Tri-tip is available

[NNSmoker]

If you're from California, or have traveled there, you might be familiar with "Santa Maria Style Tri-tip". It's an awesome cut and lends well to smoking. Rub it up, (I prefer Emeril's Rustic Rub) mesquite smoke for about 2-3 hours at 225 or so. Bring it to about 110 to 120 degrees. It is then best finished off on the grill to give it a good crust. Internal temperature about 140.

Here's the problem. Where do you find it if you don't live in California? No one seems to know what it is. Alas, here on the east coast, Costco is carrying it, at least in the mid-Atlantic region. They are cutting it up as steaks but it comes in bags of about 7 roasts between 2-3 lbs each. Much cheaper than the cut up stuff in the case. Ask the butcher for a bag of tri-tip.

Once you perfect this one, you'll never go back to brisket.

[mybad]

Wow no Tri-Tip?? I would wither away and die...lol

[NePaSmoKer]

Oh yeah this S Cal desert rat relocated to NEPA remembers well what tri tip is  ;D BJ'S Carries tri tip also. Try some Pappys Tri Tip seasoning on it. Do you remember that?

nepas

[beefmann]

talking about tri tip... sounds like i need to do one very soon, as in at the latest labor day... would  any one consider  20 LB tri tip to much meat to do ?


Beef

[NNSmoker]

Wow! A 20 lb Tri-Tip? The Tri-Tip I'm familiar with usually comes in 2-3.5 lb pieces. We had 30 people over on the fourth and 3 roasts went fast!

About Pappy's. I've only recently found some of this. I'll have to try some on my next roast but I'm so happy with the Emeril's Rustic Rub:

8 Tablespoons Paprika
3 Tablespoons cayenne
5 Tablespoons black pepper, freshly ground
6 Tablespoons garlic powder
3 Tablespoons onion powder
6 Tablespoons salt
2 1/2 Tablespoons dried oregano
2 1/2 Tablespoons dried thyme

If you're a bit wimpy, you can cut back on the cayenne a bit  :(

Rub it up the day before and store in a zip-loc in the refrigerator. Take it out a couple of hours before your smoke.

[beefmann]

NN smoker,

the only place i can find larger tri tip is at Smart and Final warehouse stores when they have it in stock

[Margareeman]

A few weeks ago i posted some pics of a tip roast, i do believe it was a tri tip. I had 3 and they were 16 pounds each, came out beautifully.

[NNSmoker]

I think there is a difference between a tip-roast and a tri-tip. The tri-tip roast or steak (also called a triangle roast) is the 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds of meat that sits at the bottom of the sirloin. For years the beef tri-tip found itself being ground into hamburger or cut into cubes and sold as soup meat. The reason for this is that there is only one per side of beef and in the days when butchers carved their own meat it was considered a waste of display space to sell the tri-tip by itself.

[Caneyscud]

You nailed it NN