I received this meat for free, I did not pay for it. I was asked kindly if I wanted some free meat to review on Meathenge. I contemplated this on The Tree of Woe until the answer came to me, “Free meat? Shit yeah!”
These two meats kinda surprised me, first I wasn’t expecting beef bacon and when I see the word tri-tip I think roast. I held these two little guys and giggled, “This ain’t no tri-tip.” And brother, or sister, I know tri-tip, I’m from California. It’s supposed to have 3 tips to the roast and these were little meat logs. Next, I kinda stared at the beef bacon, a little disdain coming forth. You see, both myself and Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius are bacon snobs. He and I have been through quite a bit of bacon that was not made from a pork product and it’s rarely above mediocre. This isn’t because it was bad or whatever, but it’s tough to beat grilled pork belly bacon. We’ll have to see.
This last week we were lucky enough to have not only a dry week (rain, not booze), but the days got up to the high 60 degree mark. What with the mold problem in our tiny home, I spent each evening grill-side cooking dinner. Even if it was dark and had to cook by flashlight, it was a necessary therapy.
If’n yer interested, click on through to the other side and let’s see how all this came out, eh?

I hear time and time again, “I like my propane grill because I just turn it on and I’m ready go.” I don’t say anything anymore, I figure they’re the ones that will have to eat that lackluster food and miss out. My hardwood fire was ready to cook on within 25 minutes, the time it took me to prep the meat and clean a few dishes. Is it really that tough, you poor thing.

From first glance, I knew the tri-tips steaks wanted only kosher salt, heat & smoke, fast. The bacon would be cooked indirectly, a few slices over the top of the steaks, maybe.

I wish I had more to say or ramble about, but this all came together so fast, cooked so well, there wasn’t really much to it. What came off the grill cooked faster than the pot of frozen peas on the stove. Oh yeah, these wood fired pits are take so much time and effort to use, lordy people.

First off came the steaks! While the bacon was still cooking, the boys and I hunkered around the cutting board and ate our way through the happy little guys. Usually, I find grass-fed beef to be quite grassy or void of any flavor values. These actually had a good clean beef flavor, not huge though. This is why I chose not to use a marinade, dry-rub or citrus. I wanted to celebrate the flavor and texture of the high-quality meat. While it wasn’t a traditional tri-tip roast, they did come from one and what a cute little tasty treat!

The bacon came next and showed up ready just as we finished powering through the steaks. The fat to meat ratio was about equal, pretty high in fat. This lead me to believe that the “bacon” might actually have flavor, maybe a fighting chance?

As I always am, I have to be honest, this is the best non-pork bacon I’ve ever had. The texture was amazingly close to the pork cousin, the cure was there with a nice warm yet salty love. Considering I grilled it over hardwood with hickory, I have no idea how the smoky love was. I can tell you it was really great grilled and would suggest you grill your bacon from time to time.
I would buy the bacon, not sure about the steaks. This is only because of the size, it doesn’t work for me personally. However, it would fit nicely for someone doing a fancy dinner and wanted good looking portions or a restaurant, it’d be perfect for that. For me, they make perfect appetizers! Thank you for the fine meal Erin, I appreciate it. And thank you U.S. Wellness Meats.
xo, Biggles
If you’re interested, use the promo code below to get a discount.
U.S. Wellness Meats promo code is NYC2010 and is good for 15% off orders under 40 lb. worth of merchandise. (It excludes items on sale and the Flavorwave oven.)