What does “al trapo” mean in Spanish cooking?

Lomo al trapo is beef tenderloin cooked al trapo — “in a rag”: wrapped in a wine-soaked, salt-crusted cloth and laid straight on the coals. That little al / a la is the key to every Spanish menu, because it announces the cooking method: al horno (oven-baked), a la plancha (griddled), a la parrilla (grilled), al vapor (steamed), al carbón (charcoal-fired).

The dish itself is a Colombian Andean classic, born in farm kitchens short on pots — here adopted by an Argentine asado channel as “un clásico del canal y bien polémico.” The physics: hierbas keep the salt off the meat, the wet cloth shapes a steaming salt shell, and the verdict lands in menu-speak too: “¿El punto? Jugoso” — doneness: juicy.