GrillinFools
Sausages or bratwursts are some of the most misunderstood of the grilled meats. For some reason, because it’s a sausage, people assume they can do just about anything to them and they will come out fine. They boil them before grilling. They boil them after. They cook them so hot that the skins rupture. All of these things are no-nos. Let’s get into some sausage tips and tricks.
1) Avoid poking holes in bratwursts or sausages
Just like any other meat, don’t poke a hole in sausages. The juices inside brats, just like the juices inside a steak or a chicken breast, taste good. Try to keep them inside the meat, or in this case the casing, so they make it to your taste buds. If the juices flare up over the grill, that means you don’t get to taste them. If roasting brats over a camp fire, sure they have to have holes poked in them, but don’t continually stab them with a carving fork to flip them over.
2) Don’t cook sausages over high heat
Most people cook brats and sausages way too hot. Those casings are really thin and rupture at anything over medium heat. Super hot grills might as well be a prickle of porcupines. A group of porcupines is called a prickle. I had to look it up too but man is it fitting. Back to bratwursts. Ruptured casings means a TON of flavor lost. Put some grill marks on your sausages but don’t go crazy with the heat.
3) Never boil brats or sausages
There are many sausage grilling rituals that involve boiling them, usually in a delicious adult beverage and some slices of onion. Some boil before and some after grilling them. Don’t do this. Boiling meat in liquid does not make tasty meat. It makes tasty liquid. This is how we make soup or stew. We get tasty broth not tasty brats. Now if you’re feeding a crowd in the backyard or at the campsite, an aluminum pan with some beer and onions to keep the sausages warm in a low simmer is perfectly acceptable. Boiling is a crime.
4) Smoked sausages make a great, smoky addition to the Dutch oven
Smoked sausages make a dutch oven stew into a STEWpendous meal! See what I did there? How could you not? I put stew in all caps! Or a gumbo or even a soup on the stove.
5) Sausages don’t have to be just for dinner
Instead of boring breakfast sausages, why not try the smoked sausages? I had them for breakfast twice last week. I’m not kidding.
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