By Penny Gould 

The barbecue teams in Santa Maria can get pretty serious about their Tri-tip, and pretty secretive about their seasonings.  When I first moved to Santa Maria in 1999 I was amazed at all the BBQ you could find every weekend in Lompoc and Santa Maria.  I started volunteering at charity fundraising BBQ sales, and asking the BBQ cooks for their recipes, and usually got a story instead of a recipe.  So here's a silly BBQ story from Santa Maria for you!

Tri-Tip Steak Barbequed the Santa Maria Style  - a tall tale involving long neck beers, a bit racy but suitable for mature audiences....  As told to me (Penny) by a serious chef who shall remain nameless... (Duke - that boy can TALK!) (If you're too serious for this, try the Java Moto Tri-tip recipe, it's awesome!!!)

1 tri-tip - about 4 - lbs - untrimmed
salt, pepper, garlic salt
6 tall neck beers, ice cold
2 long loaves sourdough bread, cut in half lengthwise
1 head of garlic - peel the cloves and chop roughly
1 lb butter
pinquinto beans (or is it pinquito?) or your favorite chile beans
salad

red oak logs

Start your fire in your barbeque using red oak logs.  Sorry, that's the only secret to Santa Maria Style BBQ, it's the red oak logs.  If you don't have any, use what you have, it'll still taste great, but it just won't be quite the way we do it here.  Don't get discouraged if you don't have any red oak, just haul a trailer next time you come out to the coast and pick up a cord for yourself and your friends and call it good.  Have a beer and wait till the coals are red hot.  If you don't have red oak logs, you can use what you have, maybe wood chips, but try not to use charcoal briquettes.  Those are made with petrolium products, and your food will end up tasting like refinery byproducts, so let's not go there...  You can have a bit of flame if you have an adjustable grill, get ready to roll it up if the fires leap up. 

Mix together the seasoning of 1 part salt to 1/2 part black pepper and 1/2 part garlic salt.  If you need to stay away from salt, just use garlic powder instead of garlic salt.  (Avoid using Accent, it has MSG!)  Rub it on the meat, and let it set for a few minutes.  Sit in the shade and have a beer.  Argue with all your friends about the exact right mixture of seasonings.  My personal favorite is SusieQ's, and they'll sell it over the internet and you can try it....  Just make sure to get the one without MSG, that stuff'll give you a stomach ache like there's no tomorrow.... SusieQ's is basically salt, pepper, and garlic salt, with maybe one or two other ingredients, like parsley and yeast, and it is good.  If you don't have it just make your own, and it'll be good too.

When your fire's just right, and you have your tongs handy, place the tri-tip on the grill, with the fat side up, for only about 5 - 10 minutes, just to sear the juices in, then turn over the steak with the tongs, (don't use a fork if you can help it) and let the steak grill over the coals, with the fat side down, for about 35 - 45 minutes.  Remember you're not flaming it, you don't want to burn it.  If that's happening, the coals haven't burned down enough, or the grill's too low.  Santa Maria style bbq's have that big wheel and handle attached to the grill so it can easily be raised out of the flames reach if it gets flaming.  You might have to improvise, you don't want it burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.  Just to make sure, you could use a meat thermometer to check for doneness.  Remember that when you remove the meat from the grill, it will continue to cook for about another 10 minutes, so bring it off a bit before its' desired doneness....  Turn the tri - tip over, and barbecue it for another 30 - 45 minutes. 

These times are just a rough guideline, as it's going to depend a lot on the size of the tri - tip (or top block, that's good too - that's what we use for the Porteguese BBQ's) and your barbecue, the wood, etc.   (Reminder, use the meat thermometer...)  While the tri-tip is grilling, have another beer and argue with your friends about the merits of gas grills, as some people do use them, I just don't know why.  Another favorite argument is whether or not to trim the fat off the meat first, (it's best to trim it vs it's best not, who knows!) and why not just continue that argument to it's logical conclusion - start fat side down or up?  You get my drift, there's a lot of room here for your own personal style and preference, even we can't agree on the ONE way to barbecue tri tip here in Santa Maria!

When the tritip is almost done the way you like it, take the tri-tip off the grill with tongs, and let it set on a tray for a few minutes before slicing.  Just place a piece of foil over it to keep hot.  If you were to slice into it right after you take it from the fire, all the juices would run out, so it's better to time it to leave it on the cutting board for about 10 minutes before slicing.  (A nice touch would be a cutting board on a tray, the tray is to catch the juices.)  When you do slice the tri-tip, cut it the long way, it'll be a lot more tender that way!  (And of course there's the folks that say you MUST cut it across the grain, so go figure, opposite advice is not very helpful, sorry.)  Some people suggest using a long serrated knife, and that's their preference.  It makes it a little jagged, but it slices up nice that way!  Serve it with coffee if you already drank all your beer, and in case you need to drive. 

Barbequed tri-tip's great with sourdough bread that's been sliced in two the long way, and the tops dipped in melted garlic butter.  Grill for a minute the unbuttered outside, flip it over onto the garlic butter side, and get ready to pull it off quickly!  It'll smoke like crazy when the butter drips onto the coals! I like to put my friends to work peeling the garlic, that's part of the reason this recipe calls for 6 long neck beers.  You can also use up leftover hamburger or hotdog buns this way, it's all good.  I do like to use fresh garlic as opposed to garlic powder or garlic salt, it tastes better.  It's a little labor intensive, so ask your guests to help with this.  People are more willing to chop garlic if you give them a beer before you ask.  You don't actually use the beers for anything in the cooking process, it's just part of the ritual... (Now the bbq chicken - you do use the beer in cooking!  Visit the BBQ Chicken page.)  Slice the bread, and serve with  BBQ beans, we use little pink pinquinto beans here, (never can remember if it's pinquito or pinquinto, but you get my drift...) but you can cook up your favorite chile beans and it'll be just fine.  Then throw together your salad, and don't forget the salsa on the side!  Unless it's the dead of winter in Kansas, do try to make your own salsa!  If you can use fresh tomatoes, that's best!  Just chop the tomatoes, and put them in a bowl.  Then chop an onion, a stalk of celery, and California green chiles.  (Use 6 parts tomatoe to 1 part onion, 1 part celery, 1 part chile)  Chop up about 1 bunch of cilantro, and mix all your ingredients.  Season to taste with garlic salt, something spicy like tobasco sauce or chile sauce, a few tablespoons vinegar, and chill the salsa.  Try not to eat it all with tortilla chips before dinner.  If you're going to do that, just make two batches and hide one batch until dinner. 

Have a minute to leave a comment or question about Santa Maria Style BBQ?  Please visit the BBQ blog - thanks!!!