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Can I make decent burnt ends by smoking a tri tip?

My son unexpectedly invited a few more to try my smoked brisket, but a couple asked for burnt ends. I need more meat! And, as the store only had tri tips up here in the mountains, I grabbed a couple of tri tips, hoping that I can inject & rub them, then slow-smoke and wrap them, like the brisket, until they're about 190 degrees. Then, wrap in towels, like the brisket... And rather than cube the brisket, make the burnt ends from the slow- cooked tri tips.
 I'll cube & finish the burnt ends when it's almost time to eat, curbing, saucing & grilling them in a pan, using a hot gas grill.
comments? 

Comments

  • DMW
    DMW Posts: 13,832
    edited April 2015
    Not sure that will work. Tri-tip doesn't have much intramuscular fat. You want a fatty cut like brisket point, chuckie, or short ribs.
    They/Them
    Morgantown, PA

    XL BGE - S BGE - KJ Jr - HB Legacy - BS Pizza Oven - 30" Firepit - King Kooker Fryer -  PR72T - WSJ - BS 17" Griddle - XXL BGE  - BS SS36" Griddle - 2 Burner Gasser - Pellet Smoker
  • Budgeezer
    Budgeezer Posts: 669
    Agree with @DMW Tri-tip is really on the lean side and @ 190 degrees will be tough.  I heard rumors that when Famous Dave's had burnt ends they were actually chuck roast.  Let us know how it turns out.
    Edina, MN

  • winojeff
    winojeff Posts: 67
    Thanks for the advice. I'll donate the tri tips to my son's freezer & try to find a chuck roast or another noy-too-lean hunk of beef.
  • Chowman
    Chowman Posts: 159
    If you cook the tri tip more like a large steak, it will be great! 
  • winojeff
    winojeff Posts: 67
    Thanks for the steak idea. I love rare tri tips. 
  • winojeff
    winojeff Posts: 67
    Thanks, guys! This forum is amazing, and I really appreciate your comments.
  • Skiddymarker
    Skiddymarker Posts: 8,522
    Making burnt ends out of tri-tip is like using prime rib to make beef soup, both are very good, but not the best use of the cut you have available. Hot tub the tri-tip, no more than 130ºF and then power sear it, either with cast iron or directly over lava hot coals. Using a brisket rub or something like Montreal Steak Spice and some butter, slice it thin (across the grain of the two distinct muscles) and the burnt ends may have some real competition. 
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
  • winojeff
    winojeff Posts: 67
    That sounds fabulous! Thanks!!
  • Do this with those tri-tips instead (if you have a little bit of time) - non-traditional use of the tri-tip that would blow the burnt ends away...

    The Meat: 
    3lb tri-tip salted with about 2 tbsp of salt (cover the tri-tip lightly with salt)

    The Marinade:
    2 cups of a good bordeaux
    1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I use jalapeno infused)
    3 cloves minced garlic
    2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
    1 tbsp chili powder
    1 tbsp honey

    Mix all of the marinade ingredients really well and then pour them over the tri-
    tip in a ziploc bag (or even better in a vacuum sealed bag), and force the air out. Leave it in the fridge, turning once per day for two days. 

    Do a nice reverse sear blasting it at the end to char it a bit. It sounds crazy marinating so long in wine (but it doesn't turn to mush), but it's absolutely awesome.
    Mike - (1)LBGE, HeaterMeter v4.2.4
    Little Rhody Egger - East Greenwich, RI
  • winojeff
    winojeff Posts: 67
    I'm getting hungry for that tri tip! Thanks!!
  • NCEggSmoker
    NCEggSmoker Posts: 336
    Have you considered pork burnt ends. There are several threads on here regarding burnt ends with pork butt which might be easier to find where you are.  
    Raleigh NC, Large BGE and KJ Joe Jr.
  • Durangler
    Durangler Posts: 1,122
    Have you considered pork burnt ends. There are several threads on here regarding burnt ends with pork butt which might be easier to find where you are.  
    Check.... 
    I agree. :hang_loose: 

    XL BGE, 22" Weber Red Head, Fiesta Gasser .... Peoria,AZ
  • winojeff
    winojeff Posts: 67
    Pork's amazing, but this is supposed to be a beef feast. Thanks for the recommendation, though. We've decided to marinate the tri tips in red wine, garlic & herbs, then 'Egg' them as recommended, to rare-ish, and give our guests a difficult choice -- brisket or tri tip. I'm betting on brisket, but leftover tri ain't a bad thing!
  • Most butchers will sell you a brisket point if you ask. That is perfect for burnt ends. 
  • Ladeback69
    Ladeback69 Posts: 4,482
    Is the brisket you are cooking not have a point?  If it does, separate it when the flat get to 195 and probes like butter and make the burnt ends out of them.  Go ahead and do the tri-tip and slice it up with the flat.  The chuck roast sounds like an option too, that I may have to try.  Now I am getting hungry for burnt ends.  @winojeff, have you made burnt ends before?
    XL, WSM, Coleman Road Trip Gas Grill

    Kansas City, Mo.
  • winojeff
    winojeff Posts: 67
    Thanks for the suggestion. Somehow, my wife thinks I'm too fat! Hard to imagine why, but I don't cook the point, and I try to stay married. So I don't cook fatty cuts.

    My burnt ends made from the brisket flat were pretty good. I am aware that the fattier point would have made juicier ends, but I'm still alive and relatively happily married!
    that said, you terrific Egg guys have talked me out of trying to burnt-end a tri tip, even if my wife would get off on such lean beef!

    Next time she takes a short trip without me, I'll be sure to smoke a point end.
  • Love Tri Tip, really nice beefy taste but I think you will end up with a tough chewy piece of meat if you take it to 190. I pull mine at about 120 and do a quick reverse sear. If you want chunks of meat with a crust, I have cut a Tri Tip into 1 or 2 " chunks and put it on a skewer. It cooks pretty quickly, to medium rare. If you want to mimic burnt ends you could drizzle it with sauce. Best of luck feeding your crowd. 
  • Ladeback69
    Ladeback69 Posts: 4,482
    winojeff said:
    Thanks for the suggestion. Somehow, my wife thinks I'm too fat! Hard to imagine why, but I don't cook the point, and I try to stay married. So I don't cook fatty cuts.

    My burnt ends made from the brisket flat were pretty good. I am aware that the fattier point would have made juicier ends, but I'm still alive and relatively happily married!
    that said, you terrific Egg guys have talked me out of trying to burnt-end a tri tip, even if my wife would get off on such lean beef!

    Next time she takes a short trip without me, I'll be sure to smoke a point end.
    Hay I am 6', 315 and my wife is not a small women so I don't get any grief from her about my weight, sorry you do.  I am working on getting back under 300.  I was at 270 in October, but 2 hip replacements a setting around I put weight back on.  Carbs are my problem not fatty meats.  When I didn't eat many carbs I lost weight and kept it off.  I need to do that again and stay on it.  Remember you are making it for friends too so she may let you do the point then.  Here are the ones I did over a week ago.


    XL, WSM, Coleman Road Trip Gas Grill

    Kansas City, Mo.
  • winojeff
    winojeff Posts: 67
    hey, I've found an easy way to take weight off and keep it mostly off, pretty easily. Just find some raw vegetables you don't mind eating, and vegetable salads with home-made olive oil and red wine vinegar (light on the oil), seasoned with pepper, not too much salt, garlic powder & onion powder, and eat a bunch of that before stuffing in the fatty meat, potatoes ( but use only half as much butter, etc), and a few fewer bottles of beer, and you'll watch yhe pounds melt off. And, share the desserts with your wife. You won't even miss 'her' half!