Cooking Lesson- Tri-Tip, part five

The cook

I should begin this section with a distinction. The style of tri-tip discussed in this lesson owes its debt to the central coast or "Santa Maria" tradition. This is a dry preparation (no sauce) and has the taste of well seasoned, but quite smoky, steak. There are methods that involve a little longer cooking time and make use of sauce. Maybe one day I'll teach you, but it's a lot more work and while very good, is at best, marginally better than the method described here, if at all.

By now, your meat should be seasoned and sitting at room temperature. After the coals have had a good 10 minutes to heat up your grill, it's time for the meat. The initial temperature will be in the 400-600 range, which is fine. Add a few more pieces of wood, directly on to the coals, then place your roast(s) on the "cold" part of the grill, fat side up, with the thickest part of the roast closest, but not above, the coals. Close the lid. Your temperature should stabilize in the 275-400° range. Anywhere below that is basically OK, but you'll be waiting awhile. Anything above that is bad news, so adjust your heat as best you can, and move the meat as far away from the heat source as possible.

The rest is simple. After 15 minutes, add some wood and flip the meat. You only need to do this once. After another 10 minutes, check the internal temperature of the meat at its thickest point. You're shooting for 130°, no sooner and hopefully no later. This is for medium rare- add a few degrees for medium. If you're the medium well type, don't force your bad taste on anyone else. Even a medium rare roast will be cooked to medium well towards its ends. If consulting a temperature chart for doneness, be sure to remove the roast 5° before the desired temp. This is a large piece of meat, and the residual heat will continue to raise the internal temp for a while. You may be waiting as long as 30 minutes to reach your desired temp, but there is no need to flip again, just wait and check ever five minutes or so. Since you're only flipping once and cooking indirectly, you'll find it helpful and practical to use the sort of thermometer that has its probe separate from its display

If you're hesitant, I implore you to take a chance with medium rare, it is the ideal temperature for beef- the point after the proteins break down, but before the coagulate. The best texture and the maximum amount of flavor. Despite what you've been told, the red stuff is not blood.

Alternative method: If you're comfortable with fire, begin with placing the meat directly over the coals for five minutes on each side. Continue with the same instructions, but keep your meat as far away from the coals as your can (within reason, or course) and monitor your internal temperature.