Tri-tip Steaks

This afternoon I used the tri-tips steak recipe I found recently. The cut used was described as a “sirloin bottom.” I’m not 100% sure that’s the right cut of meat, but for $4.28 a pound the price was right. ‘Course, Zenreich paid nearly three times that for his meat, which further makes me think I didn’t get the right cut. Oh, well, the proof is in the pudding, right?

I used Zenreich’s recipe for J.J.s rub. If you don’t want to follow the directions, just throw your entire spice rack into a bowl and stir. Seriously, it’s a huge variety of spices. I had everything except coriander, but the recipe wiped out my supply of savory, thyme, paprika, and white pepper.

I got the grill hot and seared the meat for five minutes on each side on the bottom rack. Then I moved it to an aluminum foil boat on the top rack and added wood chips. They caught on fire instantly. Next time I’ll let the grill cool first. I turned the grill to low and 10 minutes later added chips again.

The picture above is a test cut/appetizer cut about 30 minutes later. After cutting both ends for appetizers and cutting the meat in half I turned one side of the grill off and left the tri-tip to slow cook for an hour on the cool side. After that it was cooked through with some pink left in the center. It was good, and tender as long as it was cut thin. I actually think I overcooked it just a bit, out of fear of not cooking it enough.

We served the thin-sliced beef on baguette rolls with mayonnaise, dijon mustard, and sliced tomatoes, with sides of potato chips and homemade carrot salad, and with apple pie for desert. Delicious.

P.S. - J.J.’s rub was fantastic. It’s very spicy, though, so you may or may not like it. Little kids might not. I liked the flavor, but I’m also still looking for other rubs. Preferably some that are a bit simpler. You could probably take J.J.’s and throw out the spices with the least volume and have 90% of the flavor. Also, if you don’t have a food processor or grinder leave off the bay leaves - eating a chunk of bay leaf would not be fun.

Tags: grilling