# Help me reproduce Texas Land and Cattle Smoked Sirloin



## cgreentx (Aug 19, 2006)

I have tried a few times to reproduce this, but while I've ended up with some seriously good eats it was not what I was trying for.  If anyone can help me figure this one out it would be greatly appreciated.

1.  Exactly what cut of sirloin is it.
2.  How to pprep the awesome Cracked Pepper rub for the fat cap.
3.  What temp and how long to cook it for perfect Medium Rare goodness.

Thanks!
Chris


----------



## smokemack (Aug 19, 2006)

I looked around a bit on The Texas Land and Cattle Company. It's a restaurant, correct? I assume that's what you mean here. It's gonna be a little tough, because I've never eaten there, therefore, I canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t even really guess as to its preparation, as I have not seen the dish. I'll give you my best advice, although it sounds like you've done your best already. Perhaps someone who has been there will chime in later. A top sirloin steak is what you need to look for at the grocery store or butcher shop, their site says they use _select_ cut of beef. It is the first cut sirloin, and the tenderest of the sirloin steaks. Sirloin steaks can vary considerably in their cut. The best cuts come from the top portion of the sirloin and are known as top sirloin steak. They are sometimes called top butt steak, hip sirloin, or center cut sirloin. They can be recognized (if purchased whole) by the mid-sized pin bone, which is the long flat part of the hip bone. Generally, the other sirloin configurations with a flat bone are less tender than the top sirloin, but tenderer than the ones with a round bone. Always purchase sirloin steaks with a flat bone if you have a choice. My favorite cut is (what I call) a "baseball" cut of top sirloin (I do beleive any good meat cutter would know what you meant if you asked for it). It is softball sized and shaped, and comes off the very top of the whole sirlion peice. To get a good medium rare, cook the meat to an internal temp of about 125 degrees. After it rests for a few minutes, it should be perfect. If you don't have a thermometer, you can get a cheap one at Walmart, Target, Linens and Things, etc...
As to the cooking method, this is the tricky part. The site says that they grill their steaks over Mesquite. I would then surmise that they _smoke_ with that Mesquite as well. You could call and ask to be sure. The seasonings on the other hand could be a proprietary (secret) blend, or as simple as kosher salt, garlic/onion powder, some type of ground Chile powder and large cracked black pepper. This is only my best guess. If you want to dig, you could call the location, pretend to be a guest who has never been there, and tell them you like the sound of the smoked sirloin but you are allergic to some seasonings. You may get lucky and get an employee who doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t know any better and gives you the recipe. Ask what they smoke with.
That's what I would try. Like I said, this one's hard for me because I have never been to the place, or seen the dish. Hey, wait out back one night and pay one of the busboys $10 to "snag" you the recipe..?
If you get anywhere, post your results. The web site looks good.


----------



## cgreentx (Aug 20, 2006)

They don't really reference the Smoked Sirloin much on their site.  What  Prime Rib is to most restaurants the Smoked Sirloin is to them.  You are served slices of it on your plate clearly from a much larger roast.  The slices are about 1/4" thick, 4-6" long, and 1-1.5" tall with a nice 1/8" fat cap at the top.

From the web site:

_Thick slices of pepper-smoked aged choice sirloin, slow cooked to perfection. Best served medium rare to medium.
"As long as it lasts"_

Chris Green


----------



## cgreentx (Aug 27, 2006)

Well after all my "covert ops" this weekend, and more importantly a long conversation at my butcher, I decided that the cut they had to be using was a Tri-tip.  I have a pair of whole 2 lb tri-tips in the smoker now with a nice layer of course cracked pepper on the fat side and nothing else but good old kosher salt.  I'll have updates in a bit.

Chris Green


----------



## cajunsmoker (Aug 27, 2006)

Just glad to here that you made it out of the combat zone :D   Keep us up to date on the smoke.  8)


----------



## cgreentx (Aug 27, 2006)

I'll be posting up photos shortly but I"m going to have to call this a 100% success.  Thankfully I made enough to last all week for lunch.   :)

Chris


----------



## cgreentx (Aug 28, 2006)

*The Smoker since I haven't posted it before:*







*The Tri-tips before they went in:*






*As they came out of the smoker at 140F on the probe:*






*Slicing after a 15 minute rest:*






*On the plate...  Check out that medium rare!  (Gotta love the paper plates):*






*And since its a shame to waste all that heat and smoke without making some other goodies for lunches:*


----------



## doug123 (Aug 28, 2006)

Chris, I would say that was definitely a success!!!

Man does that look good.

Please give us a little more detail on what you did and used.

I need to find me some tri tips  :D


----------



## cgreentx (Aug 28, 2006)

I kept it absolutely simple....  I sprinkled kosher salt on the bottom to start with then rubbed a bit of olive oil on the cap to help all the cracked pepper and kosher salt stick there.  

I fired up the smoker with a mix of Mesquite and Oak keeping the temps around 275ish and put the tri-tips in at about the mid-point of the smoker to keep away from the direct heat.  (My smoker has a bit too large an opening to the firebox which I plan to remedy in the future)  

I was shooting for 135-140 on the probe and ended up pulling it out just at/over 140.  This was between 30 and 40 minutes I believe.  It was a perfect medium rare all the way through.  The only down-side to taking it at medium rare is that there is a bit of a membrane at the fat cap which isn't quite broken down at that temp so you miss out on some of that yummyness.  I may experiment with it a bit in the future.

