Beef Tri-Tip Brisket 1st Impressions and Do It Differentlies

[Jerod Broussard]

Similar to Troutman I did a deep dive on Tri-Tip.....into my pockets and purchased a Wild Fork Prime.

I've done the Pit Barrel cook, the slow and reverse sear, and the slow and reverse sear after a 4hr sous vide and subsequent chill (favorite, kinda). All done to medium-rare to medium.

I can eat rare to well-done steaks with medium-rare my preferred doneness. Ribeye please. I've always wanted to try a Tri-Tip Brisket and originally intended to go the sous vide route for Memorial Day. Thankfully the Meat Church dude came up on my YouTube feed Saturday with a version of this recipe.

Using my brisket rub after a 36 hour dry brine, I planned on not wrapping until the hold and stuck to that. The cook was 5.25 hours in the pellet, running 255-260 the first hour and 265-270 the rest of the way. I wanted to collect drippings so I lined a small round pan with foil and added water. I kept the drip pan far enough below so it wouldn't moist up the bottom and prevent bark formation, but far enough from the pellet drip pan as to not get too much heat. Temperature of the pellet was even all around the Tri-Tip.



When "Te" hit 200, "Tu" was in the lower 190's except for the very end. The very end of "Tu" hit 200 and was eaten some time before removal. It was pulled when "Te" hit 200.

After 1 hour in a 170 oven and 45 minutes in towels, it was time to "manger." I chose to eat "Tu" since it wasn't as probe tender as "Te." Flavor was awesome with a little help from what little drippings I had (more on that later). Still a little tough but overall pretty darn good. "Te" will be eaten Wednesday or Thursday.

Differentlies on next cook.

1. Run 290-300. Bark was fine but could be a little better.

2. Cut that dude in half on the purple line in the pic.

3. Nothing comes off until 200 internal.

4. Forget the foil on the pan. Keep the pan bare and keep it moist by adding water as necessary. I neglected that towards the end. Thought I had enough water to last and was initially worried I put too much. What I had to work with for gravy was in the foil and not very manageable.

5. Slice and let them swim a little before plating. Definitely more gravy available next time.

While the sous vide method works, I prefer this.

[Waster]

Thanks for the write up Jerod.

So what's Te and Tu stand for?

[Jerod Broussard]

Tender and Tuff

[Waster]

Gotcha :-) cheers!

[DaveD]

I'm not getting something... tri tip brisket? Do you mean simply cooking a tri tip the way one would cook a brisket, or is this some different cut? Looks like a regular tri tip... sorry if I missed this detail.

[Jerod Broussard]

Yep, cook it like brief brikett.

[fzxdoc]

Nice writeup, Jerod Broussard . I've got a tri-tip in the freezer and have been tempted to cook it like I cook briskets too, after reading some other topics here about it and seeing the incomparable Malcolm Reed's video about it. Watching Malcolm eat that tri-tip done brisket-style will sell you on giving it a try, if nothing else will. It looks so delicious.

Thanks, Jerod, for giving us some good tips (pun intended).

Kathryn

[DaveD]

Is that the one where he slaps his carving knife down on the cutting board?? Pretty sure I've seen that one, but don't recall if that's where he does that...

[Skip]

I also have cooked Tri Tip like a Brisket a few times... and was satisfied with the results. Go for it.

[JLR]

Run 290-300. Bark was fine but could be a little better.

This is interesting. Could you explain your reasoning on this? I would go the exact opposite direction with the temps if I wanted to increase bark. Lower temps for a longer cook to build up more bark.

[Jerod Broussard]

Thinner piece of meat hotter cook, similar to a thin steak. Plus, a lower temp likely extends the cook time much longer than what is necessary for a stinkin' piece of meat that starts out like an awkward "T."

[CaptainMike]

I too have done this method a few times with great results.

[SierraBBQGuy]

Living in Northern Calif. TriTip is a weekly dish for us. Been thinking about this brisket method for sometime now, but just couldn’t bring myself to do it, seemed like sacrilege. Having just taken delivery of a new smoker, I decided to make this my first cook just last week. It turned out pretty much as expected, great flavor, good smoke, tender, but much drier than good brisket and I have to say, cooking Tri Tip reverse sear method to med rare is my preferred. I followed Meat Church method.

But check out the smoke ring 👍

[Attjack]

I'll never do that to a tri tip.

[ecowper]

Sacrilege ;-)

[Huskee]

Cool writeup. I still cannot bring myself to do this. Sumthin else I can't bring myself to do is grind up a brisket for burger.

[Jerod Broussard]

Leroy and Lewis in Austin made/makes more money with the burgers from the brisket trim than the brisket itself. Upcharging for bread, lettuce, tomato, etc pays off.

[Huskee]

I bet. Good to know if I ever start a restaurant. Jerod Broussard

[JoeSousa]

I have a couple big ziplocs in the freezer with brisket trimmings just waiting to be ground up into burgers. Since I have started saving the trimmings I found I am a bit more aggressive with my brisket trimming and not trying to keep every bit I can on the brisket. I usually grind up the trim with a chuck roast.

But with brisket at $4 a pound and decent ground beef at $5 a pound it might make sense to just grind up the whole thing sometime.

[grantgallagher]

Ive done this twice now in my grilla pellet. 2 things, I stick water pan in there, and i foil boat. I think im basically gonna treat it like a chuckie and do everything i can to maintain/promote moisture. Delicious flavor but its easy to get a tad dry

[Jerod Broussard]

Ahh T cells, I work in chicken, I'm guessing you are aware why "B White Blood Cells" use a B in the name.

[grantgallagher]

Jerod Broussard if you mean bursa of fabricious then yes. If there is a deeper joke behind it than that then maybe not?

[Jerod Broussard]

No joke, I find it hilarious the initial discovery included the south end of a north bound chicken.

[SierraBBQGuy]

Well, I had to try it, won’t be doing again.

[TripleB]

Cooking a TT like a brisket. Crazy. There's no connective tissue to break down. Might as well cook a Prime Rib Roast like a brisket. But, whatever floats your boat.

[Jerod Broussard]

If there is no connective tissue I should be able to eat it rare, without needing dental work afterwards.

[TripleB]

Jerod Broussard - Cut it against the grain and you can eat it rare.

[Jerod Broussard]

You can, if you enjoy a rather unpleasant eating experience.

[au4stree]

I cooked one this weekend on my SilverBac, placed it on the upper shelf with a drip pan (with water) on the main grate. After my bark was set, I wrapped in foil. I didn't bother slicing, we did chopped beef sandwiches with pepperjack cheese and pickled jalapenos. This was a hit, everyone raved about it. I cooked a BAC brisket, a prime would probably do better sliced.

My brother turned me onto this style of TT, which my wife much prefers compared to brisket. I still love her.

[Jerod Broussard]

I grew up on general Pot Roasted meats whereby the meat was browned so a mostly clear gravy could be made to pour on your medium grain rice that was served at EVERY meal unless spaghetti or meatloaf was being served. It was done with sausage, pork chops, round steak, whole hams, etc.... Not because we were/are clueless to slicing across the grain.

[TxF]

After a few hit or miss Tri Tips smoked like briskets I switched to Chuck Roasts. There about the same size

[Troutman]

I like the idea of cooking tri-tip to probe tender like brisket, similar to cooking pork belly in the same manner. That said, on a premium cut of meat like a Wild Fork tri-tip I'm still a medium rare guy. SV at 131*F then sear the snot out of it. But that's me. Nice to explore other ways regardless.

[Jerod Broussard]

While I like the medium-rare sous vide, on subsequent reheats that gradually gets lost. So eating alone this best for me, for a group the sous would be fine.