Holding meat at temperature

[ricklea1953]

I am going to cook tri-tip on a grill for 35 people. A second grill will be doing chicken breasts. Given the size limitations of the grill, I will have to cook in two batches.

How can I hold meat at low temperature. I cook the tri-tip to 130-135 degrees. Each batch of meat will take about an hour. I think the warm setting on an oven is above 135 degrees.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

Rick

[phatch]

Have a cooler ready, but no ice in it. If you can, size the cooler to be a fairly close fit for the tri-tip. Take it off the grill and store it in the cooler. You may want to wrap it in some foil or plastic wrap first to contain the juices and help stabilize the temp.

If you have lots of space in the cooler, add some thermal mass such as tupperware of HOT water.

Phil

[Chad Aaland]

Do you have access to an oven or will this be outside or in view of the public? If it's in a normal kitchen away from the guests, I suggest marking them on the grill then finishing in the oven.

[castironchef]

Another possibility is to plant an electric heating pad in the bottom of a cooler.

After you pull your first batch of meat off of the grill, you can put the tri-tips in an aluminum tray and place in the "cooler" over the pad. That "should" keep the temp in the right range for a bit.

[cookie jim]

rickleal1953; I used to fix 25 to 30 prim ribs a day.I kept them in ice chest and they held for hours with excellent results...good cookin...cookie

[allie]

When we cook bbq, we take the meat off and foil it. Then put it in a cooler. We use a small cooler but in a larger one, you can crumple up newspaper and it will help insulate it even more. The meat stays really warm for hours that way but we never leave it more than 2.

[DC Sunshine]

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is a "Tri-Tip" ? Would love to know.... is it a three horned cow?

[phatch]

It's a cut of beef mostly seen out west. It's triangular in shape. It's usually ground up for hamburger.

See Tri-tip - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[DC Sunshine]

Originally Posted by phatch

It's a cut of beef mostly seen out west. It's triangular in shape. It's usually ground up for hamburger.

See Tri-tip - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aha hence the name - thanks for the link. I think its part of what gets called rump here. Thanks for clearing that up - terms get confusing at times.