Tri-Tip on the Tucker By Shane Draper of Draper s BBQ For this month s blog post for Tucker Cooker Holly suggested I do a recipe as a change of pace. Well, I m 6ft 2in and 275lbs when I m eating nothing but salads, so you can probably guess it took very little in the way of persuasion to get me to cook something, eat it and then write about it! When I thought about what I should do for a recipe I thought it only natural to highlight one of the Tucker Cooker s most unique features: the Adjustable Charcoal Rack. This in my opinion is the best features of the Tucker. It allows the cook the ability to adjust a bed of charcoal from low in the pit to within inches of the cooking area. This creates one heck of a nice sear on steaks, burnt ends, burgers, etc. As you all know this is part of the whole Tucker mission: To be able to smoke, barbecue and grill in one pit. Of all the pits Draper s has, the Tucker is the most flexible by far. In no other pit are we able to grill hamburgers for vending, then switch gears completely and smoke cases of boston butts or briskets, fit 30+ racks of ribs, cook a 160lb (the largest we ve personally done) whole hog and be able to sear a steak properly. What I love is that it takes seconds to switch between these set ups. The Tucker is still my personal favorite full sized pit. Yes, we do have some that do many things very well, but none which provide the results, the volume and the sheer flexibility of our Tucker. Hands down, it is still number 1 in my book. We ve cooked literally tons of meat on our Tucker in the two and half years we ve owned it. After a little thought I decided the best meat to cook for this recipe had to be beef tri-tip. Tri-tip is a recent discovery for me personally and as my good friend Mike Owings said last week, it is beef defined. I think Mike is on to something there. There is no beefier tasting piece of meat with such a perfect texture on that entire animal. I know the folks out west, specifically in California, are well versed in the virtues of tri-tip. I think we folks here in the heartland are really just now catching on. For those that don t know what tri-tip is, allow me to do a bit of an interlude here with some specifics of where it comes from, how its cut and some background. (For those that are well versed, please feel free to go ahead and skip ahead to actual cooking portion). The tri-tip comes from the bottom of the sirloin primal cut. I have borrowed a picture from Wikipedia below that highlights what part of the animal this is.
Tri-tip gets it s name here in the states because of it s shape. It is a triangular muscle that can almost have a heart sort of shape to it. Around the world, tri-tip is referred to by many names and in several South American countries it is considered more sought after than filet mignon. It is cooked various ways around the globe but most commonly it is either cut into small steaks or grilled whole. Tri-tip got a first foot hold here in states in Oakland, California in the late 1950 s where it became a local speciality, typically being rubbed with salt, pepper, garlic salt and various dried peppers, then grilled slow over red oak or roasted whole on a rotisserie. Tri-tip can still be hard to find here in the middle parts of the US and is a very rare find in bigger stores, but not impossible. The reason being is that there is only one per side of beef. Now that carving is primarily done by packers you are most likely going to go to your local butcher to find this delicacy. The great part is that is relatively inexpensive. You can score a 2.5lb tritip for what one really good steak will cost you. Don t be afraid to do some calling around and investigation to find this jewel of bovine perfection I promise you it is well worth the effort. I understand everyone who cooks tri-tip has a favorite cooking method,favorite spices to rub it with and even the exact internal temperature they think the tri-tip should reach to achieve perfection. I have decided for this recipe to keep it rather simple on the spices and marinade and to also go with the reverse sear method (excellent explanation of this method from Amazing Ribs.com) of cooking and take this particular tri-tip to no more than 140 degrees in the very middle of the thickest part. The Tucker is particularly well suited for the reverse sear method because you can build a fire in the fire box to low and slow smoke the tri-tip until it hits desired internal temperature and then quickly build a very hot, direct heat fire on the opposite end on which to sear the tri-tip. (This method works fantastic for any sort of steaks, for burnt ends and brisket as well). The tri-tip I had on hand was a 1.75lb, well marbled piece. Being a bit on the small side it looked even smaller on the Tucker s very ample cooking bay.
All the tri-tips with which I ve came in contact have a fat cap on the opposite side. I have never found it necessary to trim this fat layer since it isn't really that thick. You may opt to and I don't think it will affect the overall cooking outcome that much since it is typically a thin layer unlike a brisket fat cap. When it comes to marinating my tri-tips, I typically use something from the Allegro Marinade line. Everything I have tried of theirs has been outstanding. For this particular tri-tip I used their Original since we purchase it by the gallon for our briskets. I have tried their Balsamic Vinegar marinade on tri-tips and it was fantastic! Their Raspberry Chiptole and Teriyaki are also great. I just can t say enough about their entire line. Many butchers and some Wal-Mart s carry Allegro be sure to look for it. If you don't have access to something like Allegro, Dales is also good. I do sometimes find Dales to be a bit salty for my personal preference so either dilute it with Worcestershire or opt for their low sodium marinade. If you don't have either, a marinade of a 50/50 mixture of high quality soy sauce and Worcestershire will work fine as well.
