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Tritip - A Ren Faire Post


Porthos

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One of the blessings of living in southern California is have the Stater Bros market chain. They are my favorite source of meat. Small wonder. Meat is what they are known for. When they run sales on meat it is generally without limit.

 

Tonight I was perusing the food ads online looking for the best prices on soda this week. My DW is to Diet Coke to what truck drivers are to coffee. When I looked at the Stater Bros ad what I quickly and happily noticed is that they have trimmed tri-tip on sale for $2.99/pound. Now I already had the beef I was planning on serving this weekend for our ren faire guild feast sitting in the freezer; top sirloin steaks I had purchased from Stater Bros last week for $2.99/pound. I was able to serve top sirloin the previous 2 weekends also. Well, the top sirloin will have to wait a week. Having an unfettered evening I made my way (all 2 blocks away) to Stater Bros and picked up 22 pounds of tri-tip and processed it into the size that I like to grill. A quick reminder: we do not serve "portions" to guild members, we serve bites, which typically are cut to be two bites worth. This piece illustrates my favorite proportion to grill because after cooking it can be cut into 5 or 6 bites quickly. I do not go for even, equal cuts because the various pieces will cook up between medium rare to medium well, with me trying to have more medium rare than anything else.

Now it's time for a beer and to bed.

Tri-tip.jpg

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Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

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What luck!  I too love the Stater Bros. chain and wish we had more frequent access to it, for the reasons you cite.  If you can, please show us photos later of the grilling process and the served meat. 

Edited by Smithy
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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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I had to shoot these photos on the fly. I am doing other things while grilling the meat.

 

Here is the meat after getting a light dry rub. Don't ask me what was in it, it changes every day and yesterday was a long time ago.

 

Tri-tip2.jpg.0be0f3f4b4208b669eb628d246c6decc.jpg

 

I try to get the rub on the meat about an hour before it hits the grill.

 

Probably 2010 my DW gave me this event grill from Sam's Club for our anniversary.  8 Burners, a little over 1000 sq inches of grilling surface. It is a nice toy.

 

This is what the meat looks like just after putting it on the grill.

 

Tri-tip3.jpg.4a807bc12c8179f854fd060403348e51.jpg

 

Most of the way through the cooking.

 

Tri-tip4.jpg.364294ada5ab15270d25130fad1bc614.jpg

 

Here are a couple of the strips showing the approximate size of pieces I prefer.

 

Tri-tip5.jpg.41d48145ae6b6cceaaad44c306d24730.jpg

 

Someone else did most of the cutting since I was on to grilling about 8 pounds of chicken leg meat. This is about 20 percent of the meat cut up.

 

Tri-tip6.jpg.1e37be0e352692c15efe627ded6fae04.jpg

 

And finally a rotten photo of a sparsely-filled meat platter. Grilled beef, grilled chicken, sauteed kielbasa, ham chunks, and little smokies glazed with BBQ sauce.

 

Tri-tip7.jpg.33531f1258d8203982a376c90c87c01d.jpg

 

We heat up and sauce a 6 pound bag of meat balls but they go into a bowl and are served that way.

 

So that's the tri-tip from this weekend.

 

 

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Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

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Am amazed they had Little Smokies as long ago as the Renaissance. Who knew?

 

<<<an unabashed aficionado of Little Smokies in barbecue sauce/raspberry preserves, in the crock pot, at parties>>>

 

 

Don't ask. Eat it.

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I don't serve an authentic Elizabethan feast. What I do do is avoid glaring anachronisms. No tomatoes, no peppers, no corn.

 

Some years ago the faire that I am currently cooking at made a specific decision that this faire was no longer about period-correct reenactment, but was now about entertainment. We still try to loosely give the feeling of being in Elizabethan England but people walking around with their beer in plastic glasses kind of blunts that.

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Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

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16 minutes ago, Porthos said:

I don't serve an authentic Elizabethan feast. What I do do is avoid glaring anachronisms. No tomatoes, no peppers, no corn.

 

Some years ago the faire that I am currently cooking at made a specific decision that this faire was no longer about period-correct reenactment, but was now about entertainment. We still try to loosely give the feeling of being in Elizabethan England but people walking around with their beer in plastic glasses kind of blunts that.

 And Porta Potties are still better than the Elizabethan alternative.   Just saying.  

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

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1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 And Porta Potties are still better than the Elizabethan alternative.   Just saying.  

 

But not by much.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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29 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

But not by much.

 

Agreed!   But it depends. I've seen some pretty classy ones!  

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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I've been to many a folk festival and I'm pretty sure the Elizabethan peasants had it better.  Maybe for the food too.  Oh, wow, does this bring back olfactory memories.  Not the least a certain jar of Nutella.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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4 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I've been to many a folk festival and I'm pretty sure the Elizabethan peasants had it better.  Maybe for the food too.  Oh, wow, does this bring back olfactory memories.  Not the least a certain jar of Nutella.

 

From the information that @Porthos  has posted about the food he and his family cook for the Ren Faire he is involved with,  I think you might fare pretty good on the food side.  

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Pretty fair fare at the faire. :)

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"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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