Tri Tip Traeger Style

  Tri-Tip, Mac & Cheese, wine roasted garlic with a Drunken Onion

When the taste of beef is what you want there is nothing like a good Tri-Tip Roast. I did not know until recently that Tri-Tip was a big California thing. I have heard that back East they don’t even know what it is. With Patti being from Philly, we discovered how good it is, together. It is a big tender piece of meat that is packed with flavor and you can do almost anything with it.

Tonight, we cold smoked for about 45 minutes then grilled it at 350 for about 15 minutes until the thermometer read 130 degrees. Keep in mind that your meat will continue cooking for another 10 degrees after you pull it off the grill. USDA says 140 degrees for rare.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The tri-tip is a cut of beef from the bottom sirloin primal cut.[1] It is a small triangular muscle, usually 1.5 to 2.5 lbs. (675 to 1,150g) per side of beef.

In the US

In the United States, this cut was typically used for ground beef or sliced into steaks until the late 1950s, when it became a local specialty in Santa Maria, California, rubbed with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and other seasonings, cooked over red oak wood and roasted whole on a rotisserie, smoked in a pit, baked in an oven, grilled, or braised by putting a pot on top of a grill, browning the meat directly on the grill surface before and after the braising. (The tri-tip is still often labeled the "Santa Maria steak".) Most popular in the Central Coast of California and Central Valley regions of California,[1] it has begun to enjoy increasing popularity elsewhere for its full flavor, lower fat content, and comparatively lower cost.

                                                 Tri-Tip Roast

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 60 minutes

Grill: Traeger
Pellets: Oak

Ingredients: Tri-Tip

1 4 Lb. Tri-Tip Roast

Spice rubs of choice (we like coarse black pepper and garlic)

Directions: Tri-Tip

Rub your spice mix into the meat and let it set awhile.  Overnight is best, but not necessary.

Cooking Directions: Traeger

Open the lid and set the dial to “Smoke”, after about five minutes shut the lid. Give it about 10 minutes to heat up. Patti has lined the drip pan with foil for me, it makes for easier clean up. Place everything directly onto the grill and just let it hang out in the smoke and get happy for 30 minutes or so.

This is referred to as “cold smoking”; the temperature is around 150 - 180 degrees. 30 minutes of cold smoking is not enough to have any cooking effect on your meat but it is enough to open the pores up so that the meat can pick up all the flavor of the smoke.

After 45 minutes, turn the digital control up to 300 degrees and pull the meat off the grill. You should have a temperature around 310 at the stack or dome thermometer. Just let the garlic and onions go for ½ hour.

After a ½ hour turn the digital control to the 350 setting, add the meat for 15 minutes, or until the meat reaches an internal temp around 130 pull it off, cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving. This will be rare to medium rare. Keep in mind that the meat will continue cooking for another 10 degrees after you pull it off the grill. So for medium pull it at 140 and overdone 160.

Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like.

Directions: Gas Grill
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes
Grill: Gas

Preparing Grill: Medium Indirect Heat

Preheat your grill to medium heat (300 - 350) and turn off one side so you will be cooking with indirect heat. Add your wet hickory chips over the fire and oil the grill. A cooking spray is easiest for this. (Note: you can add your hickory directly to the grill or you can use foil smoke packets.(Two handfuls wet chips and one dry, fold foil into a packet, poke holes in it with a fork and you’re good to go.)

Preparing Charcoal Grill

Get the Grill ready, you will want your temperature of around 300-350 degrees. Remember, you are going medium heat here for about 15 minutes. Bank your coals over to one side of your grill. Add your “drained wood chips” and you are good to go… Your cooking/smoking times and temps will be the same as above.

Cooking In the Oven:

We have been getting requests for recipe conversions for the oven. I tell folks all the time that cooking on a Traeger is just as easy as cooking in your oven. Just about anyone can do it and do it well. Think about it. You set your control knob to the temp you want, put your meat in and leave it for a set time.

It is the same thing, time and temp. Is what it is all about? The Traeger is just like your oven except it uses wood pellets and has wheels.

If you want to smoke in your oven they sell oven smokers for that. I, myself, would not spend the money on one of those when you can make your own out of foil.

Foil smoke packets. (Two handfuls wet chips and one dry, fold foil into a packet, poke holes in it with a fork and you’re good to go.) Just set it in the oven. You might want to make sure you turn on your vent fan or your house will fill up with smoke. You will give your alarms a good work out.

                                               Drunken Onion

Ingredients: Drunken Onion

Large sweet onion

A cup or so of fresh peeled garlic

1 cup dry red wine (Patti always says “if it’s good enough to drink, it’s just right to cook with”)

Directions: Drunken Onion

You need a small oven safe bowl that will hold the garlic and wine with the onion perched on top.

Cut the top of the onion off and peel it, leaving the root intact to keep it together. Using a large chef’s knife cut the onion down almost to the root. Making 5 or 6 cuts, then fan it out like a flower. Add seasoning of choice. Put the garlic and your favorite red wine in the bowl and fit the onion down into the wine. As the wine steams the onion will soak it up and you will see the color in the onion. The garlic will take the longest to cook so you leave this on the grill the whole time, maybe check it before you put the meat on in case it needs a little more time.

When you put the meat on turn the onion so the root end is in the wine and let the onion peddles flower out. It’s beautiful with the rose colored line running up the “onion flower”. It made our date night a little extra special. And it tastes as good as it looks.

                              Drunken Onion ready for the grill

About our Recipes

We do our recipes on our patio where we have a lineup of grills, including Traeger, Charmglow, Char-Broil, Brinkman and Weber. I call it our “Wall of Grill”. Our grilling styles will fit pellet heads, gas, natural wood and even charcoal purists. Almost any of our recipes can be done on any kind of good BBQ.

The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot, but, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. But sometimes it does rain.

Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste.

Take it and run with it….

Live Your Passion,

Ken & Patti

Hey, if you are interested in learning more about Traeger Grills or for fine meats and sausages for your grill, go see Jacob. He is a Sausage Meister and we are not kidding. If you get a chance, go and see him. It will be a fun day trip. (Take an ice chest; we always fill up a big one.) Or check him out @ www.tandhsausage.com or call him 760 471- 9192.

Al Malekovic makes a fine all purpose sauce. Patti uses it for seasoning all kinds of things, but I like it on burgers and steaks. “Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce”

Check it out, for a free bottle go to his web site or email him. If you email him, tell him that you saw it here and we used it all up and to send us more...

 www.countrybobs.com      or    Al@countrybobs.com