Ross's Big Green Egg-venture

[Brandy524]

Those pork chops look delicious! Not something I need to see when I'm suffering afternoon hunger. I had to settle for a granola bar.

[gisco]

I have to stop reading these threads on food before lunch. Makes me want to go home and grill something!

[Hilltopper39]

Bourbon marinaded Tri-Tip

 

Time for some Tri-Tip! I mentioned earlier that tri-tip has slowly become one of my favorite cuts of beef, and this past weekend I did one a little bit differently than before, bourbon marinated tri-tip. Now you may be wondering what the hell is a tri-tip? I had never heard of it myself until a few months ago when I saw a delicious looking and very reasonably priced 3 pound hunk of meat sitting in the display counter of the butcher shop. Basically the tri-tip steak is a small triangularly shaped muscle usually 1.5-3lbs and is a part of the bottom sirloin. There are only two tri-tips per cow so you don't often see it for sale in normal grocery stores as an whole cut because it usually gets ground up into ground beef. In the 1950's the cut became popular in California when some local ranchers began slow roasting it over open pits of red oak, and it has since grown in popularity due to it's rich flavor and low fat content. Sometime's it is referred to as a poor man's ribeye because of the rich flavor and similar fat marbling though out the cut yet at nearly a third of the price. Enough recycling the tri-tip Wikipedia page (here's more info if you want it Tri-tip wiki, lets get to some pictures!

 

Now a traditional Santa Maria style tri tip is liberally seasoned with a basic salt pepper and garlic rub and then slow roasted over an open red oak pit. I have done the traditional recipe several times and it's amazing but I did this one a little differently with a great recipe I found online for a bourbon marinade. I'm usually a fan of very simple flavorings that let the meat be the star of the show, but this recipe was fairly ingredient heavy and turned out really well.

here is my tri-tip, about 2.2 pound

the other side, you can see the fat distributed throughout the cut.

Here are the ingredients for the marinde. Again a little ingredient heavy for my tastes but it turned out really well. Olive oil, dijon mustard, salt, pepper, garlic (fresh minced and powder), sugar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, white wine vinegar (I was out of red), and of course Bourbon. Bourbon makes everything better!

Here are the ingredients whisked up together in a bowl

And poured over the tri-tip to marinade over night!

The next day i removed the tri-tip about an hour before I cooked it to let it raise to room temp.

Also applied a liberal amount of salt, pepper, garlic powder and Tony's (I put Tony's on everything!).

 

Now for the cooking technique. The technique I like to use for this is basically sear the hell out of both sides over direct heat then cook at a lower temp over indirect heat until you reach the desired internal temp. With the Egg that is a little tricky so what I do is first sear each side for about 5 minutes each, then remove the meat and tent with foil and then insert the plate setter legs up with a second grate on it on top of my cast iron grate with both vents closed. The large thermal mass of the plate setter absorbs a lot of heat and drops the dome temp of the egg from 700 down to 350-400 rather quickly. After the temp gets down under 400 degrees while both vents are still closed I put the tri-tip back in the egg and close the lid with a maintained temp around 350 until its done.

 

Egg is hot and ready to go! I like to lay an alluminum foil drip pan face down on the grate for a few minutes before I put the meat on. It kind of super-heats that section of the grate and leaves really nice grill marks. This technique works great on any kind of grill!

And on the egg it goes! About 5 minutes per side on the initial high heat direct sear.

After flipping you can see the beautiful clean grill marks that were left behind

 

The next picture is of the meat after it's been removed and the plate setter inserted on top of the cast iron grate. I probably let it sit outside the egg tented with foil for about 10 minutes while the dome temp on the egg dropped under 400 degrees F.

 

Back in the Egg over indirect heat

Removed at a temp of around 140-145, a nice medium.

Sliced across the grain, you can see the crust is charred but the center is still pink and juicy

Served with caramelized red onions, crumbled feta, and grill roasted red potatoes. Delicious! Pretty sloppy presentation, but at that point I was just ready to eat and wasn't too concerned with it.

 

This recipe turned out really well! You could taste the bourbon marinade in the finished meat and it lent a fantastic flavor that nicely complimented the natural flavor of the beef. When I initially cut into the tri-tip very little juice ran out but it was still very moist and tender. For me a good tri-tip is pretty hard to beat, it's a lean and juicy cut that has a deliciously rich flavor at half the cost of other more common primal cuts. I would highly recommend it for your next cook out, but remember you may need to specifically request it from your meat counter or go to more of a butcher shop. Again, thanks for reading, enjoy!

