Caribalo Steak Tips - Caveman Appetizers!

I thought about these Caribalo steak tips when my son asked me recently why I like to grill so much. Honestly, it’s hard to articulate. It’s a variety of things. Part of it is getting out of the house and enjoying the weather and nature. Part of it is the social aspect of grilling and the BBQ pit being the center of the party when grilling. Part of it is the putting meat over fire that awakens something primal inside of me. Since man discovered how to make fire, he (or she) has been putting meat over heat and enjoying the luscious outcomes from a savory char to the sultry smoke to the juices running free over our tongues when we bite into that tender meat.

Nothing accentuates that primal feeling I get when I grill like the steak tips from C and C Butcher here in St. Louis. These are the ultimate man appetizers. Cave man, that is! Sure, we do bacon wrapped dates with a raspberry reduction, or grilled oysters, and even roasted crostinis, all of which make outstanding appetizers, but this is an appetizer at the most basic, primal level. It’s meat (infused with a ton of flavor) and roasted over fire. There is no reduction sauce or a layer of Havarti melting down the sides like cheese over a French onion soup bowl. All you need to serve these steak tips are tongs and a knife. I went the extra step to put them on a cutting board. No forks or toothpicks needed. These can be eaten the caveman way, cut into manageable pieces and eaten with your fingers!

What is a steak tip?

It’s chunks of sirloin, soaked in various marinades and tossed in a tumbler that tenderizes and infuses the meat with flavor at the same time. They’re big enough to be an entrée for one or sliced into appetizers for many. I’ve done them both ways many times.

Second, where can you buy them? Steak tips prepared this way are only available at one place in St. Louis: C and C Butcher. If you’re on the east coast, you might be lucky enough to find more than one meat cutter in your town that has a tumbler, but not here in St. Louis. That is not so good for me since I don’t live all that close to C and C Butcher in Ellisville, but when I get out that way, I always stock up.

Third, what do they taste like? C and C Butcher has a variety of flavors like Butter Garlic, Caribbean, House, Teriyaki, Burgundy and my favorite, Caribalo which I grilled here. The Caribalo is similar to a jerk seasoning in that it has a good amount of heat, but not just to be hot. It also has a very robust flavor profile. For me, the Caribalo is almost addicting.

So let’s get to this. Ingredients? Meat. That’s it. Meat. These things come pre-flavored, there needs to be no seasoning added. No salt. Nothing:

Next, we need fire. Or in this case, my gas grill should do, but charcoal will work as well. I got the grill up to about 700 and tossed the meat on:

Caribalo Steak Tips - 18 — MEAT and FIRE!

Nothing to grilling these. Just grill it like a steak. Sear, sear, bake (if you want it more done than rare then bake on the side with no heat for 4-12 minutes) and set aside to rest for a couple minutes. I think I seared these for about four minutes before I flipped them:

Don’t sweat the blackening there. The Caribalo marinade evidently has a decent amount of sugar which adds to the flavor profile of that perfectly sweet and delightfully spicy combination.

After I seared the other side, I was ready to pull them off the grill at a nice rare. If you want them a bit more done, place them on the side of the grill with no heat and close the lid to bake them to the desired doneness. How do you know when it is the desired doneness without slicing into it? Either get a ThermaPen, or go with the Thumb Test!

I rested the steak tips for a couple minutes to let the juices redistribute while I poured a Kräftig before slicing and serving:

Caribalo Steak Tips - 55 — RED MEAT and COLD BEER!

The steak tips are uber tender and absolutely overloaded with flavor. How much more can you ask for? Remove from the fridge and packaging, place over fire, sear, sear, slice and serve. It’s the ultimate caveman appetizer! It’s even OK, for the cavewoman!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section or shoot me an email.

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Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.