Something Different......

[1buckie]

Most folks  think this can't really be done like this & will fall back to the industry standard of indirect grilling 'till 120°, then a reverse sear up to 130~135°....

This is how I do tri-tip for pulled beef....

If you can't get tri-tip, you can do the same thing with clod, a larger piece of chuck, even top sirloin whole ( but that takes a more thourogh, heavier injection to make it work )
I used these three to prep....



Strain the herb & garlic, or mild Italian, even lemon pepper would work OK....
If you decide to use the cocoa, get UNSWEETENED....it won't burn from added sugar that way & no it doesn't taste like chocolate cake when you're done, it's an undefinable but really good taste that occurs....



Inject all thru & rub down with the powders.....



Some people use gloves as this is what chocolate dry rub goes like ~~~>



Set coals to roll like so....
I usually don't use any smoke wood on this, so the rub & injection flavors come thru a lot better
Stubb's briquettes & Wicked Good lump.....



Tuck the roasts up tight in the center ( you can rotate the grate as the fire burns around to keep stuff from the hottest part of the coals, but usually it's not high enough heat to be concerned....



Run at as low of a heat as you can stand to....
I go 190° ~ 210° for 10 ~ 12 hours....

This is early the next morning....



I leave the fat cap on & as this shows, the meat just kind of melts into the grate....



Here's the first one @ 11 hours...



The second I let go another hour & it pulled much better...







Anyone can do this if they're patient.........
However, it's like brisket in that it doesn't like temp spikes & if you run any hotter than about 220° the cut will probably turn to shoe leather...
This, to me, is better than pulled chuck, which I really like a lot !!!

I use tri-tip as it's actually the same or less expensive than chuck in these parts
Get fat cap ON, if at all possible
It keeps the meat tender having the fat drip thru & around the roast, or you could wrap it in thick bacon, but I've never had occasion to try that.....

Happy Cookin' !!!

[bama bbq]

Looks fantastic. 

[Jeff]

Hey Buckie...that looks awesome!

Question...that original charcoal didnt last 12 hours did it??  Did you have to babysit the kettle all night?

[1buckie]

Thanks folks....

That stuff's really tender & moist done like that, me & the little dog ate about 2/3rds of one between us just as it came off the cooker one time....

Jeff, that coal set you see in the 5th pic down lasted approx. 10-1/2 hours,
then some noodling....
Just after the noodling, I ramped up the temp to about 250° (from 200-210°) for another hour & the second was like beef flavored soft spagetti....

The intro I put up in "Introduce" forum had a pic of this cook ~~>



Six shoulders on 5 kettles, including two on a standard & 1 on an 18-1/2", as I wanted to see if it would act the same as a regular size kettle....
It went fine but a bit harder to keep UP TO temp part of the time .....

Here's the sets ~~>

Maple with Wicked lump, heliocopter vents....



Stubb's briquettes with pecan chunks, daisy wheel vents...



Both types of coal,with aged black walnut, new style vents...



Very early the next AM, abt 250° 



This is the 18-1/2", running at about 275° ~ note open vents below, this is when I'm rampimg up the heat a little a bit later into the morning...



The pull ~~>







Total cook time was approx 13-1/2 to 14 hrs.
Checked at about 45 min into the cook to make sure everyone's going to behave, once in the middle of the night (don't need a Maverick or a Guru, the dawgs wake me up to check, they know I'll want to know if things are OK...) Again at 7:30 AM & split one chimney of lump among them to keep all going smoothly, done approx 10:30 ~ 11:00.....
Slept thru most of it......

That's the long answer, the short answer is no babysitting, kettles are just not like offsets.....

The way I think about this is I'm not controlling the burn so much with the vents (available air) as it is with available fuel....
There's only a small area of fuel set up to burn & while you do have to pay attention to the vents, it's not as important as getting a good setup on the coal / wood at the start......
6 or 7 or 8 coals produces roughly 235 ~ 240°, if the vents are mostly open & it's left to settle in,
so if that 6~8 coals are all that's burning along the line at a time, there's where your temp is.....

It has run amok before, & I ended up doing hot & fast butts, even though I didn't really want to
The two I did last night went swell, but actually burned all the way around the ring & I added maybe 1/4 circumference to where the burn would have stopped.

This works really good & I've heard of people doing 18 hour cooks like this, although I don't have their specifics.....

[Eastex]

Those are some great shots, I've got a couple of questions. Are you starting the chain with a propane burner or adding a few lit coal on one end? Do you use a drip pan under the meat and has grease dripping down and burning ever been a issue? Also, have you ever had a problem with the lump sparking and starting the burn further down the line before you wanted it to?

[1buckie]

Sorry, I tried to respond earlier & we're having some strange I-net interruptions here...

1)" Are you starting the chain with a propane burner or adding a few lit coal on one end?"