When it comes to marinating steaks, pork chops, loins, tri-tips, etc. my favorite method is to use a 1 gallon zip top bag. This makes it very easy to flip the bag over ever few hours to ensure you get full coverage. Which, of course, begs the question of, how long do you marinade your tritip? It really depends on how much effect you want your marinade to have. I would say with something like Allegro that 4hrs is a really good starting point. I ve marinaded a tri-tip for up to 4 days. This made for one heck of a flavorful tri-tip, but in that instance, I think the meat got overpowered a bit. For optimum results I have found 12-24hrs to work very well. This particular round of cooking was spurred on by a 60 degree sunny day in Western Kentucky in January. Thus, I only marinaded this tri-tip for 4hrs since I really wanted some good, unusually mild, day light left to take pictures of the cooking process on the Tucker. And yes,
I might be rubbing in the great winter weather in a little bit, but I m sure we ll get our nasty weather soon enough! Here you see my preferred method for lighting the Tucker Cooker, my trusty weed burner. I know it looks like overkill but it works and is fast. You can also see my base fuel for this cook was some left over blue bag Kingsford. I tossed some mesquite chunks on these coals for a good smoke. The charcoal is used mainly for heat in this set up. You will need a couple of other very important tools in this cooking process. Please refer to the picture below for these critical tools.
For the rub on this tri-tip, I used our soon to be released Beef Rub, but you can use any sort of rub that you would use on brisket or steak or even plain old salt and pepper. There are Santa Maria styled rubs that are really built for tri-trip. One of those that I ve used and liked is Oakridge BBQ s. If you don't have time to order a rub like or run to the store you can make your own. I do recommend avoiding a rub with very much sugar in it if you plan on searing your meat. The sugar will carmelize very quickly and may burn if you aren t vigilant. Here is a very basic formula I use for beef. The ingredients should be found in most any cooks kitchen: 1 part Granulated Onion or Onion powder 1 part Granulated Garlic or Garlic powder ½ part Black Pepper, fresh ground/cracked is best ½ part Sea or Kosher Salt If you really prefer more of a pepper punch double the amount. I personally love black pepper on beef so my rubs have a pretty high pepper content. Once you have a good coat of your favorite rub on your tri-tip and your cooker is up to your desired temperature place it in the cooker and ignore it for about an hour. For me I cooked about 8in from the right most side of the Tucker with the fat side of the tri-tip down. I did this because I knew I would run out of day light and therefore not be able to take pictures, so I needed the meat to cook a bit faster than the normal low and slow and the fat side being down allows that side to shield the rest of the more delicate meat from the direct heat. I set the cooker at 250 degrees put the meat on and closed the lid and proceeded the partake of my
adult beverage for about an hour. After the adult beverage had mysterious disappeared from my glass, I checked on the tri-tip and this is what it looked like. I check it with my Thermapen and it was just over 100 degrees internal temp in the thickest part. At this point I moved the tri-tip to the top rack of the Tucker while I removed the left bottom grate and added some Royal Oak lump charcoal to the charcoal rack and moved it up to it s highest setting. For illustrative purposes I took my tongs and stood them on the charcoal rack so you get an idea just how close you can get the charcoal to the bottom of the cooker grates when you move the rack to the Grill position (refer to inset in the photo). When I say its within inches, that is literal and not figurative.
The next pic is just to show how much travel the charcoal rack has. On the BBQ setting the charcoal rack is down below the air vents. Of course you wouldn't use this setting for searing meat but it does show you just how versatile this rack is. Once your tri-tip is within about 15 degrees of your desired internal temperature, it is time to
start searing it. How much you sear it will depend on how much of a crust you want on the finished product. Some people will just want some added color, some will want a bit more char. I am a fan of char personally so I cranked the charcoal rack back up to the Grill setting and tossed the tri-tip right in middle of the coals. Be careful though because as you can see it doesn't take long for the flames to develop. When you have your desired amount of sear check the internal temp. If you have hit your desired temperature, pull the tri-tip so it can rest for at least 20min before slicing. You can rest it on the upper rack of the Tucker while you sear some more goodies such as portabello mushrooms.
For this recipe all you need are a couple of portabellos sliced about half an inch thick. Drizzle some good quality olive oil and some high quality balsamic vinegar on the mushrooms and let them set about 45 minutes before cooking. I like dusting the mushrooms with our beef rub or some salt and pepper while they are cooking. Basically, you are looking for flavors that are beefy in nature to complement tri-tip. While the mushrooms are cooking be sure to keep a close eye on them, they will literally be done in a couple of minutes per side, so don't walk away from the Tucker. Stay close and consume your adult beverage there.
If you ve done your job right and let the meat rest properly, you should be greeted with a very nice, tender, juicy hunk of beef. This one I intentionally cooked on the rare side so it would photograph better. You are welcome to cook yours to whatever level of doneness you prefer. Looks good...time TO EAT! I served the tri-tip and mushrooms with some pasta salad. You are of course welcome to do something like a baked potato, a salad or to slice it and use it in fajitas. Lots of options, but no matter what you do it with it you really will discover that it is beef defined.
Until next time folks. Happy and safe Q n to everyone!