smoked Tri-Tip something or other

[addicted-to-smoke]

Not sure yet what this will become. Maybe pepper stout stuffed peppers.

I dusted a small tritip with S, P and a little cardamon. Added some Kingsford Hickory to last night's leftover coals and lit maybe 6 of them? After a little while it locked into about 245. But this is still a fast cook; the beef's at 129 as I type this after about 1.5hrs. I've been tapping the intakes down for the last half hour. It's at 199 on the grate now and I'm letting the temp sink further while I get the next phase ready.

[Travis]

Love tri tip. Not common here in the Midwest though. Have to have our butcher cut it special.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[addicted-to-smoke]

Weird that the stores down here have it regularly.

I'm having a total brain fart. For some reason I thought I should be pulling the meat off at 135 instead of hotter. Now that my smoker's down to 180 (133 on the meat) I gotta go out and crank it some.

[Travis]

It's about med rare now, correct? I'd pull it. How much further do you take it to make the stuffed peppers? What else goes into it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[addicted-to-smoke]

Stuffed (bell) peppers have whatever you want in them. Could be rice, cheese, egg mixed in. I've always thought of them as meatloaves stuffed into peppers, albeit without the ketchup-y sauce?

I decided to follow most of the Wolfe recipe and take the meat to 160-165 and then put it in a pan with the rest and finish. At 145 currently. I'll probably use the dutch oven in the kitchen's oven since I need about 350 for a couple hours of Phase 2 and don't have time or inclination to deal with another grill this afternoon.

And then stuff them into the peppers. I guess I'll somehow do them separately. This is about to get weird.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Sounds like you are getting good temp control on this cook.  Although I generally prefer to smoke with the top vent wide up, I've found that half closed seems to help me control temps a lot better.  Once I get the top shut about half way, I can usually get really stable temps using the bottom vent.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Interesting. Top vent's been open here. Pleasantly surprised at how changes to the small bottom vent alone influence temp. Maximum speed on this machine, so far, has been 250-270 once settled in. Been 255 for the last hour. Again, this is all with the clay saucer in place. I do get leak at the lid now with the probe cables, so I might reroute through the lid holes next time.

Probably be another later dinner. At this rate it'll take another 30-40 mins to get to 160 or so, probably. I started this mess at 11:15 getting stuff ready.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Smoker temp fell to 220, meat stuck at 158. I waited another 30 mins or so. Meat at 158. I was heard to say, to no one in particular, "Just show me 159 and no one gets hurt!" Screw that.





I stoked it without improvement. Most of the charcoal was gone but for about 4 pieces that hadn't really caught on. Fuel appeared to have started on one side and worked it's way over, instead of from the inside-out. WTF.

Smoker, by now completely removed from heat (sitting on a grill grate elsewhere) was holding temp ... clay saucer FTW?

I yanked it ... the smell of the meat is incredible at this stage. Very rich and flavorful straight off the cooker. A little cardamom on beef is the bomb. No wonder that shit's so expensive.





So I'm off script here. No peppers because this will get stuffed into them later. No jalapeños, sweet instead of red onion (chopped in this case) I ran out of garlic, and just the 1/4 cup Worcestershire and Guinness stout. I did not add the extra S & P the receipt calls for at this stage. Not a huge tritip but a 5QT dutch oven's not really big enough. But it is now kinda suspended from the sides and steaming on the bottom LOL.




To this I'll add some brown rice, shred some sharp cheddar. What am I saying? I'll have the eldest minion do that when he gets off the bus in a min.

Think I'll add an egg this time as well so that it holds together better. No real bread crumbs here and after yesterday's weird chicken with the gluten free variety, the natives might rebel.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

@addicted-to-smoke  - I'm really wondering here if your clay pan is absorbing the heat, if its the top vent being wide open, a combo of both or you using a charcoal ring.  I don't have a ring and just load the bottom half of the SJ up with charcoal then add my 8-10 coals in the middle.  I haven't done a long smoke yet, but have let it go after short smokes for up to 4 hours and barely used any coal.  It is very touchy getting it to stay around 240-250 but once I get it there I don't have to touch it.

Here is what I had left after 4-4.5 hours.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Beats me. I made a ring because I thought that's what you were supposed to do. I can see how you could load more charcoal without it, AND that the ring really only is needed with side intakes like the WSMs have, and like the SJ Golds have ... oops? Maybe I should re-think the ring here.

[addicted-to-smoke]

So I let the beef go in the dutch oven-oven (DOO?) for only a little over 2hrs before checking. I didn't put it back in ... super tender and yummy ... the complex flavors of this dish (even though I didn't directly include the peppers in the pot this time, ha!) always amaze me.





Filled a smallish bowl with what didn't get used for the stuffing.




After assembly they sat in a small Weber drip tray for a 20-minute oven ride.






***************************
Closing thoughts

I like stuffed peppers and they get a thumbs here but they've never been one of my favorites because the pepper overwhelms the other flavors. The complex beef seasonings, sharp cheddar etc were rendered much more muted here. That said, roasted bell peppers (such as when you slice them up and grill them) ARE one of my favs, so next time I need to find a way to get that back so that they more bland "cooked bell pepper" flavor doesn't override the rest. When we've made these the usual way (with ground beef inside) on the grill they can get overcooked because it's tough to tell what's happening to the pepper unless it either gets burned or wilts/shrinks.

So I think what I might do is "roast" them independently to achieve that and then somehow assemble them with the rest that was made separately. Could be tricky, as the dish is intended to be cooked all-at-once.

Remember to assemble with rice already cooked. You'll ruin them otherwise, as uncooked rice will absorb all moisture AND not get cooked enough.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Looks good to me!  That's a nice smoke ring on the beef!   I've always put hot water in the dish that I am baking the peppers in.  Not sure of the technical reason for doing that, but it helps make the peppers more tender.

[addicted-to-smoke]

I actually like a bit of bite with mine, but these were still soft-ish. You can see from my last picture they cut nicely with a steak knife. I wouldn't have wanted them squishy.