I completely forgot

[roched11]

   Guess what?  I already have a smoker. and it's an (as you say) ECB. (El Cheapo Brinkman). The green "Gourmet" smoker. I have had it for about 15 years and have used it once.  I forgot about it and just now remembered it was hiding in my storage shed. Needless to say it wasn't in the best of shape. I had to use a lot of wire brush to it. to get it ready for another try.

Let me explain my first attempt 15 years ago..... first of all I knew nothing about smoking meat when I first used it. My extent of knowledge was get the coals burning and let it cook for 4-5 hours. My Tri-Tip almost came out as Beef Jerky.  It was pretty close..    That is pretty much why it sat for 15 years.

   Then I discovered this site which rekindled (so to speak) my interest in slow cooking.  So I decided to try again with another Tri-Tip.   Wow---what a difference a little knowledge makes. I really didn't have time to marinate the Tri-Tip so I just used Jocko's Santa Maria seasoning on top of Olive oil and I added a bit of finely ground Decaf Coffee right before I I started ..

   I used a chimney coal starter with Kingsford Briquettes. I got them going and spread them in the coal area along with Whole oak charcoal on top.. They were all burning and I put on the Tri-Tip..   It stayed mostly in the lower part of Ideal range then after a while it started creeping into the warm range.    this started to concern me so I added a few more Briquettes and whole oak charcoal chunks. This seemed to stabilize things so I was happy. . I was still unsure what the temps were so I pulled out my $16 wireless remote thermometer. It at least let me know which direction the temps were going. I set it for Medium (145) and it pretty much stayed at 143) I wasn't too concerned at the higher temps as I was not expecting the perfect Tri-Tip for my second try.

  After approx 2 hours, I took it off and tented it for about 1/2 hour..   It turned out maybe a tad cooked too long but the flavor was Excellent and the meat quite tender.. Over all good effort. 

  Sorry I don't have pics. I really wasn't expecting much----Next time---Defo!!!!        Bye the way, 4 hours after I took the meat off the smoker,   The Charcoal was still putting out the heat

Terry

 

[barnold]

Sounds like a good thing that you found your smoker! 

Also sounds like it won't take long for you to be on track for some good eats.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

I assume you're talking Celsius for your temps? Cause 143f is pretty low for smoker temp. but the conversion to 289f is okay for smoking tri tip. A couple hours is a bit long if you like your steak rare-medium rare. You should cook the tri tip to an IT (internal temp) of 130f-135f pull it off the smoker. Wrap in foil and let rest a good 45mins then slice and serve.