As for finding the tri-tip, I was able to get the butcher at Randall's (Safeway) to cut it for me.  It was about $6/lb.  The larger one was about $11.50 and the smaller one was about $9.50.  Considering a 14 oz smoked sirloin is about $20 at TXLC I'd say getting about 4 lbs of it for the same money was well worth it.  ;)

Chris Green


----------



## doug123 (Aug 29, 2006)

Thanks Chris. 

I am definitely going to try this.

That is my kind of meal   8)


----------



## cgreentx (Aug 29, 2006)

I had the leftovers tonight with some of that chicken.... yum yum  :)

Chris Green


----------



## cajunsmoker (Aug 29, 2006)

Looks great Chris,

Glad to see you made it through this in one piece :D .

The sirloin looks marvelous :!: 

Please tell me what brand smoker you have?  I like the looks but don't think I recognize it.


----------



## cgreentx (Aug 29, 2006)

Its a New Braunfels Super Longhorn Deluxe.  It has a few minor flaws in the design but has treated me quite well.  In particular it has a quite impressive cooking area, unfortunately a goo dchunk of it gets very direct heat from the firebox.  I may have to upgrade to something a bit nicer next year, or spend some time improving this one a bit.  :)

Chris Green


----------



## joed617 (Aug 29, 2006)

Nice smoke Chris,  Looks real good .. I just got through eating a smoked brisket sammie .. Goota love the left overs.. 


Joe


----------



## smokemack (Aug 29, 2006)

WOW, Chris, It all looks GREAT! Nice lookin' smoker! Damn that beef looks perfect, how did the tri-tip turn out as far as tenderness?


----------



## cgreentx (Aug 29, 2006)

It really was most excellent.  I think I might cook it a little bit slower next time to try and break down the membrane  because you really have to eat the fat along with the meat to appreciate this cut.  ;)  The meat was fork tender for the most part though.

Chris Green


----------



## cgreentx (Sep 17, 2006)

We decided for a round two this weekend.  I had a bunhc of guys over so I hit HED and got two tri-tips totalling in at 4.5 lbs for $17.  This is the cheapest gourmet dining you can do...  I managed to keep the smoker dead on about 230-240F as I smoked it for about 2 hours.  I pulled it when the larger one hit 142F internal temp.  This time the slower cooking broke the fat membranes down and it was even better than before.  The comments from the people there were even that it was better than the original that I had set out to re-create.  ;)

Chris Green


----------



## Dutch (Sep 17, 2006)

Nice looking tri-tip, Chris. You're right on about the low and slow to break down the connective tissues.

When I was working as a meat cutter, I'd get complaints from the customers 'cus the tri-tip's were "so small". :P

Have you tried slicing a tri-tip into steaks yet? Slice them into 1 inch steaks, sprinkle both side with Montreal Steak Seasoning and grill to Medium rare-Medium doneness. Oh my heck-talk about dying and going to Grillin' Heaven. :mrgreen:


----------



## cgreentx (Sep 17, 2006)

Here in TX I didn' teven know what a Tri-tip was until this experiment.  I love them smoked so much though that I may have a hard time bringing myself to grill one.  :)  I guess they are a pretty common steak in California, and end up in the Ground Beef in most parts of the country.

Chris


----------



## Dutch (Sep 17, 2006)

Chris, the tri tip is a sub-muscle group found in the sirloin. It's part of the Bottom Sirloin, so it's usually a bottom sirloin roast, bottom sirloin steak or separated from the rest of the bottom sirloin as sold as tri tip roasts or steaks. Only the trimmings end up as ground beef. :D


----------



## cgreentx (Sep 17, 2006)

Well the nice thing around here is that tri-tips are never on the shelf so both times I've requested them they had to cut them special for me meaning VERY fresh cuts.  :)

Chris Green


----------



## buddy (Sep 18, 2006)

I tried the tri tip this past weekend on my little ECB smoker and it was excellent! I have a friend who is a butcher at kroger and he showed me where the tri tip is on the sirloin, and cut 2 for me off of choice grade
sirloins. I cooked them like Chris did on his first try, at about 275 degrees
until medium rare. One I marinated in allegro , the other had some steak seasoning that I got from tom thumb grocery when I bought a steak. I
used hickory chunks , and they turned out great, I'm hooked. We have 
Texas land and cattle here also and I've wondered before how they make
smoked sirloin. Thanks for the info Chris.


----------



## smokemack (Sep 19, 2006)

Nice job blazing the Tri-Tip trail Chris. If anyone has heard of, or eaten at a Qdoba Mexican Grill (I work for them), we serve Tri-Tip in our steak burrito. If done right, it can be a very tender cut. I never thought of getting whole thing and smoking it; until Chris. Thanks man!


----------



## bluesdaddy (Nov 17, 2011)

According to the manager at my local Texas Land and Cattle, the actual cut of meat is called a culotte. Also referred to as a  top sirloin cap steak......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culotte_steak


----------

