042/18 – WSM Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip:
When I bought my Kamado Joe the plan was to use that for low and slow cooking rather than my Weber Smokey Mountain but I was wondering what to use the WSM for. Keeping it just for cold smoking seemed a bit of a waste. Then one day on Twitter I saw @onlyslaggin retweet a post by @babybackmaniac for WSM Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip – cooking over logs in the WSM? Yes please!
The Fire:
Oak logs from a local supplier over lit kindling.
The flames were pretty fierce and close to the wall of my BBQ Hut so I put the rest of the WSM frame on to protect the hut!
You can’t beat a proper wood fire, the sound of the fire burning, the smell of the wood and the heat of the fire especially as it was snowing when I did this!
The Meat:
400g of Tri-Tip from Turner & George – £9.60
Tri-Tip is a rare cut to see in the UK and is more popular in the US. It’s a cut from the bottom sirloin and ideal for the BBQ! The UK Tri-Tips I have had to date have all been this size and shape, the US ones you see on YouTube are massive in comparison, I will speak to a butcher and find out why there is such a size difference. Guessing it’s been cut shorter rather than a major difference in the size of the animals!
The Prep:
Liberal amounts of Maldon Sea Salt and Kadode Kampot Black Pepper all over!
The Cook:
Once the fire had settled down a bit I placed the Tri-Tip fat side down on the lower grate. You can see the Meater probe in the centre, App set to Medium Rare.
After around 10 minutes things were progressing nicely.
After 15 minutes it was time to flip the meat over.
The fat had rendered quite nicely and the meat was starting to take on a great colour.
After another 15 minutes I moved it up to the top grate, the colour was awesome now!
Time to Rest:
Once the meat hit 57c internal temperature the Meater App alerted me and told me to rest the meat.
Time to Slice:
The moment of truth, was it pink in there? Oh yes!
Summary:
This was a fantastic cook, awesome cooking directly over logs with the smell of oak burning and great to breathe some new life into my WSM as well. It was absolutely freezing when I cooked this so it was nice to be stood next to a roaring wood fire drinking a whisky to keep warm!
The colour and taste of the meat surpassed anything I have cooked so far, I have been thinking about it ever since I ate the first slice. I will be doing this again for sure!
| Cook Difficulty: | 3/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Medium: 3/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Smokey Mountain |
| Cook Method: | Santa Maria Style |
| Charcoal: | Oak Logs |
| Smoking Wood: | N/A |
| Cook temperature: | Unknown |
| Cook time: | 45 minutes |
| Internal temperature: | 57c |
| Notes: | No major changes. |