Disclaimer. This is not a post of a cook with pictures just a discussion starter I guess. I am a year old at sausage making but have been grilling them forever. Since I have been experimenting with sausage so often, I am frequently grilling my creations. The natural casings I use provide that awesome snap that you don't always get from storebought sausage. However, cooked incorrectly and that snappiness can turn into an unpleasant chewiness. So after much reading here as well as other places and experimenting with cooking sausage I tried oven roasting them. Seems like a boring way to do it but I have a lot of sausage to practice with haha. So I popped some sausage in an oven on a rack and roasted them at about 400 degrees. The verdict: Juicy, perfect snappiness to the casing without any chewiness. The only negative was the drab lifeless color. So, today I had 8 brats to cook and since my weber 26 was used yesterday and uncovered I figured I'd try an indirect cook in the vain of the oven roasting but with just a little sear at the end much like I do most steaks and roasts on the kettle and elsewhere. Lit a full chimney of KBB on and poured it as evenly as I could in the two weber charcoal bastards. This much charcoal gets me in the 350-400 range with all the vents open. Tossed on a couple of cherry chunks just because I can't help myself. Placed the brats down the middle of the grill in order to cook them indirectly. Probed one that looked average in size and set my maverick for 150. When it got to 150 I rolled them all around over he coal baskets for about 1-2 minutes.
The verdict: best sausage I ever cooked from a technical standpoint.. The snap was great. There was some color but it wasn't charred. I will definitely be reverse searing my sausage from now on.
I know this is probably old news to a lot of you who have more experience than I do but for me it's a revelation that I'm excited about. You learn something new every day.
What are your favorite methods for grilling or cooking your homemade sausage? Do you treat smoked or precooked sausage differently than fresh? Take it easy!
-Chris
The verdict: best sausage I ever cooked from a technical standpoint.. The snap was great. There was some color but it wasn't charred. I will definitely be reverse searing my sausage from now on.
I know this is probably old news to a lot of you who have more experience than I do but for me it's a revelation that I'm excited about. You learn something new every day.
What are your favorite methods for grilling or cooking your homemade sausage? Do you treat smoked or precooked sausage differently than fresh? Take it easy!
-Chris
