Do you want great BBQ, but don’t want to break the bank on a huge piece of meat? Or spend all day at the cooker? Cook tri tip! Tri tip is an economical cut that is deliciously beefy. Like skirt steak, you have to make sure you cut it correctly, but it has a much steakier texture that is hard to resist. And no matter wheat season you cook it, it's a heckuva great cut to make. Tri tip has skyrocketed in popularity, so it's more available now than ever. Grab one at your local market smoke it up (to temp) and impress your neighbors. Let's look at what it is and how to cook it.
What is the Tri Tip?
Tri tip is the tensor faciae latae muscle, from the bottom end of the sirloin. It sits below and in front of the cow's hip. People call it "tri tip" in reference to its triangular shape and the fact that it comes from the tip of the sirloin primal. The sometimes-applied moniker "Santa Maria steak" actually refers to a specific preparation of this muscle, not the muscle itself.
This cut is a delight because of its lean tenderness, juiciness, flavor, and relatively low cost. Because of its low ratio of connective tissue, it is as tender as—or even more tender than—a strip steak. And juicy? We doubt there is a juicier cut. Juice positively pours out of it when sliced, yet the flesh remains moist. With a price point well below that of most steaks, it may offer the best value for steak.
How to Smoke a Tri Tip
As noted above, the tri-tip is sometimes called a Santa Maria Steak—a part of traditional central-California barbecue. In the Santa Maria preparation, people grill it or cook it on a rotisserie. And if the internet is any guide, people also cook the tri tip roast in the oven like, well, a roast. Don’t get us wrong; those are all wonderful ideas. But we think one of the best ways to cook this delicious cut of meat is to smoke it. Following the guidelines put forward by Smokingmeat.com and How to BBQ Right, we decided to cook our tri tip a bit lower and slower than you would in an oven to get a rich, smoky taste, and then reverse sear the meat on the grill to get those Maillard-browned flavors that we love so much.
Smoker Temp for Tri Tip
We set our smoker for 220°F (104°C) to cook this meat. That's too low a temp to get any browning on the meat, but is perfect for cooking the meat gently to avoid gray banding on the inside. And 220°F (104°C) is a temperature that will give us plenty of good smoke flavor. The gentle, slow heat in this case also doesn't take that long—this isn't a full-on BBQ cook. We're only taking this piece of meat up to about 110°F (52°C) for medium-rare (115°F [54°C] for medium) before we take it off the smoker, and that almost always takes less than an hour. Pulling it from the smoker at that temp gives us plenty of thermal space to sear the meat without overcooking it. Use RFX MEAT in the tri tip to monitor the rising temp from your phone. Set the high-temp alarm to the temperature corresponding to your preferred doneness and smoke it!
Searing Tri Tip
While the tri tip is smoking, you can preheat a grill to sear the meat. When the app alarm for RFX MEAT sounds, take the tri tip off the smoker and toss it on the grill, right over direct heat. Give it a minute or two per side until the color gets to where you want it to be. You can leave RFX MEAT in the tri tip during the sear—the external part of the probe can handle up to 1,000°F! You'll see the temp continue to rise on your app, but don't wait for it to get to your desired doneness temp before you take it off the grill. You're pumping a lot of heat into the meat, so it will carryover and evenly distribute that heat after you take it off the grill. If you pull it from the smoker at the recommended temps and sear just until browned, you should hit your desired doneness.
The Perfect Smoked Tri Tip Temp
This is a cut of meat that you will want to cook like a quality roast or a steak: shoot for 130°–145°F (54°–63°C), and have rosy, juicy tender meat. To make sure we hit this target, and are smoking in the appropriate temperature range, we recommend a leave-in probe thermometer like RFX MEAT and RFX GATEWAY—you can use RFX GATEWAY's air probe to monitor the smoker temp as you cook. As we said above, you'll have carryover cooking after the sear, but the final temperature we're trying to hit can be found in the temp chart below.
Chef-Recommended Beef Doneness Temps
| Rare | Medium Rare | Medium | Medium Well | Well Done | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Beef, Veal & Lamb Roasts, Steaks & Chops |
120°–130°F (49–54°C) | 130°–135°F (54–57°C) | 135°–145°F (57–63°C) | 145°–155°F (63–68°C) | 155°F (68°C) and up |
Slicing Tri Tip
Although the tri tip is a steak-like cut, it has very long muscle fibers, and long muscle fibers mean stringy, chewy steak if you don’t handle them correctly. You have to cut across the grain of the meat fibers to shorten the individual fiber pieces you’ll be eating. Look at the clip below for tips on cutting the tri tip.
As you can see, the grain of the meat runs radially from the 'outside' corner. To deal with this, we recommend cutting from said corner toward the crook of the meat, then slice each piece against its grain. You could start at the thinnest corner and cut perpendicular to the grain as you move along, adjusting your knife angle a little bit each time, but the two-chunks method really is easier to get slices that are perpendicular to the grain.
When it comes to a quality cut at a great price, you cannot beat the tri tip. This beef cut is sweeping through the BBQ and grilling world—and with good cause! Try one this weekend, and use your RFX MEAT, RFX GATEWAY and Thermapen ONE to make sure you get the very best out of this tasty, tender piece of meat!
References:
Read more about tri tip at Smoked Tri-tip Roast by SmokingMeat.com and at Smoked Tri Tip Recipe by HowToBBQRight.com
