How Long To Smoke Tri Tip (And Why)?

Exact Answer: Two Hours

Tri tip is a flavourful and tender steak perfect for dinner with close friends and family embers. This is the meat prepared from the lower portion of the sirloin part of cattle. As its name would suggest, this beef meat is triangular in shape, particularly its tips resemble a perfect triangle giving the steak its name.

Apart from being completely delicious, Tri Tip is also a good source of nutrition. A tri tip weighing between two to three pounds gives about 81 kcal and is also a great source of sodium, potassium and vitamin A and C. However, people should limit the consumption of beef as much as possible to fight climate change. Cattles are one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases which leads to climate change.

How Long To Smoke Tri Tip?

The entire process of smoking of smoked tri tip can be divided into three broad phases based on the steps involved. These are the Pre-cooking preparation stage, the Smoking stage, the Searing stage and the Plating and garnishing stage of the tri tip. The preparation of this dish takes a total of two and forty-five minutes in total.

The first step in the cooking of tri tip is getting the steak ready for smoking. This involves seasoning the meat on all sides with Beef seasoning or any other ingredients of the chef’s choice. This step requires a quarter of an hour to complete.

The next step in the preparation is to smoke the tri tip in a smoker. They have to be smoked till they reach the desired level of internal temperature. This step takes about two hours.

Searing the tri tip is the next stage and it takes about fifteen minutes to complete. This stage involves frying the meat in butter in a cast-iron skillet for four to five minutes from each side.

Plating and garnishing the steak is the next step. The steak is sliced in thin slices and is plated with rosemary and favourable sauces after it cools down. It also requires about fifteen minutes to be ready.

Why Smoking Tri Tips Takes So Long?

Smoking Tri Tips for that long is essential to make it soft and tender. Beef and especially, Tri Tip tastes best when is cooked properly till it is soft. This helps to make it juicy and the guests do not have to worry about chewing it for long.

Moreover, gone are the days when humans used to have raw meat. Cooking is a time-consuming process by nature and a dish has to be cooked till it is edible and can easily be digested. Cooking requires time and Tri Tips consume a lot of them.

To be well-cooked, the internal temperature of the steak has to reach the desired levels. Tri Tip has to attain 115 degrees F for a rare roast while 125 degrees F for a medium-rare roast. To have a medium level of roast, it has to reach an internal temperature of 135 degrees F, 145 degrees F for a medium-well roast and 150 degrees F for a level of well-done roast.

Only when the internal temperature of Tri Tips reaches these points, it shall be considered cooked. Conversely, Tri Tips should be cooked till they reach these levels of internal temperature.

Conclusion

Pre-cooking preparation for Tri Tip would take fifteen minutes, smoking it would take two hours, searing it and then plating and garnishing it would take fifteen minutes each. This would take approximately three hours in total. However, one should try to avoid consuming this dish as it is made from cattle and cattle rearing is a prominent cause of global warming.

Cooking a proper dish requires time. A dish cooked improperly might be tasteless and even result in indigestion. For the Tri Tip to be regarded as properly cooked, its internal temperature should reach the specified point.

References

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0309174020306793
2. https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article/75/2/255/173246/Dispersion-and-Survival-of-Escherichia-coli-O157