 No propane was consumed in the making of this movie.....
 In the 1st ( or "Beef" ) set of pics, the one of the coals, is after it had burned a very short time, just warming the cooker, right before grate & meat went on......
 Noticeable thing is that it's burning clockwise, whereas this one, for pork, is burning counter-clockwise ~~>



Myself & some of the daffy friends over at Smoke Ring have sort of, without a vote, decided that
the burns should alternate between counter-clockwise  and clockwise so as to not rip a hole in the space~ time continuum....

Pork one way, beef the other was my contribution to  this excersise in theoretical physics

    Which then leads to......
2) "Do you use a drip pan under the meat"

 Yes, almost always a pan, but for drip beans ~~>



Actually, this shows a resonable representation of the progression around the ring ~~>







Lotsa drip....



Ladle some of it out, then mix in for some rich, porky goodness....



And 2a)
"and has grease dripping down and burning ever been a issue? "

No, 'cause it's in the center, not really above any coals, just dripping into the beans....

  And 3)
 "Also, have you ever had a problem with the lump sparking and starting the burn further down the line before you wanted it to?"

No, not really jumping ahead, but I've goofed & spilled coals back against the other end ( these almost always start at 8-9-10PM & even with yard lights & flashlites & additional temporary work lights, sometimes it's hard to see exactly what went on ) & started burning BOTH directions at once......
This is why I've taken to always checking 1/2 ~ 3/4 hour into the cook, just in case !!!


In looking up pix to answer, here's some more of slow tri-tip ~~>
This is about 1/2 hour in, temp is @ 190° & the unsweetened cocoa is not even melted yet.....
Creeper cook, just what I'm lookin' for....



When they pull in clumps, like so, it's not quite where I'd like it to be, just 1/2 to 1 hour longer will make it fall into strands, like the 3rd pic ~~~>







I've kinda wandered off into the ' Not just a beef recipe' trees here, so I don't know if this mess should be moved elsewhere, but I should probably be quiet now....


~~~~> Ken

[sparky]

Great post,nice job of wandering off! Looks awesom!

[1buckie]

Thanks, Sparky, I've just cooked a few things that really surprized me how well they came out
( I'm not all that easily amused ) by doing things this way
& like to pass along so other folks can try it out if they'd like ~~~>

[1Cavman]

No this is an old post but I'm new here...

Very interesting... I've seen a lot of things down with Tri Tips but never pulled
Not sure what to think about this one ( no disrespect intended )

[1buckie]

No this is an old post but I'm new here...

Very interesting... I've seen a lot of things down with Tri Tips but never pulled
Not sure what to think about this one ( no disrespect intended )

No problem....it does say "Something Different"....after all......

Pulled pork is fairly easy to do, pulled beef, maybe a bit more complicated........

People use chuck, which works good, but sometimes requires braizing to keep it moisturized;
I could use that, but it costs $3.79/# & tips on sale are$2.99 here (angus, choice, untrimmed,good piece of meat )

Sometimes clod, cousin to chuck, is a good price & works good for pulled beef.......


Found, by accident, that tri-tip would pull if run at low heat, long, 190 ~ 210, 9,10,11 hrs.......

At 225~ 235, run for a shorter time, rested, chunked & rendered in cast iron, burnt ends can be had..........
chopping into strips, then chunks.......




^^^^^^  Chunked, just prior to cooking down

Tri-tip burnt end chili..........






different temps, fatcap or not, inject & cheat things up a bit, there's just a lot of different things  tri-tip will do, just my experince.............

[1Cavman]

For you West Coast boys Tri Tips are abundant.. I had to buy a case to get them at $3.19 per/lb...
Hell I've ground them for burgers and meatballs.
Like the burnt ends idea but I don't think I've ever cooked a whole one past 135

[1buckie]

I'm real big on playin' with your food to see what happens.....I know your mother told you NOT to, but she was wrong !!!

Tipbugers sounds pretty good !!!!!

[1Cavman]

Those burgers were some of the best I've made... Trimmed the fat cap and added enough of the fat back for an 80/20 mix.
I love to play with my food. I spend my time in a kitchen for a living...

[cbpeck]

Man you guys, I don't know... I just cant bring myself to go low and slow on a tri tip when S,P & G with reverse sear to 135ish produces one of the best beef entrees that can be had at any price. I love tri tip done (roughly) Santa Maria style, and am just not sure I could do this to one. I should probably start with a chuckie or clod and go from there.

[1buckie]

"Man you guys, I don't know"


It's just my fault......only my fault......please don't put it on the other guys & gals.....

I do them just like you say often enough ( perhaps later today, even !).......this was just so folks could see there is more than one way to skin a cat........

Maybe try on a chuckster, smoke for awhile, pan with broth for awhile longer, yummm.......

Check the "Pepper Stout Beef" recipe, numerous folks have done that one & reported a HIT evey time !!!