Marinated Tri-Tip

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jimf

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jun 22, 2011
239
11
Olney, MD
My wife picked up a pre-marinated Tri-tip at Costco. How will the marinade effect smoking? I'm affraid if I apply a rub to it, it will be too salty. Thoughts?
 
Personally, I don't much see the point of rubbing down a marinaded tri-tip, it seems like all those flavors would just hide the meat.

If you really want to put a rub on it, the best way to do it would be to blend your own using plain spices, and skip the salt.

As far as smoking a marinated tri-tip goes, it'll turn out fine as-is. The meat department I worked for would shove those things into a big vacuum chamber we called "the tumbler", and it would decompress the chamber to something like -25 PSI for about 30 minutes. This would cause the tri-tips to expand, and take on more of the marinade than plain soaking. It would also cause pellicle formation by force, which would make the tri-tips really receptive to smoke and grill flavors, more so than a plain tip.

So, as it is, you ready to roll for the smoke; just pat it dry, and let it come to counter temp for a hour before hitting the heat, you'll be golden. If you want to rub it down, just keep it simple with spices that will lend heat without overwhelming the meat, or clashing with the marinade (like cayenne, pepper flakes, black pepper). Maybe even do a little fry test to see how the marinaded beef will taste vanilla, before playing with the spices.

Hope this helps!
 
Jim

Id just cook it as is. Keep it simple.
 
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