BBQ05/17: Whisky Boys Tri Tip

BBQ05/17 – Whisky Boys Tri Tip with Taters, BBQ Mushrooms and Grilled Fennel with goats curd, honey and hazelnut picada:

Whisky Boys Tri Tip: I have wanted to cook Tri Tip for a long time after seeing it mentioned a lot on twitter and in some of my bbq books but it’s been hard to source the cut until recently. I got mine from Farmison and it was about a kilo in weight, Make sure to buy the Tri Tip joint not the Tri Tip steaks. The joint arrives rolled and tied, I just cut the strings and unrolled it. There is a thin fat cap on one side of the joint and I didn’t trim this at all.

The recipe I used was from the Hangfire BBQ book and is by the Whisky Boys. You make a marinade for the meat which you leave for at least 4 hours (I only managed 4 hours as the meat arrived at lunch and I was cooking that night!) and a mop sauce for during the cook. The marinade has 3 shots of your favourite whisky or bourbon, because it was going on the BBQ and I like smoky whiskies I used some Laphroig!

This is what the meat looked like after 4 hours in the marinade, would love to see it after 24 hours! 

 

I was a bit nervous cooking this as it was only a small joint and the book showed a joint much larger but also the recipe calls for you to cook it direct from start to finish so I was worried it would flare up and burn the meat. To try and counter this I put my grill grates over the direct zone to try and stop any flare ups. The recipe calls for you to start fat side down so I was happy there would be a bit of protection initially at least!

This cook keeps you busy as you have to flip the meat every 5 minutes and baste it. I built a timeline and noted to check the temperature after 25 minutes and then every 5 minutes after that. I was looking to pull the meat off at 55c for medium rare and really wanted a nice pink bit of meat when I sliced it.

I cooked this one on Oxford Charcoal Sawmill Oak as it’s an even burn (trying not to burn the meat!) but gives a nice oak smoke and caramel taste.

At around 40 minutes the meat was close to 55c so I was checking every minute and pulled it off to rest in a foil tent for 20 minutes. After resting I sliced into it and was so happy to see it pink as I wanted:

The thin fat cap has crusted and charred really well. I wondered if I should have reverse seared it but we both agreed we wouldn’t change the cook at all as we really enjoyed it.

What’s the other stuff on the plate? Taters (Grillstock),BBQ Mushrooms (Ben Tish) and Grilled Fennel with goat’s cheese, honey and hazelnut picada (BenTish) all done on the bbq.

The Taters are really easy and a good one to stick on the bbq once you pour the coals in. The mushrooms were really tasty and very easy to prepare/cook. The Fennel dish was very different and I really enjoyed it. I just needed to cook the fennel a bit longer (the charcoal burnt out around 40 minutes and I had to light another chimney).

The Taters before they went on the grill (you make the foil bag, really easy):

The BBQ mushrooms before you put them on, again really easy:

Here is my timeline with updates post cook:

(Peppers, tomatoes and Shallots were for another recipe as was the garlic)

  • Before lighting: Take Tri Tip out the bag, drain liquid and pat dry with paper
  • Lighting: Grill grates
  • 0: Tri tip on and put the foiled garlic on the coals (for the slow cooked garlic mash)
  • 5: Flip Tri Tip and baste
  • 10: Flip Tri Tip and baste
  • 15: Flip Tri Tip and baste and get Taters ready
  • 20: Flip Tri Tip and baste and put Taters on
  • 25: Flip Tri Tip and baste (check temp – 55c)
  • 30: Flip Tri Tip and baste (check temp – 55c) and shake taters
  • 35: Flip Tri Tip and baste (check temp – 55c)
  • 40: Tri Tip off and foil tent? (55c) and shake taters and fennel on
  • 42: Flip fennel
  • 44: Flip fennel and move to indirect
    • Put peppers (indirect) and tomatoes (direct) on.
  • 49: Flip peppers and tomatoes
  • 51: Flip fennel, shake taters and move to indirect put mushrooms on direct (with butter)
  • 54: Take tomatoes out, flip peppers
  • 56: Mushrooms to indirect (more butter)
  • 59: Take peppers  and garlic out

Post cook notes:

Put the fennel, tomatoes and peppers on earlier next time.

Watch the garlic, it burns easily! Wrap it up with a lot of foil.

Watch the charcoal, probably needs a top up around 30m.


SUBSCRIBE TO THIS BLOG VIA EMAIL

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Back to the Home Page

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *