How do I grill sausages properly?
BBQ sausages are delicious. Read about making and cooking sausages and which meat thermometer to use to cook the perfect sausage.
Is there anything more delicious than a barbecued sausage? That’s right, there isn’t! Here I will teach you to cook the perfect grilled sausage. To enjoy the perfect sausage, you must prepare them in advance so that you can cook them carefully before eating them. Your grilled sausages should burst from the inside with clear juices and form a crisp skin crispy on the outside when cooked perfectly on any type of grill. You can grill sausages by using two different methods. One way is to partly boil the sausages before you start to grill them; the other method is by directly grilling the sausages. I will have a look at both ways to cook the sausages.
Direct grilling
If you want to use this method you should first sear the sausages by placing them directly on the grill. Grill at a moderate temperature and this will give them flavour and brown their skins. You can brown or deep brown the sausages by turning them frequently with your tongs, but DO NOT let their skins burn or blacken. You can place and cover them in a position on the grill where they can receive indirect heat.
This technique can be used to cook sausages as soon as you make or buy them. These sausages can be stored in a refrigerator for 2-3 days but if you want to keep them for longer then store them in the freezer.
Part boil the sausages before grilling
Before grilling the sausages, first boil them for 10-15 minutes. This process, called parboiling, simplifies the cooking of the sausages by reducing their cooking time. It’s a good idea to parboil sausages in advance and cook them up when you feel like it.
To parboil your sausages, put your sausages in a big pan or pot. Then fill the pot with enough water to cover them. You can give your sausages a unique combination of tastes by using chicken or beef stock, wine and or beer instead of water. I like to user use garlic or onions to really give the bangers a herby and delicious flavour. Get your water boiling and lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the sausages turn a grey colour. You can then either wrap up the sausages and put them in the fridge (use these after 2 days) or put them in the freezer. Frozen parboiled sausages can be cooked up to 3 months after freezing.
When you grill these beauties make sure that all sides of them are nice and brown. Use tongs and turn the sausages as they cook, make sure that you don’t puncture the sausages as the juice will leak out and the sausage may be dryer than you want it.
If you want perfect sausages (of course you do), their internal temperature should be 65 degrees Celsius (150 degrees ℉) if they are made with pork but if they are made with poultry then their temperature should not be less than 70 degrees Celsius (160 degrees ℉). It’s of extreme importance that you check the cooked temperature as they cook.
You can buy perfectly good sausages from any supermarket or butchers but if you’d like to make your own here a recipe that we love. Buy enough ingredients to make 24 pork sausages, preparations take 1 hour, then rest for 2 hours.
What you require to make delicious homemade sausages is a meat grinder/ mincer with a funnel accessory. If this is your first time making homemade sausages then using natural hog casings is a good idea as they are strong and make nice thick plump sausages.
Main Ingredients
900g pork shoulder
900g pork belly
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon ground coriander seeds
3 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
1 tablespoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
110g fine breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
3m to 3.5m (32mm) natural hog casings
Method
Carefully remove the rind and rib bones and roughly dice the pork belly. Put it through a meat grinder to make ground pork using a 5mm plate. Do the same with the pork shoulder. Throw in the breadcrumbs, herbs, spices, coriander, seasoning, and garlic and leave the concoction to rest for a couple of hours.
While it’s all resting, soak the casings in cold water following instructions on the packaging. Take the blades out of the mincer and attach the sausage funnel, put the end of the casing over the attachment and roll the casing down the shaft, rolling it up at the base so that it’s bunched. This will allow you to make plenty of sausages without having to replace the casings. Put the meat back into the grinder.
Tie the start of the sausage casing in a knot and support the sausage meat as it is piped into the casing, try to avoid air bubbles and don’t pack the meat in too tight. You will get around 8 sausages per metre if you measure each one out to 10cm squeeze the end of the sausage and twist the casing 3 times to secure it. Do this until all the sausage meat is used and tie a knot after the final sausage. It’s best to let the completed sausages spend one night in the fridge before you cook them.
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