Tri-Tip! First time at bat and a homerun!

mlindler · May 2017

After spending some time on this forum looking up Tri-Tip recipes and tips, I gave it a whirl, modifying things to my family's tastes. I cooked three yesterday for Mother's Day supper. We had 10 guests, and I had a whole cooked tri-tip left over that I froze for later.

Let me say this up front. I'm from South Carolina. I'd never heard of tri-tip until traveling to California to hunt. The outfitters there cook them regularly over a Santa Maria style grill using hardwood and charcoal. When I got back to SC, I asked my butcher if he had any tri-tip, and he'd never heard of it either. I emailed him a link to the cut diagram and now he sells them quite regularly. I know, I'm a trendsetter! LOL!

Here's my first attempt:

First, I rubbed them down with EVO, SuzieQ's Santa Maria County Seasoning (I picked it up on a trip to California a couple of years ago while turkey hunting there. It's awesome on steaks, too.), garlic powder, rosemary and a little "Slap Your Mama" Cajun Seasoning, and let them sit until they reached room temp.

I brought my BGE up to 350 and cooked them indirect with apple wood smoke for about 12 min/side, until internal temp was 115. I took them off the heat and set them aside, removed the platesetter, and brought the BGE up to 650 and seared both sides of the roasts. Then I wrapped them tightly in foil and put in the kitchen until time to eat (about 35 min).

I had to cook one well done (yeah, I know) because my mother-in-law refuses to eat anything pink. I brought its internal temp up to 115, wrapped it in several layers of foil, then put it on my Holland grill until temp reached 150. Then I unwrapped it and seared it at 650 direct heat on the BGE. I immediately wrapped it back up in the foil and let it sit until dinner was served. Even though it was well done, it was still tender and moist.

I then made a blue cheese sauce to drizzle over the sliced meat. It was simple to make and really went well with it.
I brought a cup and a half of heavy cream to a slow boil while stirring. I added a dash of garlic powder, salt, crushed rosemary and blue cheese to taste while constantly stirring. I then added shredded sharp white cheddar to thicken it and served it immediately.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the results for my first attempt.