Grilling a Tri-Tip is Continuous Flipping a Proper Way
 

My quest to cook a perfect Tri-Tip has me wondering. I see Tri-Tips cooked at Fairs and events over Santa Maria type grills and the cooks are always flipping the meat. I assume these can be cooked different than a normal steak like a Rib Eye or T-Bone.

If so, I can finally use my meat flipper. :thumb:

Your thoughts?

Personally, I cook them indirect on a kettle, sometimes with Pecan..... Flip once... Pull about 135* tent and rest....... Or smoke to same temp, etc..... That said, that is the way I was shown ...... I'm know there are a lot of different methods..... Lets here them.

I'm a flipper.. They say that's the best way to do it, and I wouldn't disagree

When I was in College at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in about 1988, we had a fundraiser every year and that year we cooked around 1000 lbs on a big Santa Maria type trailer grilll. we would flip it from one end to the other and in a couple minutes start over. We used one of those pigtail type meat hooks. It was and still is the best Tri Tip I have ever had. As far as I know that was passed down from one class to another. We marinated it in beer and pepper.

Personally, I think flipping is for the show... you know, make it LOOK like your doing a lot.. :wink: I just smoke hot indirect (300) then do a reverse sear when I'm about 10 degrees from destined temp... Again, that's just how I do them.

Cheers

2 Cali folks with similar methods..... Another one i heard is hanging the roast from a meat hook in a smoker.....

Excess flipping-moving may release more of the good fat & moisture I have heard..... Who knows... Great cut of beef though.

My drum is set up to do that, I've just decided that I like my tri-tip cooked over direct heat.. I do get some smoke on them though with soaked chips, or when I feel ambitious I'll start a fire with nothing but red oak and cook over that.


http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/1300/bbqsmoker096.jpg

It also rubs off all the seasoning... :wink::wink:
I'm just messing around. :heh: To each his own really... Dont think there's all that much that can go wrong... :thumb:

Cheers

I prefer mine cooked on a rotisserie.

I think I have had TT every way, except the rotissserie...... That may be the best of all methods really :thumb: On my to do list.....

I'm agreeing with Phrasty here. I'm not posting a lot of my Tri-tip because I got freezer full of it. My Destined temp is about 10F below most people's though.... so I can drain off the blood and add it to the gravy. Man, that's heaven.

Flipping though? No. Could be just for the show...

Cheers!

Bill

If it's being cooked over a hot fire on a Santa Maria style grill, then flipping frequently probably makes sense, esp when there are a lot of tri-tips and several heat zones going on. Since I don't have a Santa Maria grill, I just cook mine on the kettle indirect via reverse sear using some red oak.

For various reasons, I also try to avoid handling/moving my meat as much as possible during the cook process, so I'm usually looking at 4 or so total turns for the entire cook, and that includes two for the searing part at the end.

For me, getting the best possible tri-tip boils down to these factors:

1. The actual quality of the tri-tip. I look for USDA choice or higher, with lots of marbling and about 1/4 inch fat cap on the underside. This for me has been the greatest variable, and on occasion even pieces of meat I THOUGHT looked great didn't turn out as well as expected. But going with higher quality cuts helps a lot.

2. The seasoning - I've had great results with simple Santa Maria style rubs to more complex rubs, but don't feel the need to marinate the meat.

3. How the meat is cooked - again, I've had better results with reverse searing than the usual method, in addition to using some oak for flavor. Oak just seems to be the perfect compliment to Tri-Tip, but I've also had good results with Pecan as well.

4 - The obvious: letting the meat sit for at least 10 mins before slicing, and then slicing against the grain.

Honestly, compared to these 4 factors, flipping frequently isn't going to make a noticeable difference.

Just my $.01...

As mentioned above, I've done tri tip on the rotiss as well and I like the way they turn out.

Flipping is a Neccesity on a large Santa Maria grill with multiple Tri-Tips, I handle the grill occasionally at Football games and the flipping is to evenly cook multiple pieces.

The reverse sear with minimal turning is a great home method.