Stopped by Wild Fork this morning. Picked up a 2.3 lb Tri Tip labeled as “fat on”. I’ve never cooked one that had a “fat cap”.
planning to try open fire grilling it to med-rare/ med.
Thoughts on removing some of the fat cap first?
I've not seen a fat cap on a tri tip either... no reason you couldn't prepare it the same way you would a picanha (which, as it happens, is what I'm making for our dinner tonight).
The one thing about tri tip that tripped me up is the tips - not easy to keep them from overcooking while the thick parts reach target temp. Once I started cooking them via sous vide que that problem disappeared, since every bit of the meat is the same temp. The sear step after the SV can be pulled off without overdoing the tippity tips. Something to consider if you've got an SV rig. Good luck, looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
We bought an untrimmed Tritip like that from the Fred Meyer butcher a while ago. Didn't even realize how much fat was on it until I was getting ready to cook it. I just trimmed it kind of like I trim a brisket and removed most of the fat. Then I did our normal reverse sear. Smoke it at around 250 to about 220 - 225, let it rest 5 minutes or so, then sear over rip snortin' hot charcoal on the Weber kettle.
I’ve bought plenty with the fat cap on. I do trim it though. I really like a good fat cap, but am not fond of the one on tri tips. The fat is almost always soft and jiggly (the wrong* kind of fat). My recommendation is to trim it.
* when it comes to fat caps, there are two types:
- fat that is hard and dense -> turns out soft and tasty after the cook.
- fat that is soft and jiggly -> stays soft and jiggly after the cook. This is what most people remove when it’s on the plate.
PGH_RAM Forsooth! Back in the mid-90s, pre-Google when the search engine of choice was Alta Vista, I had a position where I had to take care of an analytical device called an electron microprobe. EMPs have a vacuum chamber that is evacuated by something called a turbomolecular pump. One day the probe's turbo pump failed and I had to start researching a replacement. Even back then, the search results were pretty wild!!
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I always trim off some of the extra fat on the untrimmed tri-tips. Depending on how it was butchered there can often be a lot of fat with the fat cap. I don't find any advantage to cooking a tri-tip with a thick fat cap, but if you like a little bit of cooked fat then trimming it to 1/4" or so would work.
This confuses me. I’ve cooked three tri tips. The first I brought to 135 F IT then seared to a beautiful steak color. It was as tough as a pigs nose. We ended up throwing it away and ordering burgers. I thought I was at fault some how so in a couple of weeks I did another one. This one I cooked much like I would a brisket, hot and fast up to about 203 F IT. It was ok but nothing to get excited about. I guess I’m saying it was edible but still left a lot to be desired. Finally a neighbor told me he had ruined several tri tips until he started using SV to tender them up a bit. I just don’t do them now but the last one I did SV at 135 F for 4 hours before going on the grill for a sear. It was better but I still haven’t cracked the tri tip code. Are some of them just naturally tough?
Tri tip is all about how you slice it. If you're not slicing it perpendicular to the grain direction, its going to be tough regardless.
The grain runs in two directions on a tri tip, hence two different direction to slice it in.
I always cut it in half at the "elbow" along the grain, then pay attention to the grain direction of the two chunks, and slice against it.
McFlyfi is right that they must be sliced against the grain, and the grain runs in two different directions. However, your question about some of them being naturally tough is correct. When I choose tri-tip I go for at least a USDA Choice grade, but also with outrageously generous marbling. I've bought Choice grade that looked, felt, and ended up tasting like a high USDA Prime cut. Those are wonderful when I can find one.
It's a myth that the grain runs two directions in a tri-tip. Yes it looks like it if you pull the muscle to an unnatural position. The grain runs in a line from the short tip. If you just start slicing from that short tip you'll get a perfectly sliced tri-tip Can't post a picture in a comment so see below:
Last edited by mgaretz; October 12, 2024, 08:27 PM.
Tri-tip grain doesn't run in two directions. That's a myth. Muscles just don't do that. Here's a picture of a tri-tip (partially seared) - the white lines are the grain direction and the blue lines are how you cut it (the direction, not the width!). You start at the point (in the picture it's at the right) and work inwards. Now if you look at the "tail" at the top it looks like that grain is running a different direction. That's because I bent the meat to show how most folks look at it. In it's natural position (with the tail pulled downwards) it would run the same direction as the others.
Now cutting it like the blue lines show can get a little unwieldy when the cut gets really long and there nothing in the middle. At that point you can stop, cut the meat into two pieces (basically along that center white line) and cut each half, but the cut direction doesn't change.
One of these days I am going to make a video! Tri-tip Blasphemy!
Last edited by mgaretz; October 13, 2024, 11:05 AM.
RlsRls I don't know about a Picanha. I have never grilled one. But done 100's of TT's and I agree with Santamarina. My reasons: 1) the fat cap does not add anything to flavor of the meat. 2) Does not protect the meat, like a brisket from getting dried out since a TT is grilled and not smoked (hours like a brisket). 3) Salt rub does not penetrate the cap and neither a marinade. There is so much internal marbling that you don't need the cap. You get rub all around the TT. I always remove cap.
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