Reverse Seared Tri Tip from Salant Family Ranch with Compound Butter – Culinary Seasons

Salant Family Ranch is a local Angus Simmental Cattle breeder who I met at the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market in Medford, Oregon. The care he gives in raising his cattle definitely comes through in the final product.

The video interview is at the bottom of the recipe or follow the link for Salant Family Ranch to read the blog post as well.

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I picked up the Tri Tip from Peter Salant and wanted to cook it without too much seasoning or sauce that may take away from the flavors of the meat. He suggested smoking the meat, so I took his advice and decided to do a smoke & reverse sear. The flavor of the meat with minimal seasoning was amazing, the smoke flavor with the reverse sear gave a nice crust with the smokey notes coming through. Paired with the Bourbon Shallot & Chive Compound Butter, the delicate flavors paired nicely with the beef.

Reverse Searing – But I don’t have a smoker!

Don’t worry, you don’t need one to do a reverse sear.

The process for reverse searing is relatively simple. You don’t need a smoker to do reverse searing! A smoker does impart a nice smoke flavor from the selected type of wood pellets or chips but you can do a reverse sear without a smoker. You can do the first step in the oven or in a grill without any smoke chips.

Reverse searing is similar to roasting a prime rib, you roast the meat at a low temperature, in this case 225° for a longer time than you would if you were direct grilling the meat.

The slow roasting or smoking the meat allows the it to slowly rise in temperature to allow for the meat to have the same cooking temperature throughout the meat. Take a look at the picture of the plated Tri Tip, the nice medium rare color is throughout the meat without much of a color variation to the edge.

Pull the meat from the oven or smoker at about 10-15 degrees below your desired final temperature and let rest before searing on the grill or in a cast iron pan. This will give you time to get your grill up to a searing temperature of 500 plus degrees.

Sear the meat on both sides to build a nice crust on the outside. Monitor the temperature of the meat to not exceed your desired final cooking temperature. Because you rested the meat between slow roasting or smoking and searing the meat should have sufficiently rested to retain the juices.

Slice the meat against the grain and serve with the Bourbon Shallot & Chive Compound Butter.

Enjoy!

*The times above are approximate for the smoking time and searing time.

*Times will depend on the size of the meat, smoking temperature, and the searing time.
Follow instructions for smoking and searing below.

*Using a wireless thermometer will help the accuracy of the final temperature for smoking or searing.