[gisco]

I'm shocked that someone outside California knows what a tri-tip is. I will have to try your marinade on the next one I cook. Looks good, real good!

[Hilltopper39]

I'm shocked that someone outside California knows what a tri-tip is. I will have to try your marinade on the next one I cook. Looks good, real good!

 

Yeah I wish I would have discovered the Tri-tip a LONG time ago, I love it! I'm not usually a big fan of marinades for beef unless it's a really cheap sirloin or something, but this one was really good, you should try it sometime!

[Brandy524]

Looks really good! I, however, am always scared to eat meat that's pink.

[Hilltopper39]

Looks really good! I, however, am always scared to eat meat that's pink.

 

I had the flash on in those pictures so it really wasn't as pink as it looked. My thermometer is kinda broken and I pulled it at what read around 145 but was probably closer to 150 or 155. I've burnt the heck out of a few tri-tips before so they were very well done in the middle and the flavor and texture was still fantastic (just a little dry).

 

When I was younger I never used to eat beef that wasn't well done. My mom is a vegetarian and when my dad (rarely) ordered steaks at a restaurant he always ordered a well done sirloin, so I just assumed that was what a good steak was. Because of that I now prefer most types of beef to be medium well to well done, but I have grown to appreciate some higher quality cuts at a medium rare to medium temp (there is a reason people eat it that way, it's REALLY good if prepared properly), but I still understand why some people don't like the pink and prefer well done.

[gisco]

The tri-tip you have has a lot less fat then the ones in the store here. What I do to cook it and keep it moist is to sear it like you do then I wrap it in foil and continue to cook it. The foil keeps the coals from flaring up and it allows the meat to cook in its own juices and fat.

[Hilltopper39]

The tri-tip you have has a lot less fat then the ones in the store here. What I do to cook it and keep it moist is to sear it like you do then I wrap it in foil and continue to cook it. The foil keeps the coals from flaring up and it allows the meat to cook in its own juices and fat.

 

The butcher shop I got that tri tip from is kind of a high end butcher shop at the beach that sells all choice and prime cuts, so that may be why that cut was so lean. I don't shop there very often since it's a little pricey but they do always have tri-tip. Even if it were a lot fattier I still think the flavor and texture would be consistent and similar to the leaner cut I had (and still probably be a favorite of mine).

 

I like that technique, I'm sure it yields excellent results and would probably save me some time for the setup change on the Egg. When I put the plate setter in and keep the lid closed there are no flare ups since it is indirect heat and there isn't a lot of moisture lost because the ceramic design and minimal air flow but it does take a little time time to pull the meat off, tent it with foil, insert the plate setter, drop the dome temp, then put the meat back on. Next time I do a tri tip I'll try your method and just sear it wrap it in foil then throw it back on until it's done, much easier and much quicker. The fewer the steps between me and meat the better!

[Hilltopper39]

It's been a while since I posted anything here and since football (and grilling!) season are now in full swing I figured it's time for a quick update. last weekend was the first weekend of college football with some great games on Saturday so if I figured lets fire up the egg and cook some meat over fire. I didn't really have a particular meat in mind that I wanted to cook but Publix had spare ribs on sale so I bought two racks and gave em a shot! Spare ribs are a little tougher to cook than baby backs but tend to have a little more meat on them and if smoked properly yield excellent texture and flavor which is why spare ribs are more commonly used in most BBQ competitions over baby backs. The racks I bought on sale were not trimmed, so I trimmed them down into a "St. Louis Style" rack before I put them on the egg. This requires a little bit of work but is worth it, a trimmed rack cooks more evenly and has a much nicer presentation. The trimmed off portion still has a ton of meat that I smoked alongside the two racks and munched on throughout the day, it's also great meat to chop up and use to flavor baked beans or whateve (I made a chicken tortilla style soup with all the left overs pork on Monday and it was great).

 

I didn't take too many pictures of the cooking set up because I was busy doing some chores and watching football, but it was a basic indirect heat set up with the plate setter installed feet up and a rack on the feet over the drip pan. I used a combination of hickory chips, apple wood chips, and hickory chunks all soaked in coffee overnight for the smoke. My normal technique for ribs is a 2-1-1 method where I smoke them with heavy smoke uncovered for 2 hours, then tightly wrap them in foil with a little bit of sauce/honey/butter/ mixture for another hour, then remove from the foil and cook another hour uncovered until they are crisp and done. I like to keep the temperature somewhere between 225-250 for the entire cook then raise the temp to around 350 at the end for a few minutes just to crisp the ribs up and give them a little char. Here are some pics!

