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Tri Tip Steak- Yum

17 years ago

I cooked and tasted my first tri tip Steak a few weeks ago. Delicious!

A local church asked if I would BBQ for their group every Wednesday evening of July in a park. I said yes and just finished my last wednesday tonight. I had lots of practice to perfect it- I learned tonight that i cooked 600 Tri Tip Steaks and maybe 500 chicken breasts and thighs this month-all on an average size propane BarBy.

Wow, I impressed myself on this project. The trick, if you are unfamiliar with this steak, is trimming it well- remove the fat and all the silver skin. It took about 1 1/2 hours of trimming per evening so it's a real commitment, but completely worth it. Once trimmed carefully, I rubbed a very light film of oil and a generous homemade rub on each side. This is a fantastic steak with tons of flavor and the perfect bite.

Costco- 4.99 a pound

I've never heard so many compliments- a great testament to a fine cut of beef.

michaelp

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Comments (6)

shellm
17 years ago
I love tri tip,cant get them here.They are very popular in calif.Sounds like you did a great job.That was a lot of work.CONGRATS to you,Michael.

Shelley
sushipup1
17 years ago
Time to trot out our 60+ year old family recipe for tri-tip marinade. This dates to a 1945 Salinas cookbook, and my folks used it for many years, and we carry on the tradition. Perfect for tri-tip. I recommend marinating about 24 hours.

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 Jack Daniels whisky
1 T ginger
3/4 cup soy sauce
3 to 4 T crushed garlic

And I think we must get our tri-tip better trimmed from the local grocery here, even from Costco. No where near that much trimming required!
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You can't get it everywhere around here for that price either. There is a market in town that sells it in big bags, 4 to 5 pieces per bag, untrimmed. Of course, that means you have to have the freezer space for them, and you do lose a bit when you trim. But, I like a nice layer of fat on a tri tip anyway, and the other stores trim it completely off for some reason. I have bought a bag, trimmed it to my liking and weighed the trimmings before working out the end-price and it was around $2.80 per pound. I've been buying them that way ever since. In the other stores around here, the price swings wildly, from $2.99 to $5.99.
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Time's a wastin'. Let's get crackin' with some brilliant ideas! How about another salad? This time let's have a huge pile of greens (baby spinach to be specific) with tomatoes, onion, HB eggs, olives, pickled peppers, mushroom slices, etc. Top this with a generous amount of sliced tri-tip. It's an antipasto with tri-tip as the solo meat. Steak and eggs for a hearty breakfast (or other meal) would be elegant made with smoked tri-tip. Home fries too, of course. There are several sandwich possibilites. Be sure to make them worthy of the wonderful smoked tri-tip you have. I'm thinking sub sandwich made with a good crusty roll, tri-tip, onions, lettuce, tomato and mayo. Or a roll-up with similar ingredients. Or a French dip. Or Philly cheese steak. OK, I'm starting to salivate. Jim
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0314, I don't think that's what I was talking about. On a charcoal (or wood) broiler, it's so hot that with several minutes on each side, lid off, a steak is cooked with the flavor from the smoke and a Maillard reaction sear on each flat side that was face down to the fire. On a gas device, doing the same thing with the lid up warms the meat with a Maillard reaction sear only where the meat touches the grill grid. Spaces in-between the grill grid marks are pale beige as is shown in the photo above. They don't get hot enough to cook the steak properly with the lid up. Lid down is baking. Commercial kitchens where steak is featured often have appliances called salamander broilers. Over 1500 degrees F for a quick broil. High heat is needed for steaks. Other things, not so much. Even hamburgers benefit from a high heat exposure to develop a Maillard reaction crust on the outside. A wood/charcoal fire or a hot cast iron pan will do the crust, only the fire will do the smoky flavor. Gas will do neither unless some of you have a much higher BTU unit than my $500+ Weber produces. Admitedly, what I have is a midrange consumer product, not one of the up-market ones. Maybe built in gas grills (which I don't plan to get) with natural gas connections are available that produce higher temperatures with higher BTU burners.
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lindac
17 years ago
It's all in the meat!....and of course in not overcooking!
Congratulations on a job well done!
Linda C
Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
17 years ago
I wish we had them here but I've never seen one.
What kind of rub did you use?
michaelmaxp
Original Author
17 years ago
Sushipup, for a marinated roast (or even long marinated steaks)the trimming is not as crucial. Steaks that are to receive only a 12 minute grilling require a bit more tedious cleaning of silver skin and strong veins of fat to render it tender. Plus, remember my hour and a half of prep time was preparing for steaks for hundred. A handful of steaks would be no big deal timewise.

Bumblebeez, the rub was modified to my taste buds but the basic recipe is:

2 parts paprika
2 parts black pepper
2 parts kosher salt
1 part garlic powder (I used 1/2 granulated, half powder)
1 part onion powder (I used 1/2 granulated, half powder)
The rest is up to you. I used a little:
Dill
Thyme
and some other things I've forgotten.

michaelp
sushipup1
17 years ago
Ah, that makes more sense, Michael!

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