Best Way To Cook Sausages (quick question!)

[deans6571]

Hi to all!

When I generally cook pork sausages on my Weber MasterTouch, I generally cook these using indirect heat (lid closed, vents slightly open), with a heat probe attached to one of them, using the 'Pork' setting on my Wireless iTronics thermometer, until it hits the required temperature.

They come out properly cooked however I find that they don't tend to colour much (they almost look raw but they're not!) so I then have to sear them over direct heat.

The problem is though that more often than not, as soon as you start to sear them over direct heat, the skin of the sausage will ever so slightly split, which causes the fat from the sausage to shoot all over the coals and produce a massive flare up (my  father in law always jokes, sausages should be renamed 'napalm' purely for this reason!!)....!!!!  All I can then do is close the lid for few seconds to kill the flare up, but its a pain having to keep opening the lid again, move the sausages about (which causes another flare up), close the lid to kill it, and repeat several times in order to get colour on them....!!

What's the done thing here with these pesky sausages....?!!!!!

[addicted-to-smoke]

I understand what you're saying and although I'm no expert, just try it with fewer coals. It'll take a lot longer for the skin to split, and may nicely brown first like you want.

So try the first part the same, indirect with some heat, and when it comes time to brown, scatter the charcoal to reduce its impact (and napalm.)

[deans6571]

....scattering the charcoal may prove to be difficult, as (I guess I should have stated this above) my charcoal, is inside 2 charcoal baskets....

I generally cook my chicken first, and once thats done, remove it and throw on the sausages afterwards to cook on indirect heat, so its getting the colour on the sausages at the end (with no flare ups) which I am having difficulty with...

[addicted-to-smoke]

So pickup and remove the grate to somewhere safe, dump one of the baskets onto the charcoal grate, reinstall cook grate. Proper gloves and a second grill work great for flexible moves like that.

[demosthenes9]

Couple of ideas.  While we talk about 2 zone cooking, direct and indirect.  It's not such a clear cut binary.  The direct part is straight forward, right over the coals.  But I. Direct could be all the way on the other side of the grill from the coals, to right up next to, but not over the coals.

Move your sausages so that they are close to, but not over the charcoal baskets an d they should still get color.

Another idea is to fill the baskets to different levels or perhaps even add another basket so that one basket only has a few coals, enough to provide color.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[YardBurner]

Don't slap me down for this.

Best way to insure doneness AND a crisp
browned sausage is to par cook them by
simmering in water until 1/2 or more cooked thru.

Blot dry and grill to color.
They won't take so long since they are mostly cooked thru
and you can get them browned without drying them out.

Try it once and you'll be convinced.

If they are bratwurst go to the brat hot tub.

Beer or broth with loads of onions and some butter
simmering in a half steam tray on one side and brats on the other.

As soon as they are browned toss em in the pool.
Let em sit and soak for 20 minutes or so and serve.

Best thing is that they will stay hot and juicy for an hour or more.
Great way to cook for a mob.

[addicted-to-smoke]

Not opposed anything you said but will unfortunately require somewhat of a translation.

[SMOKE FREAK]

I like to give a quick sear to the cold sausages first and then set them to the indirect side to finish...
I have never used a thermo on sausages because in my opinion that is about the same as splitting the skin...
I usually give em 20 minutes from start to finish...Usually done perfectly and never split...
Try it...It works for me...

[addicted-to-smoke]

So what about letting them come up towards room temp first? They'll have 3 days' worth of salt on them, right? And the other half is fat, so they're probably good on the counter for hours.

I look for "first split" on the grill so that dinner table gotchas are minimized.

[YardBurner]

Not opposed anything you said but will unfortunately require somewhat of a translation.

What part would you like clarified?

Here's the hot tub part, straight from Johnsonville.

http://www.johnsonville.com/recipe/brat-hot-tub.html

Par cooking sausages is a time honored technique.
Kinda like par cooking taters before grilling.

-Rob

[pbe gummi bear]

I cook sausages direct but at low-medium heat, turning every so often. For a 22.5" kettle this means a loose-ish charcoal layer roughly 2 briqs thick, lower vent maybe 51-62% open. You want the sausages to brown, not char.

Alternatively, if you want to cook them more hands off, you can sear first, then let them come to temp indirect. I do this when I am cooking a huge feast so I can do more value added stuff.

[hawgheaven]

My best cooks have been around the Vortex, top  vent wide open, lower vent(s) barely open. Just sayin'...

[HoosierKettle]

All great suggestions. Cooking sausages is ever evolving for me, but generally I prefer to cook them direct over coals spread out with the lid on and rotating and turning a few times in 20 minutes or so. Sure the skin splits, but they have great color and flavor and are still plenty juicy.

I'll use different methods from time to time though.

The indirect method has always yielded tough outer casing for me.

As ats says. Dump the coals and cook traditionally. This method seems to be completely lost knowledge these days lol

Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[deans6571]

...thanks for all the advice guys - really appreciated. 

Will try out some of these methods on my next cook.

[jeffrackmo]

I do the Johnsonville Theory.  Beer boil em in coarsely chopped onion with a hand full of pepper corns.  as soon as the onion is clear or translucent, I pull them out, place them on a paper towel and blot them dry.  While on teh boil, I fire up the kettle with 1 basket.  I rotate them over the direct and indirect sides. 

They crisp up nicely and when the seep clear they are fully cooked.  I strain out the onions and bun up the links and put the onions on top... on a toasted Brat bun... man... make my mouth water just thinking about it...

Thats my $.02 worth...

TIA!!

Works for me.