Where is the tri tip
How To Butcher A Beef Hindquarter (Tri Tip, Picanha & More!)
thank you for stopping by ballistic BBQ
today we're taking a little field trip
out to the heart and Trotter whole
animal butchery we're gonna learn where
cuts like picanha and tri-tip come from
let's get go
[Music]
alright I'm here at the heart Trotter
whole animal butchery in San Diego
California with head butcher and
co-founder James Holt slag James how you
doing
good morning doing great so why don't
you tell us a little about Heartland
Trotter yeah of course
so the heart Trotter is the first local
whole-animal butcher shop in San Diego
as you will see we we break down whole
animals nose to tail we process every
part and piece of the animal in-house we
have a full kitchen smoker
grinder vacuum Packer all that stuff so
we take whole carcasses and break it
down to everything from from baloney and
different kind of charcuterie to your
typical steaks and everything from there
so you're actually making your own
charcuterie correct yeah yeah so we have
here a this is a hind quarter of a steer
is the hind quarter oversteer this is
from ma raposo ranch up in Newman
California
it's 100% grass-fed and as you can see
it's got a little bit of age on it we've
been letting it hang for about about
three weeks now and which really just
develops the flavor tightens up the
muscles and gives you a better state so
worried are going to go ahead and start
breaking it down and things that I'm
really excited about is I want to see
that
tri-tip come out of here because I know
a lot of a lot of my viewers from other
parts of the world especially parts of
the country here they they have a hard
time finding a tri-tip so James is gonna
show us where it comes from of course
yeah and the tri-tips a little tricky
it's a it's a muscle right in the
basically the pelvic area of the animal
and is not really popular around around
the United States yeah because it's an
amazing cut and it's very popular here
in California me coming from Virginia
ever heard of it until I came out here
and it's it's amazing so right well I'm
gonna get out of your way
jerks you do what you do of course
thanks all right guys so what we do here
at the heart and Trotter is we break
everything down by hand so I'm gonna go
ahead and start breaking down this hind
quarter this is my trusty five-inch
boning knife we pretty much do 95% of
everything with this little guy and then
we'll go from there so the first thing
I'm going to do I'm going to start to
separate the the flap the flank from the
round and then I'll start breaking
everything down from there so we start
to separate this so I'm just really
looking for seams as you can see not
hitting any meat using gravity and
tension to help me out through the
process so I want to kind of cut that
away to give me a little bit of a little
bit of room to work first thing I'm
gonna take off is the flank steak which
is right here and so I'm just going to
go right around that and then cut off
some of this connective tissue just
holds everything together
then I'll start to pull it off
so starts to look like a flank steak
somewhat then from there there's a lot
of different flat meats thin carne asada
type meats that uh that we really start
just pulling off of the flank area so
along with some connective tissue start
breaking it down some of this stuff is
not usable so we'll use it in things
like broths and stocks just for
flavoring won't go ahead and cut off
some of this stuff clean it up go from
there and then you really just start
pulling finding the seams
and like I said this is a it's really
good like taco meat grilling meats or of
course you get throw it into like ground
meat
all right this next piece is actually a
an amazing piece of meat that a lot of
people don't know about we call it the
bad vets it's nice and thick and similar
to the hanger steak as far as texture
and flavor and so what we want to do is
kind of cut down right along the
tenderloin just separate this a bit
and just like the other flatmate it'll
pull off once you get in you the scene
just cut around the outside of it pull
it off this is what they call a wrench
era No so this is a this is the sirloin
flap you'll see it as as either a bad
bet or like a faux hanger it's as you
can see it's nice and thick there's a
good amount of fat on it it's similar to
a skirt steak you could see how it uh
the protein fibers look similar to a
skirt steak and a hanger steak so nice
and tender a lot of really good flavor
like a high-end carne asada or just a
really good steak by itself quick seared
and you're good to go on that guy so
I've cleaned out most of the flat meat
now we're gonna get into the Tenderloin
which sits right here against the pelvic
bone and then the the spine itself so
first thing I'm gonna do is just clean
away some of this some of the extra
connective tissue
and age
all this stuff kind of pulls off
that's generally not edible good for dog
food and stuff like that so I'm gonna go
ahead and start to take the tenderloin
so I just want to go right up against
the spine so what I'm going to do is
basically about an inch 1/2 inch at a
time just go right around the spine
itself so I can start to pull this off
as you can see the knife with a flexible
knife you could just go right along the
contours of the bone and it'll curve
around it
and then it starts to pull away fairly
easily
so
got it cut off of the spine itself now
we want to continue that along the the
pelvis bone right here so the H bone and
the one or the zero joint they're
connected so I'm just going to go
straight down along that bone to
disconnect those and you'll see as I
pull it open there's a bone right
underneath here that I'm gonna start
working around
and pulled away there's a little pocket
right up against the top sirloin right
there so just follow this up towards the
H bone right there and so goes to a
point and I'm just going to follow that
seam up to the point to pull this whole
thing off
and with whole-animal that's a lot of
just working around the the the joints
and the fat and the seams it's a lot of
pushing and pulling but anyway that's
the Tenderloin okay so from here what I
want to do is I'm gonna go ahead and
trim up some of the the flank right
there and then take the New York the
strip loin off and then that'll leave
the top sirloin and then we'll get to
the the tri-tip which is located right
here so I want to find the fat seem to
make sure not to dig into the tri-tip
itself
and pull some this is the kidney fat out
so we could just see a little better
and
and start to take that off so from here
they always leave one rib bone the last
rib so I just need to use the sole to
get through that so with this you can
see there's a decent amount of meat in
