Well, I heard you askin’ ’bout the medium rare for tri tip, so I’ll tell ya what I know. That tri tip, it’s a good piece of meat, but you gotta cook it right. Not too much, not too little. Just like Goldilocks, you want it just right. If you want that medium rare tri tip, you gotta watch that temperature like a hawk.
Now, I ain’t no fancy cook with them, you know, them fancy tools. But I know a thing or two about cookin’ a good piece of meat. You get yourself one of them meat thermometers, the kind you stick in the middle. That’s your best friend when you’re cookin’ a tri tip. Helps you see what the temperature of tri tip is.
If you like it kinda bloody, that’s rare. They say that’s about 120 degrees. I like mine a little more done, so I go for that medium rare. That’s ’round 130 to 135 degrees, I reckon. Some folks like it cooked a bit more, they call that medium. That’s closer to 140. And if you cook it till there is no pink, well, you might as well eat shoe leather. But don’t worry about medium, that is too done for a good tri tip.
There’s two ways to cook a tri tip, in the oven or on the grill. Depends what ya got, I reckon. Doesn’t matter which way, you still need to watch that tri tip temperature.
- Oven cookin’ is easy, just like bakin’ a potato.
- Grillin’ is a little trickier, gotta flip it and all that.
Let’s talk about cookin’ that tri tip in the oven first. You gotta heat up that oven real good. I heard some folks say 425 degrees is good for the oven. Makes the outside nice and brown, keeps the inside juicy, so they say. Some other folks say 375 degrees is the way to go. They say it cooks it slow and even. But 425 degrees sounds better to me. That way you get a good crust.
Now, for the grill, that’s a whole other story. Some folks say 350 degrees is good for grillin’. You gotta cook it on one side for a while, then flip it to the other. And some folks, they do this thing called “reverse sear”. Sounds fancy, but it just means you cook it slow on one side of the grill, then move it to the hot side to finish it off. They say that takes about 45 minutes to get it to medium rare. 30 minutes on the slow side, 15 on the hot side. But it can change, ya know? Depends on the grill and the meat.
And about that “indirect cooking” thing. You just move the meat away from the hottest part of the grill, then put the lid on. That way it cooks kinda like in an oven. Keeps the heat even, ya see? You keep an eye on that temperature the whole time. That’s the most important part. The temperature of your tri tip.
And how long you cook it, well, that depends on how big your tri tip is. A little one will cook faster than a big one, that’s just common sense. You want to cook it until the inside gets to that medium rare temperature, that 130-135 degrees. The thicker the tri tip, the longer you need to cook it.
So, there ya have it. That’s what I know about cookin’ a tri tip. Just remember to watch that temperature, and you’ll be eatin’ good. You’ll have yourself a nice medium rare tri tip, juicy and tender. Just how it should be.
Now, I remember one time, my neighbor, she tried to cook a tri tip. Didn’t use no thermometer. Just guessed at it. Well, let me tell you, that thing was tough as an old boot. Poor thing, she was so embarrassed. We all told her, “Honey, you gotta use a thermometer!” But she didn’t listen.
So, don’t be like her. Get yourself a thermometer. It ain’t cheatin’, it’s just smart cookin’. And don’t be afraid to experiment a little. You might find you like it a little rarer or a little more done. That’s okay. Just find what you like and stick to it. That is the key to cooking tri tip medium rare.
Cookin’ ain’t rocket science, but it does take a little practice. Just like anything else, you get better the more you do it. So, go on, get yourself a tri tip and give it a try. You might surprise yourself. And remember what old me told you about that tri tip internal temp. It’s the most important part.
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