Tri tip vs brisket. What’s your favorite? Both meat cuts offer delicious flavor, but they have major differences in cooking times, how to cook, and cost. In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about these different cuts of beef.
What Is Tri-Tip?
Tri-tip is a triangular-shaped cut of beef that comes from the bottom sirloin section of the cow’s hindquarter. Its triangular shape gives it the name “Tri-Tip,” and it is also known as Bottom Sirloin Roast, Bottom Sirloin Butt, Petite Sirloin/Ball Tip, Santa Maria Steak, Santa Maria Roast, Newport Steak, tri-tip roast, triangle roast, and triangle steak. This cut was historically more popular on the West Coast of the U.S., especially in southern California, where it became recognized as a California Cut of beef and a staple in Santa Maria style barbecue.
An untrimmed tri tip can weigh nearly 5 pounds (as it has a large fat cap and layer of skin), but most purchased tri tips will weigh 2-3 pounds. Because it comes from the sirloin area, tri-tip is a lean cut, boneless, and has great marbling. It’s cheaper than other steaks with similar flavor, like ribeye steak. The tri-tip has a modest amount of marbling and a thin layer of fat on one side. This fat cap plays a crucial role during cooking, basting the meat and adding flavor without overwhelming the cut.
It’s important to note that when we refer to a tri tip roast, we’re talking about the entire cut of meat above the ball tip and adjacent to the flap on the bottom part of the sirloin. The tri tip roast can be cooked whole and then sliced and served. The roast can also be cut into 1″ tri tip steaks that can be grilled individually.
Typically, this cut is known to be grilled or roasted. We usually consider Tri-Tip to be a steak-like cut and it’s awesome served medium or medium rare. But, in recent years people have begun to make brisket-style tri-tip (more on this below). Tri Tip cooked like a brisket is a fun, unique, flavorful way to prepare tri tip. The result is brisket-like, tender meat, without all the time, cost, and effort it takes to make smoked brisket.
What Is Brisket?
Brisket is a large piece of meat that comes from the lower chest or breast area of the cow. This is a heavily exercised, large cut of meat, which means it’s a tough cut of meat and has a higher proportion of connective tissue. However, that toughness is exactly what makes brisket so beloved when cooked properly.
Brisket is a large cut of meat that is divided into two main parts: the flat cut and the point cut. The flat is leaner and more uniform in shape, while the point is fattier, marbled, and typically more flavorful. The fat cap on the brisket is integral to its cooking process. As the brisket cooks slowly over a long time, the fat renders down, basting the meat and keeping it moist and succulent throughout the long hours of smoking or slow-cooking.
A whole brisket can weigh anywhere from about 5 to 20 pounds. Usually, grocery stores sell brisket cuts as either the flat or point, not a whole brisket. If you want a whole brisket, you’ll need to go to a local butcher or a local farmer. When cooking a whole brisket, remember that the flat and point cook differently — this is why cooking a delicious brisket can be so tricky! The flat is slightly leaner than the point and is easier to overcook. The point is very well-marbled and needs a longer cook time.
Characteristics of Tri-Tip Cut:
- Size and Shape: Tri-tip is a smaller cut of meat, typically weighing 3 to 5 pounds. It has a unique triangular shape.
- Texture: Lean with moderate marbling, and tender.
- Flavor Profile: Bold and beefy.
- Cooking Methods: Best way to cook tri-tip is grilling, roasting, smoking, or broiling.
- Cooking Time: As a smaller, leaner cut, tri-tip is typically seared over high-heat before being finished off at a lower temperature. It cooks very quickly compared to brisket, often in 30-60 minutes depending on thickness.
- Best Uses: Roast or grill and then slice tri-tip steaks across the grain. Can also slow-cook like a brisket (more on that below).
Characteristics of Brisket:
Size and Shape: Brisket is a large cut that can weigh between 10 to 20 pounds, and has a flatter shape compared to the tri-tip.
- Texture: Tough but becomes incredibly tender when cooked properly.
- Flavor Profile: Brisket is in a league of its own when it comes to depth of flavor. Deep, smoky, and rich due to its higher fat content and long cooking process.
- Cooking Methods: Best suited for smoking, braising, or slow-roasting.
- Cooking Time: Brisket requires a slow and low cooking process, and is often seen as a more advanced cut of meat to prepare. It often requires 12+ hours for proper tenderness, depending on size and method.
- Best Uses: Commonly sliced or chopped for barbecue platters, sandwiches, and tacos.
Cooking Tri-Tip Steak or Roast
How you cook tri-tip will depend on if you’re making tri-tip steak, tri-tip roast, or brisket-style tri-tip. When grilling a tri tip roast or steak, you’ll first heat your charcoal grill or gas grill to about 350 degrees for two-zone grilling. Then, grill over indirect heat and continue to grill until it’s within about 10-15 degrees of your final target temperature. Next, sear the roast by moving the grilled tri-tip to direct heat until the internal temperature of the meat reaches your desired final doneness. The ideal internal temperature for tri tip is around 130°F to 135°F for medium-rare, though some prefer it slightly more done at 140°F for medium. Always let the meat rest for 10-15 minutes on a cutting board. If desired, you can tent with aluminum foil while the meat is resting. Slice against the grain and serve.
Cooking Brisket
Brisket, with its tougher texture, demands a slow cook method. This cut benefits immensely from a low and slow cooking process that allows the collagen in the connective tissues to break down over time. Typically, brisket is cooked at a low temperature—often around 225°F to 250°F—until it reaches an internal temperature of 195°F to 205°F. At this range, the meat becomes tender enough to slice or pull apart easily.
Smoking is the most popular method for cooking brisket, as the prolonged cooking time at low temperatures allows for the development of complex, smoky flavors. The slow rendering of the fat cap is essential, as it bastes the meat continuously throughout the cooking process, keeping it moist and enhancing its rich, beefy flavor.
Slice Against the Grain
For both cuts of meat, it’s critical to cut against the grain. The grain of any meat is the alignment of muscle fibers. When intact, the muscle fibers are strong and chewy. If you don’t cut against the grain, the muscle fibers will remain somewhat intact and very difficult to chew. When you cut against the grain, you break up the muscle fibers evenly so that the meat becomes much more tender in every slice.
Brisket has two main parts, so you’ll want to find the grain on each part. Tri tip changes direction of the grain, so you may need to start slicing one way and then rotate the meat to follow the grain.
The Fat Cap
In both tri tip and brisket, the fat cap is more than just a layer of fat—it’s a natural basting agent that transforms the texture and flavor of the meat during cooking. With tri-tip, it’s typically a small fat cap on one side. In brisket, it’s a much thicker fat cap.
What Is Brisket-Style Tri-Tip in BBQ?
“Brisket-style tri-tip” refers to slow-smoking tri-tip like a brisket to achieve a similar texture and smokiness. The result is fall-apart tender meat with the same rich flavors as brisket but in a fraction of the time. The key to being able to smoke a tri tip like a brisket is to find a Tri-Tip with a fat cap, or a Prime cut tri tip. Otherwise, without much marbling and enough fat, the tri-tip will dry out in your smoker. There are dozens of great recipes online on how to cook a tri-tip like a brisket. We don’t have one on our site (yet), but we highly recommend this cooking method for tri-tip.
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We're Matt & Jessica, fifth-generation cattle farmers & the owners of Clover Meadows Beef. Good food starts with knowing where it comes from. On our blog, you'll find easy beef recipes, cooking tips, stories of how we raise our cattle, and how to buy farm-fresh beef locally. Our goal is to make cooking beef easy so you feel confident cooking any cut of beef in your home kitchen.