Tri-Tip - Santa Maria Style

Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip -

This recipe has been a standard in California - primarily the central coast area since the late 50's due to a little bit of creative marketing. Some history about the cut of meat can be found here.

Most basic tri-tip recipes include black pepper, garlic and salt. A simple seasoning for a fantastic cut of meat - and if cooked correctly, absolutely incredible!



A Southern California company called Rooftop BBQ (also a fellow Competitive BBQ Team) has a fantastic rub that I highly recommend. Check them out when you get a chance. All their products are great!

For this recipe, I used the Rooftop Rub but if you haven't ordered yours yet or it hasn't arrived, you can substitute this for the following (per tri-tip):

Black Pepper - 1 1/2 tblspn
Granulated Garlic - 1 1/2 tblsn
Salt (Sea Salt is best) - 1 1/2 tblspn

and the rest:

Olive Oil - 1/4 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
White Wine Vinegar - 2 tspn

Mix well and place mixture and tri-tip in a zip lock bag for 2 hours. I let mine go for 4 hours.

I smoked mine at 225F using mesquite. Beef is one of the only meats, in my opinion, that can handle the heavy flavor imparted by mesquite. The historical choice is oak but this is one cut of meat that has enough flavor all on its' own to hold up to any wood / fuel choice.

If you don't have a smoker, you can cook this on a gas grill by turning the burners on low on one side and cooking on the cool side. A oven thermometer placed on the cool side - NEVER place the thermometer in open flame area - and adjust your flame so the grate temp on the cool side is around 225 or as low as you can get it.

The key to successfully cooking a great piece of tri-tip is to pull it off the grill at the correct internal temperature.

There are two schools of thought on tri-tip - to sear or not to sear. If you have the capacity to sear, I recommend it. For this method, as soon as the internal temp hits 130, move the tri-tip to a high heat - direct flame area and sear on each side for 3 - 4 minutes. The internal temp should be around 140F at this point.

If you do not have access to a direct flame area, cook the tri-tip until it hits between 137 and 142F.

The final internal temp will be determined by how well done you like your beef. Whatever your preference, I would avoid exceeding 145F internal temp. The meat will continue to cook and the internal temp will continue to rise a few degrees while it rests. If you let the temp climb much past 145, I think the meat starts to get tough.

Once the cooking process is done and the desired internal temp is reached, wrap the tri-tip in foil, then in a beach towel, and place in a clean, dry cooler for at least 30 minutes so the meat can rest.

You can see that after this tri-tip has rested for 1 hour, the internal temp has climbed to 150F. Probably a little too hot for me but it came out a solid medium. I like to shoot for a final internal temp of 145 but the kids and boss like it a little more done.

Slice the tri-tip across the grain in slices about 1/4" thick. Tri-tip is tricky and the grain of the meat does shift throughout the piece of meat. Just keep watching the grain and adjust your slicing direction as you progress through the meat.

Plated up with some smoked chicken breast and some corn on the cob. Let's eat!

Spicy Tri-Tip

This recipe for Spicy Tri-Tip is NOT for the faint of heart. There is enough spice in here to make my dog think twice before he inhales a piece!

The average tri-tip is usually about 2 1/2lbs. It will shrink some in the cooking process but trimming is typically not required. Look for a piece that has even marbling throughout the meat and no large pockets of fat. There will be a thin layer of fat on the lower side but not thick enough to trim off. I like to use the rule of thumb - 1/2lb of meat per person so a typical tri-tip after it shrinks a bit will feed 4 people. You can stretch this if there are girls or US Coast Guardsmen (sic?) present but don't get crazy.



Recipe is per average size tri-tip cut:
Mustard (You can use plain yellow but Dijon kicks it up a bit) - 6oz
Black Pepper - 1 tblspn
Onion Powder - 1/2 tblspn
Cayenne Pepper - 1/4 tblspn
Season Salt - 2 tblspn
Cumin - 1 tblspn
Garlic Powder - 2 tblspn
Chili Powder - 2 tblspn



Here's a trick - cut slices into the meat (not the fat side) about 1/4" deep and make about 1" squares. This really lets the spices get sucked into the meat. This is a reasonable option if you don't want to inject the meat. In this case, since we are not injecting with clear or near clear liquids, this is the best option.

Coat the meat with the mustard first - work into all the cracks. The mustard will help the dry rub stick to the meat - particularly when we rest (wrap in foil) the meat.

Work the dry rub into the meat getting as much even coverage as possible. If you made the slices in the top, make sure you get into all the cuts!

