As promised in my previous post, my first cook I did, thank you everyone who helped with grabbing things.
Decided to try the viral trisket. Tritip cooked as a brisket
I’ll explain my cooking details below but overall just seeing if anyone has some tips. Guess I’ll start with with what I liked and dislike
Like: super juicy, dripping everywhere it was nice. Smoke ring looked pretty good to me. Fell apart decent with 1/4” slices against the grain.
Didn’t like : kinda bland in terms of smoke and flavor. i thought I dumped seasoning everywhere on it and let it sit for about 45 mins. I did two binders, one mustard and one olive oil on the other. I think I liked the mustard one more it had more flavor for sure. Also even though the smoke ring was there, I didn’t really get any “smoke” flavor to be honest. Really only at the tips
What can I do get a much richer smoke flavor as well as a more flavorful bark?
details :
Traeger 22. Used 2 smoker tubes filled with 50/50 wood chips and pellets
Meat : Costco prime tritip 2.5 pounds each
Pellets : bear mountain hickory
Smoker tubes has 50/50 of chips and pellets both hickory as I read this has the strongest smoke flavor
I do have lumberjack competition blend on the way
Seasoning : one had mustard, other had olive oil binder. Seasoning the same with what I found locally Suckle busters competition rub. Covered jt pretty good, used maybe 1/6 of the bottle? Meat sat for 45 mins with seasoning
Set my smoker to 250, stuck a probe in both, placed them in the middle of the smoker.
Lit my smoker tubes and placed one on each side.
Smoked some Wagyu beef tallow and butter in a bowl
Meat stalled at around 161 and stopped climbing for an hour but did hit 163. This was about 3 hours into the cook.
Decided to wrap it, poured some of the Wagyu and butter mixture on top and bottom of the steaks and wrapped them tightly.
Probed them back, refilled the smoker tubes with more wood chips and closed her up. Pulled them at around 201/203. Meter said 201 but handheld read 203. First time probing so not really how soft it should feel but felt decently soft
So anyway, if you got this far thank you, any tips are greatly appreciated!
Some things I noticed and not sure if it matters, some of the smoke coming from the bottom literally bypassed the meat and went straight out the exit. Is it better to put the meat on the right side of the grill closest to the exhaust so at least it gets blown with some smoke?
Does placement of the smoker tubes also play a factor? Regarding the smoke bypassing the meat, I eventually moved both tubes to the left side as I realized the smoke from the right tube was flowing straight into the chimney
Would something like the BBQHQ racks help? I figure from a physics point of view, I can place the smoker tubes on the bottom left of the bottom rack and with the BBQHQ extended top rack I can place the meat closest to the smoke exhaust and in my mind I feel like it would absorb more smoke flavor? Any thoughts on this
Pic of the rack for my reasoning if you click the link https://thebbqhq.com/products/thebbqhq-ultimate-grate-system-for-traeger-pro-575?_pos=1&_sid=648d1e565&_ss=r
by BowserSniffs
7 Comments
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The smoker isn’t smoked yet. Mine took a while to stain and develop its seasoning inside. Your first handful of cooks will need a lot more time to pick up flavor. Once the grill is seasoned , you’ll taste the difference. Every time I clean mine it’s a similar thing. The first 1-2 cooks after, I need to develop some seasoning on the grates and drip pan.
One thing you can try is mopping in every half a hour until you wrap it. Smoke sticks to moisture. If the meats surface dries out it doesn’t matter how much smoke its under it wont take in the smoke flavor.
On a side note oil does the opposite of moisture. It makes smoke have more trouble sticking so oil will reduce the smoke flavor if anything.
Shoot I forgot to add how I rested the meat. So after removing the meat I left it wrapped on the table. I let the temp climb down to 170 as I read this was the best “sitting temp” for brisket. Once it hit 170 I put it in a cooler and let it rest for 45 mins, total rest time was about 1 hour 10 mins. Serving temp was 155 degrees
Also forgot to add I was spritzing about every hour, just a couple of sprays on each piece nothing crazy. 50/50 apple cider vinegar and water
Grab a smoke tube for pellet smokers. My workmate said it worked wonders for his trager. I plan on grabbing one myself.
I’ve not tried bear mountain pellets but the pit boss hickory was very strong flavour with one smoke tube and so too are Big K. Might be worth a bag to try them out?
I’ve done this cook before and honestly, this might not be the most popular opinion, but the smoke tubes are unnecessary. If you want a better bark/more smoke flavor cook the tri-tip lower at 200-225 and leave it exposed to smoke longer before wrapping. That’s a smaller piece of meat- bigger cuts that can sit longer will take on more smoke flavor. I’ve cooked countless tri-tips, love them, but they’re never going to build smoke flavor the same way a bigger cut that sits longer will- especially at only 3 hours.
Also, better pellets. Bear Mountain is fine for everyday fuel but if you want the most smoke flavor you need to go lumber Jack, knotty wood, or pecan shell.
And after doing all that, just remember it’s never going to have the bark of an offset.