Feb 15 2014
Second Tri Tip Smoke
My mouth is on fire!!! And I’m happy 😉
So this time I wanted to experiment a little more. I got 4 tri tips and marinaded 2 of them in red wine, pepper, salt, garlic, ancho, and a few more spices. I’d had a few beers and wanted to get them in the fridge overnight, so I may have been a bit too generous with the spices 😉
I decided that I’d rub 2 of the tips, and leave the others plain. I mixed up some pepper, salt, sugar (just 2 teaspoons), chili flakes, ancho, garlic, and onions and rubbed that on one plain and one marinaded tip.
Then into the smoker with all 4!
On our trip to Santa Maria, I’d picked up a couple boxes of red oak sticks, so I cut those down and used 3 chunks.
I could probably have just used one! After 3 hours, while I’d had plenty of smoke, the wood looked only half burned.
I let the meat temp get over 135F this time, to firm the meat up a bit and to see what the flavor might be like if it was less rare. When I checked, some of the pieces had even gotten up to 145F.
Out they come, and into the pan for 30 mins of foil covered resting. Next came the slicing! Here’s the plain:
It was a lot firmer and easier to cut thin than the rare tips I made last time. The beef flavor really came through. Next was the rubbed, non-marinaded one:
While it tasted great, I should have skipped any spice hotter than black pepper. The heat just detracted from the beef flavor and the rub flavors were too complex for such a great piece of meat. Next was the marinaded non-rubbed:
I’m trying not to cut my glove, and fingers, open 😉 The wine smell and flavor were very strong. Quite salty too. Last was the rubbed and marinaded and, again, there was too much going on in the flavors. I’ll take it a LOT easier on the rubs next time.
Here’s the bunch all together:
I didn’t slice it all because I’m going to chill it down to see if I can slice it even thinner.
My wife mixed up a little Santa Maria salsa to add to the meat:
All in all, a pretty good Saturday! 😉
Mmmm, looks great. What’s in Santa Maria salsa?
Hiya! Canned tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, onion, salt, lime. No jalapeno.
I have an electric knife I use for stuff like this. In fact, I marinated a piece of sirloin and did it on the grill for Valentines Day. The knife can cut the neat as thin as you like and WAY faster/better than I can do by hand.