 

Here is a rack of spare ribs before I trimmed them into the "St. Louis Style" cut.

Here is the same rack after I trimmed it. The second rack was bigger and had a lot more meat that was trimmed off but I didn't get any pics of it.

Two St Louis Style racks of spare ribs

 

For the Rub I used my normal technique of slathering the ribs and yellow mustard then applying a rub. For one rack I used a John Henry Pecan Rub and for the second rack I used a Bad Byron's Butt Rubb.

John Henry Pecan Rub I used on one rack, great stuff!

Here is the Bad Byron Butt Rub, a great rub that is really versatile. I use it all the time on fish, chicken, pork, beef, just about anything!

Here are the two racks, Bad Byron on the left and John Henry Pecan on the right.

 

Now again I didn't take any picture of the set up, or the cook, but did two hours uncovered, one hour wrapped in foil with a sauce mixture, and another hour uncovered until they were done (about 180 internal temp). Here was the final result!

 

Smoke Smoke Smoke

And 4 hours later they are done!

 

John Henry pecan on the left, Bad Byron on the right this time

 

It was hard to photograph the finished ribs but here is a pic of the finished rib, decent smoke ring.

Here is a better pic of a thinker rib, good pink smoke ring, had excellent flavor.

For whatever reason the little ribs turned out the best!

 

The final results was pretty good, both racks had excellent flavor but I preferred the sweetness of the Pecan rub over the spicier Bad Byron Butt Rubb. Both rack has excellent flavor and texture but the smaller ribs were a little dry, next time I may go less time uncovered in the smoke and more time in the foil packets. I probably prefer baby racks because of how easy they are to cook, but at less than half the price Spare Ribs are with including in the regular rotation. Thanks for reading, sorry far making you hungry!

 

Thank goodness it's football season, I have an excuse to Egg something every weekend!

These Ribs were officially approved by Big Red, and go Tops!

[printersdevil78]

Good stuff! My barbecue-nut friend loves Butt Rub. I think he even used it on lamb chops in his Egg once.

 

Have you ever tried making a fatty? It's basically cheese wrapped in breakfast sausage, wrapped in a woven bacon "blanket," covered with barbecue sauce and smoked. He makes one for us every Thanksgiving (not sure if he cooks it with the Egg or with his drum smoker). He's always experimenting with add-ins. Last year, he basically just cleaned out his refrigerator and went a little crazy with it, including onions, peppers, two different kinds of cheese, chopped brisket and rib meat. It was literally the best thing I've ever eaten!

[Hilltopper39]

^No I've never "smoked a fatty" (chuckle) but I've seen tons of different recipes for them that look awesome, it's definitely something I'm going to cook in the very near future!

[Brandy524]

I've never been much for ribs, but those look delicious! I prefer a little sweetness to my seasonings over spicy.

 

Oh, and ROLL TIDE! (Sorry, I had to do it.)

[Hilltopper39]

^Yeah, yeah, we covered the spread against the number 1 team in all the land so that's kind of a win in my book! (with 4 turnovers we still had almost as much total yardage as Michigan!).

 

I love spicy food but with most pork cuts (ribs, butts, tenderloin) here lately I'm really starting to prefer flavors on the sweeter side. I smoked two Boston Butts this weekend for pulled pork and glazed them both a bourbon mint and apple butter mixture that turned out to be fantastic! I was a little hesitant at first but the flavors worked really well when it was all said and done.

[Jew]

This thread is one of my favorites on TPR. Everything you make looks delicious.

[gisco]

This thread is one of my favorites on TPR. Everything you make looks delicious.

 

Me too. Makes me want to buy a Green Egg and smoke something.

[jray21]

The ribs looked amazing! I've got to get some of that Pecan rub. I have a ton of rubs that I use, and I'm always looking for another one. Can't wait to see more!

[Hilltopper39]

The pecan rub is great on pork, I used it again on a Boston Butt this weekend, but I haven't gotten around to trying it on anything else. Might try it on a chicken one of these days, and it is sweet enough that I could it see it working fairly well on Salmon, might have to try some smoked salmon with Pecan rub as well!

[Hilltopper39]

Have you ever tried making a fatty? It's basically cheese wrapped in breakfast sausage, wrapped in a woven bacon "blanket," covered with barbecue sauce and smoked.

