Asado Grills vs BBQs: A Showdown of Features, Flavour & Flame

We've got a fiery showdown for you — Asado Grills vs traditional BBQs, and the battle for outdoor cooking champion.

While both are great ways of outdoor cooking (and an excuse to crack open a bottle of red), they're different experiences; both have their advantages and weaknesses.

Asado Grills very much provide a slower, more immersive way of cooking over embers, where traditional BBQs typically involve cooking faster, over direct heat from gas or charcoal.

From flavour to flame, we'll take a closer look at the features and benefits of both grilling methods to determine which one takes the crown and is best suited to your lifestyle.

For an in-depth answer to this question, shoot over to our guide below:

Asado-style cooking is the most widespread style of fire cooking in Argentina, and wider South America (Asada in Mexico), and probably the world.

It’s often done in rural areas with rudimentary frames and crosses for whole animals winched up and down. But in towns and cities, there are more sophisticated ways of winding the grill surface up and down, called  Parrilla Grills. Most houses have at least one!

The grills feature adjustable grates that can be raised or lowered over glowing embers to control the heat and therefore adjust cooking temperature.

The food is cooked directly over the fire, resulting in a unique smoky flavour.

You are very much part of the cooking process — working with the flames and embers, all on display.

Traditionally, Asado grills are used for cooking various  larger cuts of beef.

However, they can also be used to cook all meats and fish, as well as vegetables and even desserts if you’re crafty with it.

Asado grills are not only known for their insanely good food but also for the grazing style, slow eating, and feasting experience they provide.

This is a fundamental part of the Asado tradition — gathering friends and family around the grill, sharing food and stories, and enjoying each other's company. There's a slower pace and intimate feel to Asados, and there's not really anything else like it.

Traditional BBQs, originating as American-style BBQs, are currently the UK’s most popular outdoor cooking option.

Many fuel options, sizes and styles are available, from disposable ones for the beach at £10 to gas-guzzling monsters upwards of £5,000, all with their own strengths.

Different types of BBQs include:

• Gas BBQs— used for speed, cleanliness and convenience, perfect for feeding sausages and burgers to hungry families.

• Electric grills — have similar speed advantages, and are essential kitchen ovens adapted for outdoor use. Typically, all this happens under a closed lid, so is hidden, passive, and less skilled.

• Charcoal BBQs and Kamados — impart some extra flavour, and need more ember management, but are messier than gas, and take 30 mins or so to get started.

• Smokers — designed very much for very long, slow cooks, sometimes overnight, with amazing flavour and tenderness, but are quite specialist and involved, and require planning ahead!

They are all the same in the sense that they involve cooking on a grill and are social events.

However, most BBQs tend to focus more on speed and the food, rather than the overall experience.

If you're in the market for a shiny new grill or BBQ, we've broken down the various elements that make these two popular cooking appliances and methods so different.

Managing the heat on your BBQ or grill is essential for achieving perfectly cooked food.We always recommend using a meat thermometer on either, so you can easily manage how well done things are, and not over- or undercook.

If using a charcoal BBQ, you can control the temperature by adjusting the amount of charcoal used and moving grill racks up or down by sliding them in and out — although, not always easy.

For gas BBQs, turning the burner knobs will adjust the heat levels.

But a consistent problem that some BBQers find is flare-ups, which are where fat drippings from the food cause flames to shoot up and potentially soot blacken the food.

On the Somerset Asados, the adjustable V-grills feature sloped grilling surfaces in a V shape (hence their name), allowing fat to drip off the meat and into a separate trough, also known as a drip tray. This design massively reduces the risk of flare-ups and allows you to re-baste the meat, having captured this flavour.

Temperature management is also super simple. Just crank the handles to adjust the height of the grill surface, and you can control the intensity of heat reaching your food, as shown beautifully by our team here…

This leads us pretty nicely onto the outcome of the different methods on flavour when grilling.

In our opinion, there's nothing that even comes close to the stunning flavour of cooking with an Asado grill.

The way the meat is cooked, directly over the fresh embers, means each piece of food is infused with a rich, deep flavour profile.

The choice of wood can influence that too — apple, oak, and olive are amazingly aromatic.

There is some science behind this. The  Maillard Reaction is the reaction of amino acids and reducing sugars in the food, turning brown and creating amazing flavour compounds. Proteins like beef are super rich in amino acids, so have an amazing response to correct heat.

Asados make it easier to combine that perfect Maillard reaction for browning, with that smokiness, and slower cooking for tenderness.

Different types of BBQs will produce different levels of smoke and char on your food, and can be modified with the addition of flavoured woodchips.

For example, charcoal BBQs are known for their intense smoky flavour, while gas grills may not impart as much smoke onto the food.

You can of course boil, simmer, or fry on both Asados and BBQs, as they are a variable heat source.

Asados and charcoal barbecues both allow you to “dirty cook” directly in the ember ashes, too.

Asado grills typically have larger cooking and warming space overall and more choices of cooking zones and methods - see here

Any outdoor cooking enthusiast loves their gadgets and add-ons. It makes your outdoor cooking setup feel more personal, and it allows you to enhance your food even further.

Both Asado grills and BBQs can be equipped with various accessories to suit your cooking style. Here are just a few you might find:

On an Asado grill, cooking large joints of meat, the cooking time itself can take an hour or two, but this is all part of the experience.

While the embers are glowing, smoke fills the air, and mouth-watering aromas waft around, friends and family gather to enjoy each other's company and reflect on the simple flickering flames and their interaction with the food.

It's a time to catch up, relax, and share good food and conversation, often grazing slowly from small plates as the next meat is ready.

No rush, it will be ready when it’s ready! Served rustically and basically, maybe some eaten with hands, but shared, for sure.

BBQs tend to end up as more formal outdoor meals, outdoor tables dressed and set, food coordinated to be ready at once (or kept warm), to serve all together as a meal.

While Asados are absolutely all about the food, there's no denying that they are pretty cool bits of kit to look at, too. 
 

Some more basic types, or fire cage-style Asado, have a look of torture chamber about them, but our Somerset Asado Grills are designed to look great as well.

They're a statement piece for sure, and look great in an outdoor kitchen setting, or freestanding with the woodstore stand full of logs below.

Take some of our customers' asado setups, for example...

BBQs are a mixed bag when it comes to design and aesthetics. Some are brightly coloured or bulky metal contraptions that take up a lot of space, whereas others are sleek and modern.

But none really compare to the beauty of a traditional Asado setup.

So, with all that goodness in mind, which grill is right for you?

Well, that depends on a few things.

If you're a serious or wannabe foodie and you're looking to upgrade your current BBQ setup, want cooking versatility to expand your repertoire beyond sausages, burgers and wings, go for an Asado grill all the way.

For us, Argentinian grills take the top step of the podium each and every time.

While BBQs are great for convenience, the Argentinian grill offers a unique cooking experience and versatility that's unmatched.