First Meat on the Drum - Tri Tip

[richsilv]

For our first meat on the Drum we picked Tri-Tip... OK, it was on sale...

I did lots of looking around for various recipes, techniques, ending Temps and the like...
And my conclusion was "Wow, there is a lot of conflicting information out there... I wonder what will work for us?"

But anyway, enough comments on the Internet...

We had two tri-tips... (Because it was on Sale that way) We purchased Un-Trimmed... And, except for some cosmetic trimming I left them that way (My thought was to let the fat render and preserve the juices...)

We stayed with a very simple rub, equal amounts of Kosher Salt, Coarse Black Pepper, Granulated Garlic and Granulated Onion... I let that sit on the meat for roughly 24 hours...

Fired up the Drum using Royal Oak Chunks (because I could not find Briquettes in my area), a few pieces of Mesquite (the bag was already open) and Apple Wood...

I set my iQue Temp Control at 225 and waited for Drum to come up to Temp...

After a bit, I put the meat on... Expecthing this to be at least a couple of hours of smoke time, I didn't insert a probe yet, just started a timer and went about my business... Apparently that was a bad idea... When I went back out to insert the Probe (first time I used the ChefAlarm from Thermoworks) I was very confused... I set the "Temp Alarm" of 125 degrees... And it starts going off immediately... What the heck I say... Broken first time I used it? Nah, every Probe I have, both battery operated, quick read, mechanical are all showing the meat "north" of 135 degrees after somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes...

Am I going nuts? I had watched the Drum Temp pretty carefully and both the iQue and the Drum Thermometer agreed that the temp at the rack was 225-ish...

Once we cut into the meat later on I'll report on that, but what the heck... I got the Low part right, but so far "Slow" is managing to avoid me?

 

[Big Poppa]

ok first off you arent getting conflicting advice if you are following my posts hahahahaah Tri tip is not a low and slow meat like brisket. YOu are not trying to break down tough connective tissue You cook it about 5-10 degrees internal higher than you would your rib eye I cook my tri tip at the very most 15 minutes a side covered then If I feel like it I pull the meat and let the coals get really hot and then sear it.

The next issue you did was potentially over smoke. It takes VERY LITTLE wood to give you a deep smoke flavor. Also I would start wtih one flavor of wood and see how you like it...then progress to combos

When in doubt keep it simple

 

[jimsbarbecue]

I will just agree to be real careful with the smoke on anything you cook. Start with one small piece of wood a little bigger then a ping pong ball and then work your way up. Or none at all then the small one and work your way up. You do not want the family not wanting to eat because it is to smokey and have them think it is always that way. The best advice BP gave you is "Keep it Simple"