Smoked Marinated Tri-tips w/ Qview

[rocapps]

Time for my weekly smoking project. This week, I smoked up half a dozen tri-tip roasts for a family birthday party.

Started with 6x 2-2.5 lbs tri-tip roasts that were marinated in a bottled "carne asada" sauce and crushed garlic, overnight.


A pile of beef, ready for the smoker!

Got the smoker up to about 250° using a mixture of roughly 50% Oak pellets to 50% Hickory pellets.



The tri-tips smoked for about 2 1/2 hours, before I opened up the smoker, took a picture (below), and flipped the roasts.



At this point, I cranked the smoker up to about 340° for 20 minutes to get a good caramelization of the sugars (and a light sear) on the roasts, and to finish bringing them up to an internal temp of 145° on 3 roasts for the true meat lovers in the group

, 155° on 2 more for the mid-westerners in the family who cook their beef DONE

, and 160° on the last roast, for those who like to chew their meat for hours on end

After a brief (1 hour) rest wrapped in foil, towels, and placed in a ice chest that had been warming in the sun, we sliced 'em up and ate 'em.



They were very tasty, had a pleasant smoky flavor, and had about a 1/4" pink smoke ring around the entire roast. The roasts stayed quite moist, and even the roast that was cooked to 160° was tender, moist and delicious.

They turned out so well that everyone 'forgot' there was a chafing dish full of chicken right next to the tri-tip!

Somehow, I think I just got myself elected as official caterer for all future family functions

Lessons learned from this smoke:

• The rear of my smoker is hotter than the front, making it pretty easy to bring the roasts to 3 different internal temps, in roughly the same cooking time.
• Even after an overnight marinade, I should probably give the meat an additional dry rub. While flavorful and moist, the tri-tips needed a bit of salt to bring out the flavor of the beef.
• A good quick sear in the last 15 minutes of cooking gave a great caramelized, slightly seared surface to the roasts - adding a TON of flavor!

Hope you all enjoy reading about this, as much as I enjoyed making it!

~Robert

 

[beer-b-q]

Great looking Smoke...

 

[nate_46]

Looks real good, I especially like the size of the slices.

 

[the dude abides]

Those look great

for a successful smoke!

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Mmmmmmmmmm...looks quite tasty! I've not yet tried a tri-tip...I did a sirloin tip...really nice meat.

Yeah, a little salt will help the flavor...give 'em sprinkle just before the smoke, then it won't out draw the natural juices...

Good smoke! Thanks for sharing the drool-view!

Eric

 

[deltadude]

rocapps,
Looking good!

I did a couple of tri-tips tonight too, I posted the effort here.

Personally I haven't smoked Tri-tip yet, I love Santa Maria style grilled.

 

[meatball]

Nice looking beef rocapps!

 

[richoso1]

Excellent roast my friend, Tri Tip is by far one of my favs.

 

[irishteabear]

Looks great.

Wish I could find some tri tips in my area.

 

[rocapps]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

Since they all come from the same cow

I would venture to guess it's available outside of the West Coast. I'm pretty sure the tri-tip comes from the butt portion of the bottom sirloin.

I've seen the cut we know as tri-tip by several other names in other parts of the country. You might have some luck finding the roast under the name 'corner cut', 'bottom sirloin butt', 'sirloin triangle muscle', 'triangle tip', 'triangle roast', or 'knuckle cap'. I know that some butchers cut coulotte steaks from the same general area . . . might be useful in guiding your butcher to the roast you're looking for!

Hope you can locate one of the above, not only is it good for smoking, it's GREAT sliced into steaks for grilling!!

 

[mballi3011]

Very nice look job there Robert. It sure doesn't look like your new to this smoking thing by the lookings of your smoke but

for it anyway great job and what did you serve with those nice peices of beef.?

 

[billbo]

Great job on that smoke Robert! Nice to be able to do several options of doneness!

 

[rocapps]

I've been cooking since I was tall enough to stand at the kitchen counter, and grilling since I was old enough to start the charcoal on my own. So I guess cooking comes as second nature.

I've tried my hand at smoking many timed over the years, with mixed results - some edible... so not so much

I owe most of the results above to having a lot of grilling experience, reading tons of posts on this board, and acquiring an extremly user friendly and forgiving smoker!

If you liked the tri-tips, check out the Pastrami I posted last weekend!

Grilled chicken, corn, (potato, green and fruit) salads, cheesy french bread and some baked beans... but I let someone else take care of those!

 

[rocapps]

It actually surprised me that they turned out that way. My previous experience with pork spare ribs and pastrami on the Traeger didn't really show that much temp difference from front to back on the grid. I figured I would just start pulling them off as they hit temp... luckily, it all worked out!

I'm guessing having a full load of meat changed the air currents inside the cooking chamber. I'll have to explore this further, especially if I add a second rack inside the chamber.

I learn something new each time I fire up the smoker!

 

[blackened]

Nice job, they look great..

I've got some Costco tri-tips in the freezer that I will typically grill, but you've inspired me to put one in the drum this week..