OK, yesterday was another brat day, with generally good results.
It occurs to me that one of the best things about sausages is the browned casing. A perfectly straight sausage doesn’t present much of a problem, because the cook can just roll the bugger and (ideally) get even brownness.
With curved sausages, though, about the best you can hope for is two browned stripes where the sausage lays flat in a pan or on a griddle. A grill pan is even worse because very little of the sausage is in contact. Cooking on a BBQ grill is a little better, but still…
I don’t want to deep or air fry, and mating the curve of the sausage into the shoulder/sidewall of a frypan is not a great solution. That got me thinking: Is there a specialty pan made to better brown curved sausages? Think deep, curved, sausage-shaped wells.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
2
Not something I have a problem with. I always cook sausages under the grill, using the rack that comes with the grill pan. It flattens them out sufficiently to get an even golden brown.
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
3
Neat pan. As for browning, I do get curvy sausages like brats browned all over but yes there are darker stripes on the sides vs. the rocker-bottom and its reverse concave side. I just let them stay on the grill over relatively low heat for maybe 10 minutes, rolling/turning frequently and laying them rocker-bottom down along the grill grates (mine are circular cross section with about a cm spacing, so they brats stay pretty well rocker-down, less so concave-down). Just the ambient heat browns the casing pretty well. Then crank up the heat for the darker grilling for a few more minutes mainly on the two more flat sides.
Not that it matters for browning per se, but I pre-cook my brats by simmering ~ 5 minutes per side in a lidded saucier before grilling. It seems I’m less likely to get flaming solar flare juice jets that way. But it might also be an effect of the lower up-front grilling.
I make my own brats about half the time. For those, after casing them I try to manipulate them by hand to be as straight as possible when they’re going into the fridge to set up and dry the casings a bit, and keep the link train as straight as possible rather than coiling them up.
Never had a problem browning sausages, just turn them more.
But if you’re really anal about it, and you have what you describe as “curve[d]” sausages you can either (1) not buy curved sausages or (2) use a crème brûlée torch for those curved areas that never make contact with the pan/grill.
By “grill” and “under”, I take it you mean under what Americans call a broiler, or salamander. Yes?
My issue with direct heat methods is rupturing the casings and losing the liquid goodness inside. This includes the Searzall, which I otherwise love. What heat setting and distance do you use?
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
7
Yes. My apologies - I always forget to translate into American.
I pre-heat the grill up to maximum (it has three settings) and have the sausages about 5cm from the heat.
You are more than forgiven.
When as a student I visited friends in grad school in London centuries ago, and went grocery shopping with them, I was quickly schooled in alternative terms for practically everything. Success!
I’m having trouble visualizing how the rack flattens the curve in the sausage. Is there a picture? This is the broiler pan that came with most of the broilers/grills I’ve owned.
And this is the sausage i usually make.
They seem to curve more as they cook. Not bratwurst, but maybe similar. Are we talking about the same thing?
I’m okay with the way it roasts or pan sears, but I’m curious about how to get it flat.
Any sausage with a natural (animal intestine) casing is going to have some curve - nature of the beast. I agree with @RobinJoy that roasting is a good way to get even browning. High broiler or searzall works too. If you poach them until cooked before you hit them with heat, you dont really have to worry about losing too many juices even if the skin does break.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
12
Rarely
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
13
Another vote for roasting here. Our electric oven has a “convection roast” setting that comes in especially handy for this.
I use a silicone brush to lightly coat the surface of the sausages with olive oil. Use a fork to poke a few holes to prevent casings from bursting and allow some of the fat to render out—which helps with browning, too. Yes, the interiors will be less fatty but that’s desirable for my taste. Flip the sausages over once to their opposite side while cooking.
I tried broiling some brats last night in a pan and rack from my Breville, much like Harters’. You can–precariously–prop the sausages to point the curved sides upward toward the element. It evens the browning somewhat, but the ends on the concave side and the middle on the covex side brown more.
I see someone else mentioned par-cooking them in a pan with a little water first. I always prick the casings with a fork first, whatever the cooking method. I think it helps keep them from exploding. Think baked potatoes …
after all, it’s only money …
