Dan C. FL
TVWBB Pro
A friend of mine is from California. We got talking about making good food a while back and got talking about Tri Tip. I explained that I've found it at our local grocery store and that I really enjoy it. We talked process, ingredients, all of the usual. As we were talking, he kept extolling the virtues of leaving the fat cap on. None of the tri tips I have gotten every had any external fat. He also swore about how great the Suzie Q's seasoning was. He happened to be down near a butcher where he used to get them with the fat cap on and so he picked up a bunch and offered me one. I ordered the seasoning and gave him his own container of that.
We talked process again this past weekend and he said that he seasoned his a couple of days in advance, seared it on both sides, then cut the heat way down to finish it with the fat cap up. Since he provided the meat and swore by his process, I decided that I would do things as close to his way as I could. So, I rubbed it in the seasoning, put it in a bag and threw it back in the fridge to hang out for a couple of days. Here it is when I pulled it out on Tuesday to cook.
Since I wasn't familiar with the seasoning, I intentionally went pretty light on it. My plan for the cook was to sear it first, then finish it in the smoker over oak. My goal temp was 125*, so that I'd get a nice rare-medium rare dinner. I fired up the coals needed to sear it on the 18" kettle, plus a few extra to throw into the 14" WSM. My target temp for the smoker was going to be around 215-225. While the smoker was coming up to temperature, I seared the meat. Here it is, seared and on the smoker with the fat cap on top.
Lil Smoker doing work while the dirty little kettle cools down:
When the probe read 125*, I went out and took my instant read thermometer to double check. Don't know if I wasn't getting the probe all the way in or what, but parts were reading closer to 140-145. So, I pulled it off, worried that I had overcooked it a bit. Here she is resting, right before I covered her with foil:
In my rush to eat this (my kitchen smelled soooo good), I forgot to worry about slicing with the grain. I made a slice right about in half so that I could see how close to my target I got. Turns out, I was closer than I feared. Here's the first cut pic:
I also forgot a plated picture. Overall, the meat was definitely a bit juicier than the trimmed ones that I have gotten before. It was really tender, despite the fact that I ignored the grain when I sliced it. I didn't notice any additional toughness or chewiness. The bites where the fat was thin, I ate with the fat on it and the flavor was delicious. Where the fat was thick, I cut it off and tossed it. I think that next time I get an untrimmed tri tip I will probably trim it down to like 1/4" and see if I can get the benefits of the fat, but have it be thin enough that I can eat it without removing anything after the cook. The fat was just like the fat in a prime rib in terms of texture, but I just don't like eating thick hunks of fat. As for the seasoning, I'm not sure whether I am a fan of the Susie Q's or not. I'm going to continue to experiment with it and see. I tend to like to let my meats speak for themselves (usually just salt and pepper, on some cuts like tri tip and tenderloin I'll add fresh garlic) rather than be heavily seasoned. After a couple of more attempts with it, I may just return to doing it with SP&G.
As for the process, it was a little more labor intensive than I'm used to. Normally, I just do indirect (2 zone) reverse sear. I think that the additional fat needed the extra time at a lower temperature, so I'm glad i did it the way that I did. I'm still getting to know my little 14" WSM. I've gotten to know my 18.5" really well and can nail my target cooker temps with ease. In this case, I missed my target cook temp by about 25*...while my goal was 215-ish, it climbed up to 240-245 at the beginning and I wasn't really able to recover (and also didn't feel like fighting it too much). I made a couple of adjustments to the vents, but it pretty much stayed near 235-240. I would've loved to see how it turned out had I got the temp where I wanted it and had a longer cook. I also noticed that it wasn't as smokey as ones that I've done on the kettle in the past. I kinda wish it had more smokiness to it. I'm thinking that this might be attributable to doing the sear first and then applying smoke. So, if I get one of these again, I'll probably reverse sear it and try to get the smoker a bit cooler too.
Thanks for reading along!! Hope y'all had a great, safe 4th!!!
We talked process again this past weekend and he said that he seasoned his a couple of days in advance, seared it on both sides, then cut the heat way down to finish it with the fat cap up. Since he provided the meat and swore by his process, I decided that I would do things as close to his way as I could. So, I rubbed it in the seasoning, put it in a bag and threw it back in the fridge to hang out for a couple of days. Here it is when I pulled it out on Tuesday to cook.
Since I wasn't familiar with the seasoning, I intentionally went pretty light on it. My plan for the cook was to sear it first, then finish it in the smoker over oak. My goal temp was 125*, so that I'd get a nice rare-medium rare dinner. I fired up the coals needed to sear it on the 18" kettle, plus a few extra to throw into the 14" WSM. My target temp for the smoker was going to be around 215-225. While the smoker was coming up to temperature, I seared the meat. Here it is, seared and on the smoker with the fat cap on top.
Lil Smoker doing work while the dirty little kettle cools down:
When the probe read 125*, I went out and took my instant read thermometer to double check. Don't know if I wasn't getting the probe all the way in or what, but parts were reading closer to 140-145. So, I pulled it off, worried that I had overcooked it a bit. Here she is resting, right before I covered her with foil:
In my rush to eat this (my kitchen smelled soooo good), I forgot to worry about slicing with the grain. I made a slice right about in half so that I could see how close to my target I got. Turns out, I was closer than I feared. Here's the first cut pic:
I also forgot a plated picture. Overall, the meat was definitely a bit juicier than the trimmed ones that I have gotten before. It was really tender, despite the fact that I ignored the grain when I sliced it. I didn't notice any additional toughness or chewiness. The bites where the fat was thin, I ate with the fat on it and the flavor was delicious. Where the fat was thick, I cut it off and tossed it. I think that next time I get an untrimmed tri tip I will probably trim it down to like 1/4" and see if I can get the benefits of the fat, but have it be thin enough that I can eat it without removing anything after the cook. The fat was just like the fat in a prime rib in terms of texture, but I just don't like eating thick hunks of fat. As for the seasoning, I'm not sure whether I am a fan of the Susie Q's or not. I'm going to continue to experiment with it and see. I tend to like to let my meats speak for themselves (usually just salt and pepper, on some cuts like tri tip and tenderloin I'll add fresh garlic) rather than be heavily seasoned. After a couple of more attempts with it, I may just return to doing it with SP&G.
As for the process, it was a little more labor intensive than I'm used to. Normally, I just do indirect (2 zone) reverse sear. I think that the additional fat needed the extra time at a lower temperature, so I'm glad i did it the way that I did. I'm still getting to know my little 14" WSM. I've gotten to know my 18.5" really well and can nail my target cooker temps with ease. In this case, I missed my target cook temp by about 25*...while my goal was 215-ish, it climbed up to 240-245 at the beginning and I wasn't really able to recover (and also didn't feel like fighting it too much). I made a couple of adjustments to the vents, but it pretty much stayed near 235-240. I would've loved to see how it turned out had I got the temp where I wanted it and had a longer cook. I also noticed that it wasn't as smokey as ones that I've done on the kettle in the past. I kinda wish it had more smokiness to it. I'm thinking that this might be attributable to doing the sear first and then applying smoke. So, if I get one of these again, I'll probably reverse sear it and try to get the smoker a bit cooler too.
Thanks for reading along!! Hope y'all had a great, safe 4th!!!
