Beginners Cook a Tri-Tip Steak on a Primo Grill

If you’ve kept up-to-date with the FireBoard blog, you might be wondering: where are those weekly cooks they talked about doing? I want to see some beginners mishandle a brisket!

Well, two things: First, May was a BUSY month. And second, you’re in luck – because we’ll be sharing the details of our recent tri-tip steak grill session, including all the highs and lows.

To address our busy May, you may have read our recent post about the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, as well as our attendance at the 2024 National Restaurant Show in Chicago. To save some time, go check out that post so we can get to the good stuff here.

Since returning from Chicago, Alec and I had been debating what our next cook would look like. Eventually, we landed on a tri-tip steak since neither of us had any prior experience cooking one and it seemed like a good challenge. We were right about that!

The first thing we learned is that before you do anything, you’ll need to spend a few (or in our case, more than a few) minutes trimming excess fat from the cut. Tri-tips are infamously fatty on one side, so prepping it took some effort. The pros make it look easy, and we fell for it.

Once we prepped the steak, it was time to season it with Burnt Finger Steakhouse Grill Seasoning and get it on the grill. For this cook, we used a Primo we had in the warehouse – in previous cooks we’ve stuck to the Lone Star smoker, but we felt it was a good idea to mix things up and not get too comfortable with one type of meat or one type of grill/smoker. Otherwise, how are we going to improve?

This was also a great opportunity to get more hands-on experience with the FireBoard 2 Drive, since the Primo didn’t have a built-in FireBoard like the Lone Star. To begin, we attached the blower to the base of the grill and connected it to our FireBoard. We had a little trouble getting the fan to fit the slot properly, but we realized that this was because the grill had rotated on its stand when we wheeled it around FireBoard HQ. Once shifted back into place, we were able to get the fan situated without further trouble.

After that, it was time to get the fire started. We added a few chunks of applewood and lit the starter, then manually set the fan speed to ‘100’ and the temperature setpoint to 400°F in the FireBoard app on my smartphone. The fan immediately roared to life, which was nice to see. After placing the tri-tip on the grill, we closed the hood and made our way back to the office.

Here’s where we made our next error. As we watched the temperature chart on the app, we noticed it was struggling to climb. In the few minutes that had passed, it was evident that the ambient temperature should be much higher than it was, and the rate of increase was almost a plateau.

Did the fire go out? Did we forget to open the vent?

Yes, and yes. Oops.

After a quick trek downstairs, we saw that the fire was basically out and the vent near the top of the grill was shut tight. After a quick reignition and vent adjustment, we were back in action. We probed the steak using a standard wired probe attached to the second channel in our FireBoard 2 Drive, put it in the Primo, and shut the hood. We watched the temperature stabilize and begin to climb evenly over the next 10-20 minutes. The fan automatically adjusted its speed to maintain that even temperature increase, which was appreciated.

The plan at that point was to allow the meat’s internal temperature to rise to 125°F before pulling it to sear on a cast iron pan. (Note for the other beginners reading this: if you plan on getting a good sear this way, you need to make sure that the pan is hot enough to do the job.) We thought we had given it enough time to hit that point, but once the tri-tip’s internal temp hit 125°F and we placed it in the pan, we heard no sizzle and saw no sign of searing (say that five times fast!)

Alright, so, that’s unfortunate. Getting the right temperature is important for flavor, but getting a nice sear also helps, along with improving the overall presentation. This week, it was looking like we may have missed our window.

No big deal. We went ahead and put the meat back on the grill (sans pan) until it hit 135°F internally, and pulled it.

You might notice it looked a little underdone, and you’d be right. The particular cut we used was fatty throughout, even for a tri-tip, and we didn’t account for that. It was also possible that our probe wasn’t inserted properly, leading to inaccurate timing when we pulled it. In any case, it tasted great but required more than a little chewing to get through one bite.

To remedy that, we ended up finishing each slice by searing them on a pan in the kitchen. It certainly wasn’t ideal, but this helped to render the excess fat and added some extra flavor. Personally, I was a little nervous – whenever we do a cook, we like to share the results with our coworkers. I finally exhaled when I saw a message from our team chat saying “That steak is AWESOME!”

So, while we have a long way to go before real proficiency, it’s reassuring to know that we can fumble around and still produce something edible, and maybe even a little tasty.

Thanks for reading this week! You can see the results of this cook on our Instagram page here. If you have any feedback on how we might improve our results next time (for example, “open the vent, dude”), feel free to email me directly at joseph@fireboard.com. I can take it.

As a final note, this is your reminder that Father’s Day is right around the corner! We have a limited edition t-shirt that you can get free with any purchase over $79 until June 17. Just make sure you add the shirt to your cart so the coupon’s conditions are met.

See you all next week!