A little inside information on how we prepare our Apple Smoked Tri-Tip.
We start with Aged USDA Choice Tri-Tip. 24 hours before we are to cook, I trim any excess fat away and use a steak rub (cracked black pepper, garlic powder, celery salt, lemon pepper & onion salt) and coat each tri-tip and let it sit in a cooler over night.
To cook, I use a smoker with aged applewood and smoke it at 250-275 degrees for about 2-3 hours to get a good crust on it. Here is the secret, when I pull the meat of the smoker I put it in a roaster oven with about a 1/2 inch of cola on the bottom and let it steam at 300 degrees for an hour. (You can do this in a cake pan covered with foil as well.) At the end of the cooking process, the tri-tip will be well done, but very moist and very tender.
To serve, slice it cross-grain in 1/4 inch slices and serve with horsey sauce or your favorite BBQ sauce.
Good luck!