long failed to understand this meat. In the USA butchers divided it into other cuts and often trimmed off the fat, that is, the most important part. Today it is returning in BBQ culture as sirloin cap or coulotte. In France the pointe de culotte was heavily trimmed of fat and destined for braising, for boeuf bourguignon or pot-au-feu. Europe took the crown off picanha and threw it into the pot. Brazil put the crown back on and set it over the fire. ## Picanha and beer In the 2022 presidential campaign Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva repeatedly promised that the poorest Brazilians would once again be able to buy picanha and cold beer for a weekend barbecue with their families. "Picanha e cervejinha" became a viral slogan. Once he took power, inflation and high beef prices made it a target of opposition mockery, and the president had to assure the media that he had not forgotten about picanha and beer. It is a good lesson in political gastronomy. A promise can be delivered in a minute. Beef has its price on the market, and the market does not go to rallies. ## Twelve tonnes from the pandemic budget The second story is less amusing. In 2023 the Federal Court of Accounts, TCU, carried out an audit which showed that under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces had spent part of the funds earmarked for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic unlawfully. The money had bought luxury food, including 12 tonnes of picanha and beef tenderloin, as well as cocktail snacks, fizzy drinks and ice cream. A media scandal broke out. Both stories say the same thing from two sides of the table. In Brazil picanha is a yardstick. Some promise it to the people, others buy it for themselves. By the smell of fat on the embers it is easy to tell who is standing at the grill and who is only talking about it. ## The wisdom of churrasco Churrasco culture has its proverbs, and none of them knows moderation. "Quem não gosta de churrasco, bom sujeito não é", whoever does not like barbecue is not a good person, is a paraphrase of a famous line about samba, stressing that eating meat together brings people together. Another says that the meat may be rare, but love of the grill is always well done. The neatest is a play on words with the Bible. In Portuguese "carne é fraca" means both "the flesh is weak" and "the meat is weak". Hence the advice: if it is already weak, let it at least be well done. The theology of the grill does not condemn weakness. It orders it to be cooked through. Before a churrasco begins one more sentence is often heard, the oldest and most sensible: "Saco vazio não para em pé". An empty sack will not stand up. No ideology will keep a person upright who has not eaten. ## Recipe **Ingredients:** - picanha, ideally with the fat layer intact - coarse sea salt (sal grosso) **Method:** 1. Cut the picanha into thick slices along the grain. 2. Bend the slices into the shape of a letter "C", fat on the outside, and thread them onto skewers. 3. Sprinkle with coarse salt. No marinade. 4. Roast directly over charcoal embers until the fat begins to sizzle and the centre stays pink.