Brisket Style Smoked Tri-Tip (AKA Trisket)

Absolutely! I'm a huge fan of Meat Church rubs, but you can use common household seasonings to make this brisket style tri-tip. Here's a good combination to get you started:

• 2 tablespoons coarse black pepper
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon Lawry's seasoned salt (using another brand is fine)

The grain runs in 2 different directions in Tri-Tip (see Tri-Tip slicing diagram below), which will feel familiar if you've ever sliced a Brisket. You want to make sure you are always slicing against the grain and not with it to ensure the most tender slices. You can use the tri-tip slicing diagram below for see where to make your slices.

Tri-Tip is a famous cut with a triangular shape that comes from the bottom portion of the sirloin of a steer. Tri-Tip is a great economical alternative for those who crave the tasty smokiness of a Brisket but don’t want to break the bank nor end up with a lot of leftover meat. If cooked correctly, it's a deliciously tender piece of meat that is hard to resist.

It’s also called a “California cut,” a “bottom sirloin butt,” “Santa Maria steak,” or even “poor man’s brisket.” It’s considered a steak, and when untrimmed, has a fat cap along one side. Trimmed, it is delicious cooked as a steak and thinly sliced, and in southern California is popularly served as tri-tip sandwiches. It is often seasoned with “Santa Maria” seasoning, a mixture of salt, pepper, garlic, onion, and a bit of sugar. This cut of steak is very versatile and can be roasted, smoked, broiled, or grilled.

This is a very common question from all the Tri-Tip lovers that don’t own a BBQ grill. The answer is yes! You can make your Tri-Tip in the oven following the same method, but the taste won’t be the same as a smoked Tri-Tip. You'll probably want to remove the Tri-Tip briefly from the over when spritzing to avoid getting the liquid all over the inside of your oven.

The best tri-tip brisket can be made with a tri-tip steak that still has the fat cap, if you're lucky enough to find one. A trimmed tri-tip steak will work (as mentioned in this recipe), but the flavor and texture will be better after hours of smoking if there is some fat on the tri-tip, since tri-tip is leaner than brisket. Another key to mimicking brisket with tri-tip is the wrapping process - don’t skip this step! Cooking tri-tip for this long will otherwise dry it out, so wrapping it up will keep it from drying out too much and help it develop more intense flavors.

If you have purchased untrimmed tri-tip, you’ll need to trim any excess fat and silver skin off the steak. Use a sharp paring or boning knife, and place the tri-tip fat side up. Go around the edges and trim any fat hanging off the sides, and remove any silver skin. It’s important to remove all of the silver skin, as it isn’t fat but rather tough sinew that won’t render when it’s cooked. If you don’t want to spend the time trimming the fat, you can purchase trimmed tri-tip or ask the butcher to trim it for you.

Although tri-tip comes from the sirloin, it’s from a different part of the sirloin than the sirloin tip. A sirloin tip is cut from the front and top of the sirloin, while tri-tip, also referred to as bottom sirloin butt, is cut from the bottom backside of the sirloin, as the name implies. Tri-tip contains part of the thigh muscles, which helps add to the great flavor found in tri-tip. Tri-tip also has a lot more fat spread throughout the cut, creating marbling, while sirloin tip has fat along one side but not much throughout. This difference alone is huge in terms of flavor because as meat is cooked, the fat renders out adding loads of flavor. The better marbling a cut of meat has, the more intense and rich the flavor will be in the end result.

Using an instant-read thermometer is a great way to check the tri-tip for two reasons. You can tell the meat is done by how easily the thermometer slides into the meat, and the temperature reads quickly so you won’t need to open the smoker for long to read the temperature. Internal thermometers work great for smoking meat as well because they are left in the meat and you can constantly monitor the temperature without opening the smoker, which releases the heat. The key to smoking tri-tip like a brisket is by keeping the smoker closed as much as possible. Remember, if you're looking, you're not cooking!