First Cook with the Caliente Grill: Tri Tip


 
Robert-R

Robert-R

TVWBB Diamond Member
Had been wanting a Santa Maria grill, but came across this Caliente Argentine/Tuscan Grill.
Had to break it in. CAB Tri Tip was on sale a few weeks ago, so I dug one out of the freezer ....

Scruffed it up a bit.

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And rubbed it with Oakridge Santa Maria and Carne Crosta.

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Built a fire of used briquettes over 4 small splits of red oak.

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Lowered it 12 inches.

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Grill Time:

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Continued flipping/turning the meat and raising the coal grate until it had an internal temp of 130* and looked like this:

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A few cuts:

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Time to eat!

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It sure was good. And lots of fun.


Quite an experience with this style of cooking. Lots to learn, I think.
Next time: cook with lump and lots of wood splits. Think fire management.
 
Looks great Robert, Looking at that grill I would imagine there is quite a learning curve, but lots of possibilities also.
 
That Tri Tip and plate look wonderful Robert. I think you're going to enjoy that addition. It's similar in concept to my Santa Maria style attachment for a Weber 22" kettle. I use mine all the darn time and will be using it for some beans later today. What I like about your Caliente is being able to adjust the grate height and leave your lid on too. I'm a very cautious using my SM attachment during fire season as there is no lid during the cook. I don't think you'll have any trouble with a learning curve.
 
Cliff Bartlett said:
That Tri Tip and plate look wonderful Robert. I think you're going to enjoy that addition. It's similar in concept to my Santa Maria style attachment for a Weber 22" kettle. I use mine all the darn time and will be using it for some beans later today. What I like about your Caliente is being able to adjust the grate height and leave your lid on too. I'm a very cautious using my SM attachment during fire season as there is no lid during the cook. I don't think you'll have any trouble with a learning curve.
Click to expand...

Thank, Cliff. Yeah.... one reason I got this contraption is that it's wind protected and can put the lid on to shut it down. Not sure about cooking with live fire and having the lid on. I had to remove the lid for this cook as it was running super hot burning charcoal mainly. And I'm wanting to use small splits. Maybe too big of charge? Will take a few cooks or more to gauge how much fuel to use.
 
Robert-R said:
Not sure about cooking with live fire and having the lid on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought about that too, but it seems like you would be able to control it with lower kettle vent and lid vents on top?? Anyway, first time I ever saw this add on was this morning when I looked at your post. I'll be watching to see how you like it.
 
That's a neat contraption, Robert, and you can't argue with the results on that tri-tip! You'll get the hang of it quickly, I'm sure!

R
 
Very cool attachment. The Santa Maria grills should be showing up at Costco any day now. You nailed that high heat tri tip cook.
 
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