The iron cross, asador criollo in Spanish, is the defining image of Argentine asado culture. A whole animal butterflied and splayed across a cross of iron, planted beside a wood fire, cooking slowly over hours until the skin is lacquered and the meat pulls apart at the bone.
It is also the cook that generates more reaction than anything else we do. The Reddit post crossed 1.7 million views. Not because it was technically complicated, but because people had never seen it done this way, on a rig built to this standard.
The exact cook: 12-pound suckling pig, butterflied and seasoned with flake salt and salmuera made with fresh rosemary from the garden. Bone side first for 3-4 hours, then rubbed with duck fat and salt, rotated the cross, finished another hour until the skin crisped up. Flashed over hot coals for the last 10 minutes just to crisp the skin a little more. Wagyu tri-tip on the Santa Maria grates over different coals. Smoked pineapple. Fresh chimichurri. Everything cooked at its own pace over oak and cherry wood.
Here is how the iron cross works, and what you need to do it right.
The asador criollo is a steel cross, a vertical shaft with a horizontal crossbar, onto which a whole animal is mounted and secured. The cross is positioned beside a wood fire at an angle, allowing radiant heat from the fire to cook the animal slowly and evenly without direct flame contact.
Traditional setups plant the cross directly in the ground. The Brasero iron cross holder mounts to the grill itself, allowing precise positioning relative to the firebox and the ability to adjust angle throughout the cook. Every Brasero grill in the Forge Collection includes the iron cross holder as standard.
The iron cross is a food contact surface. For hours, an entire animal, skin, fat, and all, is pressed against those iron bars while rendering at high heat. Any coating on those bars will come in contact with your food.
Standard powder coat fails at sustained high temperatures, it can flake, bubble, and potentially transfer to the food surface. Our iron cross receives an FDA-approved ceramic powder coat finish, the same food safety standard used in commercial kitchen equipment. It handles sustained high heat without degrading, and it is specifically approved for food contact surfaces.
This is a detail nobody else in the market addresses. It matters.
The key to iron cross cooking is fire management, not grill management. You are not adjusting a grate, you are managing a fire that radiates heat toward a stationary animal over several hours.
The classic applications in Argentine tradition are whole lamb and whole pig. Both respond beautifully to slow radiant heat, the fat renders progressively, bastes the meat continuously, and the skin builds a lacquered crust that no other cooking method produces.
Beyond whole animals, the iron cross handles large primal cuts that benefit from slow, indirect heat, whole rib sections, large pork shoulders, leg of lamb. The Reddit short rib post that generated significant community reaction used the iron cross for a full rack of short ribs, the results speak for themselves.
We posted the suckling pig cook on Reddit's r/BBQ community and crossed 1.7 million views. Not because we did something technically impossible, but because the combination of the rig, the technique, and the result was something most backyard cooks had never seen executed at this level.
That is what the Brasero is built for. Not weekend convenience grilling. The cook that makes everyone stop what they're doing and walk over to ask what that thing is.
Every model in the Forge Collection includes the iron cross holder. Every iron cross receives the FDA ceramic coat. No exceptions.
Iron cross standard on every build. Limited Q2 2026 availability.
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