When a lamb goes on the iron cross and leans over the coals for six hours, salt alone will not survive the trip. The asador keeps a bucket of salmuera nearby — hot water, coarse salt, oregano, garlic, sometimes a little ají — and swabs the meat with a rosemary branch every twenty minutes. It seasons, it keeps the surface from drying to leather, and it is the reason the crust of a properly done lamb tastes like the whole herb garden. This is that bucket, dried down to a jar.
Whisk 5 tbsp into 1 liter of hot water and stand ten minutes. Baste every 15–20 minutes with a brush, a clean rag, or a rosemary branch — the branch is not affectation, it adds something. Dry, it is a straight rub at about 1 tsp per pound.
Coarse sea salt, oregano, granulated garlic, crushed red chili (ají molido), bay leaf.
