Jeff,
First - Thank you for all you have done on SMF.
The recipe/process below is for smoked Tri-Tip.
I'm guessing you will name it what you want, but if you are giving credits out, I call it "Garchar's Tantilizing Tri-Tip".
I marinade the tri-tip in the following for at least three days:
Equal parts of:
Orange Juice - tenderizes and adds a sweet flavor (can also use Lemon Juice).
Soy Sauce
EVOO
I use 1/2 a cup of each in a zip lock bag, turning and massaging each day for at least three days, no more than five - in the fridge of course.
I pull the tri-tip from the bag, and season it up with any and everything I would use on a prime rib - just a good steak seasoning or salt and pepper, garlic and onion salt.
I then cook them in my "Barrel-Q" - a more rough version of the UDS. I just have a charcoal grate in the bottom of mine, and rods across the top for hanging and suspending the meat. I'll attach a picture.
I use two chimmenys of charcoal, one piled on each side, light and let burn down. I then add a large chunck of hickory on each pile, and smoke for 45 minutes.
This is a hot fire - cooking around 400 degrees. It seers the outside and leaves the middle a good medium rare. This is one of my favorite pieces of meat and thought it would catch your attention given the fact that it isn't a multi hour process - something for beginners maybe.
I hope you try this.
Jeff, this should give you an idea of the way my barrel is set up. The fire grate is standard, about 4" fromthe bottom. The hooks are stainless steel 3/16 rods that can be picked up from the hardware store. This is a 30 gal barrel, and as you can see, you can stack 8 TT's in it. This was for an event for my company. Just getting ready to pull them.
thanks for looking.
Tracey