GrillAmerican
Picanha, fat cap on
The sirloin cap with its fat left in place. Fold it, salt it, and let that cap baste the meat as it renders.
Made it?
1 hr 15 min · 25 min hands-on · pull 130°F · rest 12 min
Ingredients
1.5 lb on the fire · ~1.2 lb to the table · 2 plates at 8 oz
- picanha, fat cap trimmed to ½ inch and scored1 1/2 lb
- kosher salt1 tbsp
- black pepper (optional)1 tsp
Method
- 1
Leave the cap on. Score it in a crosshatch, not into the meat. Salt generously, especially the fat.
- 2
Indirect 275°F, fat up, until 120°F in the thickest muscle, 40–55 minutes.
- 3
Move fat-cap to the hot zone or a skillet. Render 1–2 minutes until the fat goes gold. Rest 12 minutes. Slice with the grain into steaks, then each steak across the grain.
If you don’t have it
- Picanha with cap → Tri-tip or a thick sirloin roast. Tri-tip is the library cousin. Without a cap you are cooking sirloin — still salt and reverse, just less baste.
- Oak → Mesquite in a short dose, or charcoal with no wood. Churrasco is coals as much as smoke.
Same cook, different day
Skewer crescents
You want the Brazilian look. Slice with the grain into 1½-inch steaks, fold fat-out on a skewer, rotate over coals to 130.
Pellet then pan
Weeknight cap. 250°F to 120, then fat-side in a skillet until gold.
Coarse salt only
Purist. No pepper. Rock salt, fire, fat. That is the whole seasoning.
On the plate
With this, try
- With this dish, try making grilled onions.
Alongside a tri-tip or skirt. Thick rounds, oil, salt, the cool then hot zone until soft and marked.
25 min
- With this dish, try making steak fries.
Par-cook while the steak dry-brines. Finish when the steak rests. Russets, ½-inch sticks, soak, dry. 325°F then 375°F, or a hot sheet with oil if you refuse a pot of fat. Salt the second they leave the heat.
45 min
- With this dish, try making grilled asparagus.
When the meat comes off to rest. Thick spears, oil, salt. Hot grate 2–3 minutes, roll, another minute. Lemon. Pencil spears go in a hot skillet, not on the bars.
10 min