**Advice needed ** Pre-cooking Brats before freezing

[wnctracker]

5lbs meat
31 grams kosher salt
etc....

I have been making fresh brats with cheddar and peppers for a few years now out of pork butt, venison, and pork fat and they are really outstanding. The issue is that when other people (will leave this unnamed for my own protection ;-) ) cook them, they do so too fast and they rupture or not long enough and they're unsafe in the center.....so I'm considering pre-cooking them this time. I was considering curing and smoking them then packing and freezing. If I do that how would you adjust the kosher salt when adding pink salt also? I'll lose some of the brat flavor, but I like smoke so that is fine with me. What are my other options here for pre-cooking and avoiding fat out issues. Thanks in advance, y'all are great!

 

[crazzycajun]

Poaching or sou vide then just heat on the grill. As long as you hit 140f in less than 4 hrs you safe with no cure. Cure by the way will change your flavor profile some.

 

[DanMcG]

you could decrease the salt by 0.25% but I wouldn't worry about it be to salty if ya didn't.
I like to smoke them, then put them in a hot water bath at 170° till I get and IT of 154+/- , then cool pack and freeze.

 

[Sowsage]

crazzycajun . Has you covered. Sous vide is the way to go or poach in a water bath then freeze. This way the people you give them to can basicly thaw them out and throw them on the grill to just brown them up a bit. Just like cooking a cheep hot dog. Takes the guess work out of it for people that dont cook all the time like we do.

 

[zwiller]

The guys have you all covered but I will suggest to split the batch and bathe half and cure and smoke the other. Some people swear say smoke and cured brats are better. Bathing/precooking is a great idea as many people do not know brats take a bit more work than just grilling.

 

[wnctracker]

Thanks for all the advice! CrazyCajun, what temp water do you poach them at? I like the idea of not changing the flavor, I fear the smoke will overpower the cheddar flavor in them. I use a smoke vault gas smoker, so I suppose alternately I could just hang them in there without smoke the entire time, skip the cure, and focus on getting the IT up to 140 in 4 hours as you suggested. In this scenario without using cure, what IT should I shoot for with pork/venison? Also, since I won't be worrying about smoke flavor, what chamber temp should I shoot for? Should I bump the temp up every 30 mins or so like when I smoke cured sausage? Never done it this way, Thanks all!!

 

[DanMcG]

If you're not smoking them, then just poach them in a170° water or beer bath till they get to the temp ya want.. No need for the smoker, it will only dry them out

 

[smokininthegarden]

. What are my other options here for pre-cooking and avoiding fat out issues. Thanks in advance, y'all are great!

Another method nobody else has mentioned here is to simply cook them in the oven. I do this all the time
with any unsmoked sausage I make. As soon as they have been stuffed, place them on a cookie sheet
or any other similar pan that they will fit on and straight into a 350 deg oven. In my oven it takes about
20 to 25 min. to reach desired IT, your oven may vary but probably not by much. Here is a pic of previous
batches.

Cal