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First attempt at Tri-Tip

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blacklistedbully

Senior
Sep 8, 2008
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I was shooting for between rare & medium rare. This is what I got. Tastes great. Tender, but with chew, not melt-in-your-mouth. Extremely juicy. Even when slicing with a sharp carving knife, tons of juice flowed from the slices. In retrospect I wish I had not trimmed as much fat as I did prior to cooking. There was such a thick layer of it, it seemed too much. But once I got to trimming, I went too far and cut nearly all of it off.View attachment 14425View attachment 14426View attachment 14427View attachment 14428
 
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blacklistedbully

Senior
Sep 8, 2008
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Went with creamy horseradish instead. Not prime rib, but was surprisingly closer than I expected. Felt I needed to go with thin slices. Thick slices like with prime rib would probably be just a little too chewy.
 
Seinfeld

Seinfeld

All-American
Nov 30, 2006
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Looks fantastic. I grilled one for the first time about a month ago for fajitas, and I’ve found it to be an extremely versatile cut of meat.

Like you said, it’s got a little more chew to it than a tenderloin or strip, but for the price, it makes a dang good steak
 
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blacklistedbully

Senior
Sep 8, 2008
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HotMop said:
Looks good, what's the recipe?
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Simple. Hit it with course salt, freshly ground black pepper and minced garlic (you could instead just use garlic salt). Put it in a vacuum sealed bag along with a tablespoon extra virgin olive oil & 1 teaspoon of hickory liquid smoke. Recipe called for parsley, but I didn't have any. I used sous vide for about 4 hours at 131 degrees, then just pan-seared it for about 1 minute per side.

Done.

Next time I will leave more fat on it.
 
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Crazy Cotton

All-Conference
Aug 26, 2012
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my favorite cut of meat. Never had one till i moved to Santa Cruz in the 90s, very common in CA. Great for bbq, not to thick, stays fairly tender, as you said. I'd recommend trying one Santa Maria style, the recipes are on the google machine. I'm starting to see them turn up here in TN last several years, might have to go hunt one up tomorrow.
 
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RocketDawg

All-Conference
Oct 21, 2011
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You'd have to like it rare to eat that, for sure. There does seem to be some possibility that it'd get up and walk off your plate before you could eat it. **
 
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Fritz!

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Oct 16, 2014
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Cooper’s Country Meat Packers, next to the Catfish Dome, Florence. Just go look. They’ll specialty cut, have great sausage, good chicken deals, and gulf shrimp (frozen)
 
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blacklistedbully

Senior
Sep 8, 2008
4,180
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RocketDawg said:
You'd have to like it rare to eat that, for sure. There does seem to be some possibility that it'd get up and walk off your plate before you could eat it. **
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Purposefully rare...the way I like it, but it is perfectly healthy. Sous vide guarantees the meat is safe when cooked to the correct temperature at the correct minimum time.

This one could have come out of the sous vide bath after 2.5 hours, but I wanted to give it a chance to get a little more tender. After slicing thin, I could tear the meat apart with my fingers, yet it still had enough firmness for, "chew". If you prefer it more well done, you just need to up the temperature a few degrees.

One of the best things about sous vide is you can guarantee the exact level of "done" you want. The food reaches the temperature of the water and stays there. It's not boiled because it is in a vacuum-sealed bag + it's not at boiling temp in any case. 131 is in the, "rare" range for beef.
 
Hugh's Burner Phone

Hugh's Burner Phone

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Aug 3, 2017
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PETA would like to have a word with you. Something or other about quit making their organic tofu wafers look even more like **** than they already are.
 
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xxxWalkTheDawg

Redshirt
Oct 21, 2005
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That’s your FIRST attempt?? I thought it was state law you had to damn near burn it the first time. That was a lot better than my first attempt. No doubt. Well done.
 
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fishwater99

Freshman
Jun 4, 2007
14,073
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Fritz! said:
Cooper’s Country Meat Packers, next to the Catfish Dome, Florence. Just go look. They’ll specialty cut, have great sausage, good chicken deals, and gulf shrimp (frozen)
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The sausage there is top notch, I get my in-laws to drive me some up every year when they come to visit. Country Pleasin...
 
