Kielbasa, Hangarian, chorizo or bratwurst – some people can simply feed only on sausages. And probably, beer. Do you love sausages with beer? Before you answer, there is one kitchen conundrum that needs to be answered: how to cook sausages so that they are juicy inside and crispy and lovely charred on the outside?
All you gotta do is grab a sausage and toss it on the hot grill, and in a matter of seconds, you’ll get a classic product of high-heat cooking: with raw center and a burned exterior. Oops. Undercooked and overcooked at the same time – this is definitely not what you need. What you actually need is a much more gentle approach, with the insides cooked through as the first step and the outsides get a nice char as the second. If you are working on a grill try to create a two-zone fire with high heat on one side and moderate to low on the other. Just move the coals around to create a pile, leaving some behind. Place your sausages on a cooler side and then move to the hot, checking their doneness throughout the process. Take a thermometer for better results. Aim at 68°C/155°F (or two degrees lower). If you don’t have a thermometer, you can sacrifice one sausage and cut it in half to check doneness.
Use this method if you have a nice grill outdoors. If you don’t, try to cook your sausages in the oven. Let’s pretend you answered “yes” when we asked about the beer. To get the best of two worlds, just throw them together in a baking tray with some onions, garlic and peppers and roast. Here, you should follow the same two-step rule: low and slow at first and then high heat until nice and evenly cooked. Or the other way around, it shouldn’t matter much.
Take out a skillet, pour some oil and heat it, then toss your sausages there, char them on each side, and try to reach a beautiful brown color. Then transfer them to a roasting pan that’s been preheating in the 160°C/320°F oven, together with a cup of stout, 1 Tbsp red vinegar, 2 tsp olive oil and spices (sugar, salt, thyme, black pepper, allspice, crushed garlic). If you like, you can also add some liquid from some pickled veggies, sauerkraut or kimchi. Roast until done, basting the sausages occasionally with the juices. Eat as is or put inside a warm hot dog bun with some mayo, mustard, ketchup and relish. The only thing left to do is to chill another bottle of beer.
What do you think?