there it's uh just flat meat we'll trim
it up use it for grind or or taco meat
or anything like that okay
next thing I want to do is separate the
strip loin and so what I'm looking for
is the zero joint which is right here
that's where the the spine and the tail
meat so it meets in kind of like a
u-shape of V shape and so I want to go
one joint up and that's where I want to
separate just get through the bone
itself
he's mine scimitar
cut that off so there is a boon in New
York okay so from there what we want to
do is start to work on the tri-tip so
I'm gonna clean up some of this stuff so
we can get it out of here
you can see a little better and so I can
see a little better
as far as they tried to seem and so
there's a trick to this a lot of people
don't know about so so you can see as I
pull that away pull some of this stuff
away there's there's a couple fat scenes
here and it actually makes the shape of
a Z it goes back this way so the tri-tip
is actually this portion right here so
what I want to do is start to open up
the bottom of that Z and so just gently
start to cut up in that uh that
connective tissue
and once you start to be able to get
your finger on there you could start to
pull it away
and go so this is the tip of the tri-tip
right there so continue that all the way
around and separate it
and so the tri-tip is a tricky tricky
cut to get off the animal get some of
this fat out of the way just because it
tucks under the sirloin tip and it goes
right up against the the top sirloin so
with this one in particular we kind of
have to hang it off the table and then
almost work on your knees as you're
going through and staying on that on
that seam
so you can see I'm right along the
contour of the sirloin tip right there
and then what I'm looking for is the
continuation of this silver skin going
down and that's going to be the end of
the tri-tip where it hits the the top
sirloin
so you're kind of just pulling trying to
find that seam which is right here and
then you start to pull it away
try to leave as much of the meat on
there as possible and you're using use
my hands to work around and just
separate some of this stuff as you can
see it's starting to come off comes to a
little point up there right underneath
the sternum a tip so I will break that
off and you have the tri-tip
so we can get rid of some of this fat
and to clean it up a little bit and
it'll look a little more normal
what people are used to
a lot of times you'll see the tri-tip
with the exterior fat cap removed I like
to keep it on just because it's it's
better through the cooking process so
just trim it up
hmmm take off some of this silver skin
and then I always like to leave whatever
good fat is on there so as far as that
and I just leave it on there but there
is your tri-tip just one more cut I'd
like to see is the pecan yeah you got it
can you do that for us of course yeah
it's a it's a great cut really popular
in South America if you ever been to a
Brazilian steakhouse that is the cut to
get and one of our favorites and we're
one of the only ones in town that can
actually give it to you so true
look this is the only place actually
that's how I discovered this is picanha
how I discovered heart the Trotter so
all right let's do it okay so what we're
going to do is separate the the top
sirloin from the round and first thing
we want to do is just get solved through
this the hip bone right there get some
of the fat off mid sole so generally I
want to be about an inch into or past
the the H bone right here you can see
the knuckle that's where the femur
starts going down that way but want to
be about right there go parallel with
the the tail bone itself this it's hit
or miss I mean if your quarter inch from
one side or the other you're gonna have
to cut twice that usually happens
sometimes you get lucky and you only
have to cut once but let's go ahead and
do it
right so I'm not lucky this time
we're enough to cut twice
all right so
there's the round section then here is
the top sirloin section and what we want
to do is using the bone scraper we just
want to clean away all of our sawdust
that we create it with the saw that
aside and so what we want to do is go
ahead and take the pelvis pelvic bone
out and along with the tailbone too so
just go right along contour all the way
down
really using the knife to know where you
are even if you can't see where you are
so the beauty of a knife that is
flexible
see it's starting to come apart
you want to go right down along the
tailbone start to pull this away
right along the bone
leave as much meat on there as possible
some of this stuff will get a trim
so that's the pelvis bone and part of
the tailbone so this is the the whole
top sirloin so what we want to do is
just clean up some of the fat on the
exterior on the bottom
and the picanha is on the top so we'll
take that off once we make a little a
little a couple little adjustments
Oh
it's with fat deposits
kind of just get out of there
from here
that's pretty much
how you would normally see it what we're
gonna do is take the picanha
which is right here off so it's the cap
it's fairly easy all you have to do is
find that seam and follow it
and just like all the other ones we want
to kind of pull away make that a little
easier
and then just like the tri-tip picanha
is also triangular-shaped
so we've gotten through to the bottom
I'm just going to go right along that
seam
so there's your top sirloin
there's your picanha and then to clean
this up it's pretty easy do is go right
underneath that connective tissue
pulls all fairly easily there's a big
piece of connective tissue right there
so you just want to get rid of that go
right underneath of it
and try to do these
all in one one stroke as much as
possible
you don't want little Saul marks all
over everything so just cut down
like that
in this side up a little bit
and there you go nice amazing piece of
meat we get a lot of a lot of people
from South America and other countries
that are really excited that we have
this so we have a lot of Brazilians here
in San Diego yep we do every time they
come in they're blown away that we
actually know what that is
got to tell you man I was very impressed
this was actually it was pretty fun for
me to watch so I learned a lot and my
hat's off is that there's a lot of skill
right here on this cutting board so way
to go thank you very much yeah it's a
pleasure anyway thanks again man I
appreciate you taking your time to help
me out with this video and of course now
that's what we do we're here that's why
our butcher block is not behind closed
doors we do everything right in front of
everybody so we love doing it and that's
what we do the show to show exactly well
thanks again
of course Cheers
you
you
