Can you put additional meat into the BGE while you already have something ongoing?

mapfrancel

Hi! I have a large BGE and would like to maximize its use. It is often just my husband and I eating so it would be nice to sometimes grill diffferent items at once, not necesarilly in one go. Questions: Can I add additional meat to the egg while something else is being cooked in it? The temp will drop for sure delaying the item already in it so that's granting I have ample time. Would there be other issues if I do that? Also, is it ok to cook shrimps or fish with meat. I imagine it will affect each other's flavor. Just want to ask in case somebody else has tried it before. Am thinking in line more of say a 4 lb pork butt already in and adding later on some strips of cured bacon or shrimps or serving size salmon. But they have different recommended temps so maybe not. Grateful for any comment/advice. Many thanks!

  

lkapigian

Yup, done all the time , just careful of your uncooked touching the cooking for cross  contamination 

mapfrancel

lkapigian said:

Yup, done all the time , just careful of your uncooked touching the cooking for cross  contamination 

Hi! Would that be yes to adding food Midway of Another Cook and yes to fish/seafood to meat cooking? I am assuming both anyway. Many thanks.

JRWhitee

Yes!

Foghorn

Definitely yes.  Fish, shrimp, veggies, whatever.  And while you should try to keep the raw stuff (especially chicken) from touching the other stuff, the surface temp of most everything you cook will be high enough to kill pretty much any contamination.

gdenby

Adding something into a hot Egg does less to effect the cooking environment than adding something to a kitchen oven. A small mass, like fish or shrimp, or chicken pieces will only disturb the temperature marginally, and will recover faster than an oven.

Many recipes call for cooking at a certain temperature for a certain time. It is better to cook to finished temperature, adjusting the time for the heat that is present. For instance, pork butts can be well cooked at temperatures from 225F to 350F. The difference is that at 225, the time will be around 2hrs/pound, but at 350, it will drop to around 45min/lb.

Considering that salmon and most fish don't need to go much above 125F internal temp, putting them in just a few minutes before removing the larger piece of meat will be enough to cook them.

Same thing would be true for adding some sausages towards the end of cooking a whole chicken. Many people boost the temp to 450F to insure browning the chicken. Putting the sausages in just before boosting the temp will likely finish them as the chicken browns, and if not, by the time the chicken is brought in and prepared for carving, the sausages will be done.

mapfrancel

Very valuable advice. Thanks gdenby. I'll keep this in mind. I was also thinking maybe sneak in some portion-sized salmon for lunch midstream while cooking the meat for dinner. Make it really short and with a thermometer. Thanks a lot again!