Smoked Prime TRISKET - What you say is a "TRISKET"? You'll not find this cut of beef at any Butcher Shop or your local grocery store meat counter. The reason is because a TRISKET is a Tri-Tip roast cooked to perfection like a Brisket. Therefore the Tri-Tip becomes a TRItip briSKET. Hey, don't blame me, I didn't make this stuff up - I first heard about a TRISKET on the LetsTalkBBQ Forum when user muebe took a Tri-Tip roast and cooked it like a Brisket to 200ºF.

Many, including myself, think that it's sacrilegious to cook a Tri-Tip roast past medium-rare (135º to 145ºF). But after seeing multiple postings of TRISKET photos and write-ups about how delicious the results are I chose to find out for myself using a peeled USDA Prime Tri-Tip roast from Costco. Since I bought 12 Prime Tri-Tip roasts from Costco then this will be my posting of 4 of 12.

It was an unqualified success. I will say that SWMBO gave me the evil eye when I pulled the Tri-Tip at 140ºF to wrap in foil cause that's the sweet spot for me - when my Tri-Tips are so tender you can cut them with a fork and she says it melts in your mouth. I was somewhat skeptical but the results were delicious. Very moist and tender results. Sure is a lot easier to cook than a brisket and to me tasted a lot better than a brisket. Also since there's only the 2 of us it's a lot cheaper to smoke/cook a TRISKET than spend $30 - $50 for a brisket.

Prep the TRISKET like you would any other Tri-Tip roast with the exception of using a Prime Rib Seasoning instead of a Tri-Tip seasoning like Pete's Western Rub. When cooking a prime rib or ribeye roast I prefer using Fagundes Prime Rib Seasoning but you can use your preferred seasoning or rub.

• Trim any excess fat and silver skin from the roast
• Rub the Tri-Tip roast with an extra virgin olive oil and Fagundes Prime Rib Seasoning
• Wrap the roast with plastic and refrigerate overnight
• Configure your MAK 2 Star wood pellet smoker-grill or grill of choice for indirect cooking
• Preheat your grill to 225ºF using Hickory or wood pellets of choice
• Smoke the TRISKET for approximately 2 hours till the internal temperature reaches 140ºF
• Double wrap the TRISKET in heavy duty foil and return to grill
• Increase the pit temperature to 300ºF
• Remove the TRISKET when the internal temperature reaches 200ºF
• Rest the TRISKET in the foil for 15 minutes before carving against the grain

For planning purposes: Total time ~ 4 hours - 30 min preheat/2 hours @225º/hour & 15 min @300º/Rest 15 min

Smoked PRIME Tri-Tip Roast (3 of 12) - This is the 3rd in a series of 12 posts using peeled USDA Prime Tri-Tip roasts I purchased at Costco. My plan was to smoke/cook a Tri-Tip every week for 3 months but alas, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. It's beginning to be apparent that my biggest challenge is keeping from duplicating previous cooks. Not that there's anything wrong with that cause no matter how I smoke/cook these prime tri-tips they are simply some of the best cuts of beef I've tasted and cooked.

What to do - what to do? If you're going to smoke/cook a tri-tip roast on a MAK 2 Star General wood pellet smoker-grill and/or your grill of choice you need to smoke it first and then raise the temperature till you achieve your desired internal temperature. I often smoke roasts at 180ºF to 250ºF for one hour before bumping the pit temperature from 325ºF to 375ºF until the tri-tip roast reaches an internal temperature of 145ºF.

As always, I recommend rubbing your roast with a good roasted garlic extra virgin olive oil before applying a liberal amount of Pete's Western Rub on all sides. Wrap the tri-tip in plastic wrap and fridge overnight.

I chose to smoke the Tri-Tip for an hour at 180ºF using hickory bbq wood pellets. Then bumped the pit temperature to 350ºF. Pulled the Tri-Tip roast when the internal temperature reached 145ºF. Rested the roast loosely under a foil tent for 15 minutes before carving on bias against the multiple grains.