Cook the tri-tip at 250F grate temp - I start fat side down to get it soft and then flip it fat side up for the last 1/2 hour. Pull the meat at 140F internal but you can go to 150F internal for a medium cook. I wouldn't recommend exceeding 150F. Normally it should take about 90 minutes to get to 140 so flip the meat fat side up after about an hour. This will also give you the chance to get a probe temp of the meat and see how it's doing.

After the meat has hit the internal temp you are looking for, wrap it in foil and then a beach towel and place on the counter - or better yet - in a dry cooler. You can add a splash of apple juice at this point but if you have a nice piece of meat, you shouldn't have to.

Let the meat rest for at least 1/2 hour. If you have it in a cooler it will maintain temp for a few hours.

Unwrap and slice - try to get your slices about 1/4" thick.

Chow time!

Grill Review - Char Griller Super Pro

Grill Review - Char Griller Super Pro with Offset Side Fire Box option added.

This is an unbiased review of this grill. The purpose is to educate and assist my fellow BBQ enthusiasts on different grills / BBQs I have used in my back yard or at competitions.

I do not own this grill. Meat, Inc. BBQ Team member Colin owns this particular grill.

First impressions: When I first saw the grill, I thought it was good sized. Looks like you can put a lot of meat in it. This is true if you are cooking for a back yard party or a small group of friends. The grill surface area is 580 square inches. This is about 50% more cooking area of a Weber WSM 18.5" or a Traeger Lil' Tex. The unit also looked structurally sound but upon further inspection, it was clear this grill was made for back yard use and not meant to be hauled around to competitions. The Offset Fire Box was an option that Colin added on to allow indirect heat or smoking.

Fuel Source: This grill uses charcoal briquettes or lump and wood can be added on top of the charcoal in the offset for smoking. One of the cool features about this grill is you can place charcoal in the main portion of the grill and get a really nice, hot direct cooking area for steaks or hamburgers. The offset adds the option of indirect heat and the possibility of throwing in a split of your favorite wood for smoking. The offset connects to the main grill where a prepared punch out section of the main grill body is removed when you bolt on the offset fire box. The downside of this added option is the hole between the offset fire box and the main grill is HUGE. There is no real way to tune this grill to even out the heat generated by the offset so the right side of the cooking area is way hotter than the left side. This kind of reduces the effective cooking area of the grill if you are smoking something. The upside is if you want to slow smoke something medium sized - like 3 tri-tips or a medium sized brisket AND you want to cook some chicken or jalapeno poppers using the higher heat on the right side at the same time - you can.

Temperature Range - Efficiency - Holding: The unit has adjustable vents on the offset firebox and a baffle on the smoke stack. I was able to hold a pretty stable temp of 250F throughout the cook without constant adjustment of the vents / airflow once I had the temp I wanted. When I wanted to crank the temp up to cook some other things - like peppers - it was tough to exceed 275F. I didn't really push the temp by adding a bunch of fuel but it seemed like there was some heat loss from the top of the offset. The material of the entire grill appeared to be 1/8" thick so this was probably the case. Since I'm comfortable smoking meats at 225 - 275, this isn't really an issue for me. This might even help some inexperienced cooks not ruin or burn some meats. When the temp dropped and additional fuel needed to be added - it was a snap - just open the offset door, throw in some more charcoal, and the temp was right back up to 250 in minutes. The rate that fuel needs to be replaced during long cooks will be determined by ambient temperature and type of fuel. The fuel seemed to burn slower than a kettle but probably because I kept the vents partially closed to control the heat.

The lid temp shows 195F, the right side at the grate (closest to the offset firebox) shows 280F, and the left side at the grate shows 215F. I was opening the doors quite a bit so the lid and the left side were off more than typical - I usually saw about a 50F drop / shift from right to left.



Overall Value: At the bottom of this post are the links for the main grill and the offset option. The total price comes out to about $220.00. Reasonable for a starter smoker AND a direct heat charcoal grill.

The tri-tip and the peppers came out awesome!

Links:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_44754-49769-2121_4294857761_4294937087?productId=3033621&pl=1&currentURL=/pl_Charcoal%2BGrills_4294857761_4294937087_?cm_cr=Grills%20$%20Outdoor%20Cooking%201.2-_-Web%20Activity-_-Grills%20and%20Outdoor%20Cooking%201.2%20A2%20Activity-_-SC_Grills%20%20Outdoor%20Cooking_Area2-_-17106_2

http://www.grillsdirect.com/barbecue-smokers/smoker-accessories/chargrillersidefirebox.cfm