Help: Gasser to BGE recipe translation

i think that looks close enough. i would add that if your cooking inderect in an egg verse cooking on a gasser or in the oven that you might want to add 25 degrees to the dome temp if the recipe conversion is in degrees. i find that recipes converted from an oven take longer in the egg if you dont add atleast 25 degrees to the dome thermometer.

Hi Joe,

I wouldn't necessarily think about your recipe translations that literally. The Egg is a different tool, and uses techniques that aren't available on a standard gas grill. As Fidel said, it isn't the cooking temp that is the most important factor - it's measuring the doneness of the meat. Other factors to consider:

1) Direct vs. Indirect - Are you going to be cooking direct or indirect. Indirect cooking on the Egg is a lot different than turning off one of your burners on a gasser. Even recipes that are written for a 'smoker' are usually for one of those trash can-looking metal things, and usually talk a lot about what do put in your drip pan, a technique that isn't really that useful on the Egg.

2) Cooking Method - What is the intended effect of the cooking temperature on your meat? This will dictate what temperature range to aim for...

a. Low and Slow - Keep your temperatures between 190 and 250 degrees, and cook for a long time. This method breaks down the connective tissue in the meat and makes it more tender. However, this works best with certain cuts, such as brisket, ribs, and butts. Most gassers can't do this, so you see odd methods in a lot of BBQ books to make up for it, such as cooking in the grill, then wrapping in foil and putting in the oven.

b. Low Temperature Cook - For items that don't lend themselves well to 'low and slow', but would benefit from even cooking temperatures, keep the dome temp in the 300-375 range. I often do leg of lamb, whole turkeys or chickens, beef roasts, etc. in this range to allow them to cook properly without burning. This is also a good temperature to infuse smoke flavor into foods that shouldn't be cooked low and slow.

c. Medium Temperature Cook - Some items cook better at higher temperatures. If you're trying get a crispy outside while keeping the inside rare or juicy, set your dome temp closer to 450-500. This works for chicken, rare beef roasts, etc.

d. Searing Cook - For quickly searing the outside of steaks, tuna, etc., let the Egg get up to 650+. Again, this is a technique not available on most other grills, so you won't see it in the books. Look at the Trex steak recipe for details on how to best use this method.

3) Smoke - To smoke or not to smoke. On a gasser, this doesn't work really well, and so most cookbooks just skip over it. Think about whether you want to add a smoke flavor to your food. If so, you'll need to keep the temps relatively low, or your smoking wood will just burn up, and you won't give the meat time to absorb the smoke. Most sources state that meat stops absorbing smoke once it reaches about 140 degrees. If you get there too quickly, you won't get much flavor.

With all that said, I do translate recipes all the time for the Egg. When I see something that sounds good, I turn to the recipe section of this site for advice. For example, if I see a recipe for a pork tenderloin that says to cook at medium heat for an hour, that isn't too helpful in Eggland. So I go to the recipe section and find a couple of pork tenderloin recipes, and adopt the cooking techniques from those - direct vs. indirect, position of the grid, use of smoking wood, dome and target temps, etc. - and combine with the marinade, rub, spices, sauces, etc. from the original recipe. Make sure to write down what you did, so you can do it again if it comes out good, or modify it if something didn't work out quite right.

My wife runs a cooking blog (see link in signature), and I think she owns every cookbook ever made. She modifies almost every recipe she makes, so you may want to look at some of her posts to see how she does it.

Hope this is helpful.

-John