Is tri-tip the best?

[funTRD]

Is tri-tip the best cut of meat, or what?!  It lends itself great to a med-rare Santa Maria grill, or... if you find the right piece, it's great to smoke.  I found the latter.

This piece had great marbling - looked like it could be Prime masquerading as Choice, or almost a brisket point.  Works for me at 4 or 5 bucks a pound.

I learned how to better get my temps up and for a long time on the kettle - just pile a ton of lump for indirect and let it go for 5 hours - not much fiddling.  Now I just need to figure out how to get it to stop with the crazy ton of smoke - maybe it's the particular bag of lump that I got.  Anyway, this turned out amazing.  It was just a simple rub of S&P, garlic powder, cumin, and quite a bit of coriander.






-Jason

[Thunder71]

That's mouth watering... is it 5 yet?

[G$]

I am not sure it is the best, but it is awesome.  So are those pictures.     

[kendoll]

Looks fantastic. I hope to cook some tri-tip this weekend (depending on work)!

So was it at 225 for the 5 hours?

Ken

[edhead35]

Tri tip is great meat for the money

[funTRD]

Looks fantastic. I hope to cook some tri-tip this weekend (depending on work)!

So was it at 225 for the 5 hours?

Ken

To be honest, I have no idea.  This was my second true smoke project on the kettle.  After failing to get temps up on the ring of fire for the first smoke project, this one I just piled up a bunch of lump and let it go where it wanted without even checking.  If i had to guess, I'd say it was probably more in the 250 range for about 4 hours, then died down to the 200 range for the last hour.  That's a total WAG, so take it for what it's worth   I also don't remember the size - maybe somewhere in the 4 pound range.  It sure did not suck - I would say it's the 2nd best tri-tip I've ever cooked (and I've done a number of them, a few different ways, over the years).

[funTRD]

I am not sure it is the best, but it is awesome.  So are those pictures.     

Thanks for the kudos.

You know what I've decided?  If you find a great cut of meat (i.e. marbled, aged, etc.), or you brine it (i.e. bird, pork loin, etc.), it's pretty hard to screw up.  If it's not the greatest cut of meat, you better cook it "just right", and even then it will likely be just so-so.

[Duke]

Nice job! If you break the lump down a little you will be able to pack it down a little more.

[1buckie]

Great Cookup !!!

I do about like that quite often.....250f x 4h (or a bit less)
I almost always inject something to add a pre-flavoring to the cooking & get them fatcap on anytime possible.....

You're absolutely right....great piece of meat....goes a lot of different directions H/F...L/S....very low to pull....grill, smoke, inject, marinade long times....all kinds of ways to go...........