Off mobile and I can more easily type.
So, this cook was planned as a 2 hour smoke at low(ish) temperatures, I set it at 205ºF and loaded up about 5oz of red oak chips from smokelicious, with plans of finishing the tail end of the cook in the sous vide at 132ºF for 2 hours. I think this last part was unnecessary. But, seeing how I was starting the cook on the 3D at 3PM, then left for my tax filing appointment, I knew I would be back by 5 with almost done meat.
I cooked two essentially identical tri-tips, and I think I'll follow up on this by serving the second only re-warmed, without the secondary cook. I'm not a fan of medium cooked meat or anything beyond that and this pushed that envelope too far. But damn, the flavor of the simple spices was fantastic with the red oak smoke. I see why the traditionalists in California sneer at anything besides salt,pepper and garlic. I used freshly ground black malabar gold pepper and dried garlic (not powder) ground right before rubbing.
After a 10 minute rest out of the bag from the sous vide, I blasted the crust with the Searz-All, to firm up the bark.
I'm really happy with the flavor, but will modify the second and subsequent cooks for tri-tips this size. They're rather petite.
My intentions on the next cook it to firm up the crust a bit better and develop the texture a bit more using some ghee and a very hot pan.
The meal was finished with a simple sauté of zucchini that was flash sauteed in bacon fat (homemade bacon from a cook described previously) and a good dose of parmesan. The bourbon maple bacon got tossed back in at the end. Quite a nice touch.