 

Ask and you shall receive!!! A few weekends ago I finally got around to "smoking a fatty" for the first time and it was one of the best tasting things I have ever cooked. A Sausage fatty is basically a log of ground sausage stuffed with various ingredients (or not), wrapped in bacon (or not), then smoked for a few hours. I had seen several recipes for various different types of fatty's on some different Green Egg Forums, and after seeing them on a couple of different BBQ shows I decided I had to give one a try. For my first fatty I stuck to something simple, hot breakfast sausage, stuffed with bacon and cheese, then wrapped in bacon. So here is a "fatty" I smoked, and hold onto to your cholesterol level cause it's about to get real..........

 

Start with a pound of regular hot breakfast sausage

As much as it pains me to use any product from the state of Tennessee, this is decent breakfast sausage (Go Kentucky)

 

Next, I put the sausage into a 1 gallon zip lock bag and flattened it out into a flat sheet

 

Here is the 1 lb of sausage pressed flat

 

I used a sharp knife to cut the bag open the bag and remove the top layer of plastic.

 

Started adding in cheeses, here we have some Boars Head Chipolte Gouda

 

Here is some mozzarella, Swiss, cheddar, parmesan, basically any type of cheese I could find in the fridge.

 

Finally added in some cooked bacon, and Italian spices.

 

Next, I prepared a bed of bacon, such a magical creation.

 

I rolled up the sausage and cheese stuffing into a log and placed it in the center of the bacon lattice

 

And wrapped the bacon around and secured it in a few places with some toothpicks

 

Brushed the outside of the log of calorie filled awesomeness with a little bbq sauce and some rub and we're ready for the egg

 

I didn't take any pictures of the grill set up but used the indirect cooking method with the plate setter installed feet side up and a drip pan under the fatty to catch the drippings (and there were a lot!).

The fatty on the egg, smoked it over indirect heat with hickory wood chips at 300 degrees for about 2 hours.

 

Panorama of the meat laboratoty

 

A few hours later around 160-170 degrees internal temp and we are all done!

 

The internal temp was pretty hard to read because the sausage layer after I rolled it up was so thin, I probably cooked it a bit longer than was necessary but oh well.

 

Slice this bad boy open and we are ready to eat!

 

Some good smoke color on the meat, but who cares, there is pork and cheese stuffed pork, wrapped in pork!

 

I served the slices on some frozen biscuits I baked and it was a great combination!

 

One last look at the amazing log of pork, not a dish I can cook every day but certainly a crowd pleaser!

 

The flavor on this thing was seriously amazing, I'm dying to try another one with some different ingredients.For next time the step with the zip lock bag probably isn't necessary, you can probably just roll it out by hand and get similar results just fine. I also think that using a little more than one pound of sausage would help hold the stuffing inside a bit better, my log was pretty thin when I rolled it out and I think a lot of the cheese actually melted and fell out. I also sliced the thing right away after I pulled it off the egg, but the slices I tried a few hours later had a better texture, next time I'll let the thing site about an hour before serving.

 

I'm all ready coming up with some ideas for new recipes, maybe use some chorizo with peppers and onions, could do a pepperoni mushrooms and swiss with some marinara sauce for a pizza fatty, maybe a mild Italian sausage stuffed with some provolone, salami, and olive salad for an Italian hoagie fatty, maybe something really cool I haven't even though of yet! Bottom line is anything wrapped in sausage and bacon probably won't suck! Thanks for reading!

[Jew]

^That looks AMAZING. I have to try that at home!

[jray21]

Wow, that really does look good. Artery clogging deadly, but amazing. I will definitely try this one soon!

[Hilltopper39]

^That looks AMAZING. I have to try that at home!

 

The flavor was great, even though I cooked it on my super awesome Big Green Egg the recipe is simple enough that it could easily be cooked on any old grill and probably in the oven even.

 

Wow, that really does look good. Artery clogging deadly, but amazing. I will definitely try this one soon!

Yeah, artery clogging is right, but I've seen some good looking "Fatty" recipes online that don't have the bacon and was basically just a log of sausage stuffed with peppers and onions that looked really good as well. I've even seen some that were just sausage no filling that looked good too, so you can make one that is slightly less artery clogging if you're afraid of the real thing !

[ParkTrips]

Looks amazing Ross!!

[Nrthwnd]

Awesome.

 

Truly a Pork Heaven

in just one slice/bite/drool.

[gisco]

That looks amazing. I have to try and find some time to try these things!