The Peeper

The Peeper

Heisman
Feb 26, 2008
15,584
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Tell them to bring you some of the boudin next time if you haven't tried it yet. They just started making it in the last year or two and its really good.
 
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blacklistedbully

Senior
Sep 8, 2008
4,180
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WalkTheDawg said:
That’s your FIRST attempt?? I thought it was state law you had to damn near burn it the first time. That was a lot better than my first attempt. No doubt. Well done.
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Thanks.

Yep. Wanted to try a brisket, but there's only me and my wife, and the price of a brisket is hard to justify, given the volume.

May do it when the kids come home from college.

With Sous Vide, there is zero chance of burning unless you finish by pan-searing way too long. What I was concerned with was tenderness and how well the liquid smoke would work.
 
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RocketDawg

All-Conference
Oct 21, 2011
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blacklistedbully said:
Purposefully rare...the way I like it, but it is perfectly healthy. Sous vide guarantees the meat is safe when cooked to the correct temperature at the correct minimum time.

This one could have come out of the sous vide bath after 2.5 hours, but I wanted to give it a chance to get a little more tender. After slicing thin, I could tear the meat apart with my fingers, yet it still had enough firmness for, "chew". If you prefer it more well done, you just need to up the temperature a few degrees.

One of the best things about sous vide is you can guarantee the exact level of "done" you want. The food reaches the temperature of the water and stays there. It's not boiled because it is in a vacuum-sealed bag + it's not at boiling temp in any case. 131 is in the, "rare" range for beef.
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131 is only 32.4 degrees above normal body temp. :)

Regardless, that looks like a good chunck of beef.
 
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johnson86-1

All-Conference
Aug 22, 2012
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RocketDawg said:
You'd have to like it rare to eat that, for sure. There does seem to be some possibility that it'd get up and walk off your plate before you could eat it. **
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Not sure if looks are deceiving with sous vide, but that looks medium rare to me. Would be more red and less pink if it were rare.
 
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blacklistedbully

Senior
Sep 8, 2008
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johnson86-1 said:
Not sure if looks are deceiving with sous vide, but that looks medium rare to me. Would be more red and less pink if it were rare.
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My goal was to get it between rare to medium rare. I agree that it looks closer to what I would call medium-rare. Next time I might drop the water temp a degree or two to see how it compares. But this came out tasty & plenty moist/juicy.

The top 2 pics are before I did any real slicing, with the upper right one where the meat was already barely connected, so I cut through it. The bottom two pics are after I started slicing into thin pieces for serving. Note how much juice was released from the slicing.
 
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cripstaruny

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2008
20
0
1
blacklistedbully said:
I was shooting for between rare & medium rare. This is what I got. Tastes great. Tender, but with chew, not melt-in-your-mouth. Extremely juicy. Even when slicing with a sharp carving knife, tons of juice flowed from the slices. In retrospect I wish I had not trimmed as much fat as I did prior to cooking. There was such a thick layer of it, it seemed too much. But once I got to trimming, I went too far and cut nearly all of it off.View attachment 14425View attachment 14426View attachment 14427View attachment 14428
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Looks like you didn't cut against the grain. That is the key when cooking tri tip.
 
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blacklistedbully

Senior
Sep 8, 2008
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Yeah. I thought I was, but guess I got it wrong. I understand cutting against the grain makes the bites more tender., breaking up the connective tissue.
 
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cripstaruny

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2008
20
0
1
Definitely not trying to give you a hard time, bud. The finished product looks outstanding. Just from the pics it looks like you should have cut it the other way. Makes a world of difference.
 
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Crazy Cotton

All-Conference
Aug 26, 2012
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Yep, took me about 5 of these to figure out i wasn't doing it correctly. Slice it in half, then cut what feels like longways. Much better chewing experience
 
wasabaka

wasabaka

Junior
Sep 17, 2012
385
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cripstaruny said:
Definitely not trying to give you a hard time, bud. The finished product looks outstanding. Just from the pics it looks like you should have cut it the other way. Makes a world of difference.
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Yep, this is where "chewy" comes in as an adjective. Your cook was spot on. Cut it the right way against the grain and it's a homerun. No "chewiness" and fantastic beef flavor.

There are typically three different grains in a tri tip to cut across. YouTube it.
 
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