HOW TO COOK FRESH SAUSAGES

If grilling a fresh sausage (even one previously heated in some other way), always use the “indirect” method of charcoal grilling.

With bounty, on occasion comes confusion.

All year long, grocers offer several sorts of fresh sausages, such as the always-popular bratwurst and both hot and sweet Italian sausages.

Fresh sausages—as distinct from pre-cooked or pre-smoked sausages such as the everyday hot dog or cured chorizo—must be cooked through and thoroughly in order to be eaten both at their tastiest and most safe.

Yet, does merely one way suffice for all the different sausages? Or does a specific sausage require a specific method of preparation?

The short answer to both questions is “No.” Several ways exist to cook any fresh sausage. Your choice of which depends on what final tastes you seek to achieve or equipment that you have on hand or wish to use.

The general aims are two: to cook the sausage through (but not overdone, so as to retain its built-in juices) and to color—and thereby flavor—the outer casing. Cooks call this latter “coloring stage” by several terms: browned, caramelized, charred, char-grilled, seared, and the like, because the color arrives by various routes.

Eric Parks, a lead at Denver’s Marczyk Fine Food’s butcher department and creator of many of Marczyk’s monthly sausage specials, cooks fresh sausage by poaching it first, then finishing it depending on what sort of sausage it is. “I sear Italian sausage or French sausage in cast iron to finish,” he says, whereas he grills bratwurst, he says, “for the combination of char and smoke.”

Parks adds a unique way of cooking fresh sausage: “I partially cut all around—about 90 percent of the way through—a link of fresh sausage,” he says, “then sear it in cast iron, using the juices to finish cooking it in.”

Mark Johnson, head of operations at Marczyk Fine Foods, uses his oven for first-stage cooking of fresh sausages: “I bake them at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, unpricked, on an uncovered (metal) sheet tray and then let them rest, like a steak,” after they are done baking. His second-stage “coloring” cooking varies. “Sometimes I will then slice them and sauté them,” he says, “or grill them whole. Whatever the final use calls for.”

One plan-ahead that Johnson employs is to “roast a whole batch and then freeze them cooked,” he says. “Then when needed for spaghetti or soup or stir-fry or on a bun, you can microwave, sauté, grill, whatever you want. (The pre-baked sausages) really hold their flavor well because it's not all cooked out.”

COOK FRESH SAUSAGES IN TWO STEPS:

- First step, heat until cooked just through: Poach, roast (bake), sauté or grill over indirect heat. Do not prick the sausage’s casing.

Poach in 3/4” slowly simmering water for between 8-15 minutes, depending on thickness.

Bake, uncovered, on a sheet pan in a 350-degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

Sauté over medium-low heat, in pre-oiled skillet, for 20-25 minutes, turning frequently.

Grill over indirect heat, that is, on the cooler (not-over-coals or flame) side of the grill, with the cover down, for 15-20 minutes.

The “indirect” method of grilling means to build a fire to one side only of the grill.

- Second step, add color, crispness or browning: Sauté over medium-high heat in oiled skillet, or directly over hot side of grill, or under broiler 3-4” from heat, or split down side (for sandwiches, say) in a grill pan or skillet—for only 2-3 minutes more until internal temperature reaches 150 degrees. Let rest a moment before serving.