Sausage Making (8 page)

When the coals are glowing dump them into a kettle grill and add a few more lumps of hardwood charcoal (or some small logs) to the smoldering pile and let the fire cook down for at least 30 minutes, until there is a solid bed of medium-hot coals.

Rushing is a common griller's mistake; take time to get the coals right before you start grilling your sausage.

When the coals are ready, rake one-third of them to one side of the grill to create a multi-zonal fire; the sausages can then be moved from a hot zone to a cool zone as they cook, ensuring they get caramelized and cooked through, but not charred.

Before beginning, lightly oil both the grill grate and the exterior of your sausages with oil, which will help prevent sticking. If the sausages stick and the casings tear, the juices flow out, which can result in a dry sausage. Start the sausages on the grill over the hotter zone.

If you notice a lot of fat dripping from them, it's a sign that the coals are still too hot; if this is the case, move the sausages to the cooler zone of the grill.

Dripping fat results in flare-ups, which in turn cause the exterior of your sausage to burn before the interior has cooked through.

Raw sausages plump up as they cook because cooked protein swells in the casing and the fat liquefies, creating delicious juice. The goal is to gently, slowly cook the sausage so that the casing caramelizes—but doesn't split—in about the same time it takes for the sausage to cook through. Just as with any raw meat on the grill, doneness can be determined by touch and temperature. When the sausage is fully cooked it should be firm to the touch but should not look shriveled; insert a metal cake tester into the center of the sausage and press it to the top of your hand. If it feels hot, the sausage is ready. You can also use an instant thermometer to check the temperature. Don't cut into the sausage to determine doneness, because all of the juices will leak out.

For fully cooked sausages, the goal is to heat them through evenly and brown the exterior, but because they have already been cooked there is no risk of undercooking. Fully cooked sausages are best grilled over medium heat. At that temperature the casings will brown, creating a textural contrast to the meat within, but it's not so hot that the casings will split, releasing the juice. If the sausage has been cooked by smoking, I like to char it a bit more, because I think some char further complements the smoky flavor. If the sausage has been poached, I don't want to overwhelm the delicate flavor of the meat, so I usually opt for a nice golden-brown exterior.

If your grill is equipped with a rotisserie, you can also use it to grill sausages. To do this, you should keep the string of sausage links unbroken, and thread it around the fingers of the rotisserie, spacing them evenly; the sausages will then be suspended over the grill surface.

Poaching is an excellent way to cook sausage fully while maintaining its juiciness. It's a method that's well suited to soft sausages, which are too delicate to grill or panfry; I also poach firm and smooth sausages. In general I avoid poaching coarse sausages, because the fat in a coarse sausage melts easily in the hot poaching liquid, rendering out and resulting in a dry sausage.

Poached sausages can be eaten immediately, or they can be chilled fully in an ice bath and refrigerated, then heated through and browned in a pan or on a grill when you're ready to serve them.

Doing this provides a textural contrast, but it also has a practical application: If you're serving a lot of people at a barbecue or event, or in a restaurant setting, you are only warming the sausage through, not cooking it, which saves time and guesswork.

I most commonly poach sausages in plain water or beer with half an onion.

You could certainly use wine or stock or any other liquid, such as apple cider or the liquid leftover from cooking beans; you can also poach the sausage with the beans as they cook.

No matter the poaching liquid you use, the basic method is the same: Insert a probe-style thermometer into the center of one of the raw links. Bring the liquid to a boil in a vessel large enough to accommodate the liquid and sausages without boiling over, then add the raw sausages, including the one with the probe thermometer. When the liquid returns to a bare simmer, cover the pan, remove from the heat, and let stand for 15 minutes or until the sausage reaches the internal temperature specified in the recipe. Beef, lamb, and pork sausages should be poached to an internal temperature of 145°F/63°C. Larger smooth pork sausages that are intended to be served cold, such as bologna and bierwurst, should be poached to an internal temperature of 155°F/68°C, and boudin noir should be poached to an internal temperature of 160°F/71°C.

A probe thermometer is useful because it allows you to know the internal temperature of your sausage without uncovering the pot and losing the accumulated heat and steam. Because the liquid is at its hottest when you add the sausages and gets cooler from that point on, it's virtually impossible to overcook sausages with this method. As a rule of thumb you should have twice as much liquid (by volume) as you do raw sausage; this will ensure that the links cook evenly. Remember about displacement; when you add the raw sausages, the level of the poaching liquid will rise, so choose a pot that's large enough to accommodate the sausages in a single batch, or poach them in multiple batches.

Remove the sausage from the poaching liquid and let stand for 10 minutes. The sausages are then ready to eat, or you can chill them fully in an ice bath, then refrigerate them. When ready to eat, heat on a grill or in a pan until the exterior is browned and the sausage is heated through.

Alternatively, large batches of sausages can also be steam-cooked in a commercial steam oven; set the temperature of the steam for 20°F/11°C above the desired final internal temperature for your sausage and cook until the probe thermometer registers the desired internal temperature. Smaller batches of sausage can be steamed in a lidded bamboo steamer set over a pan of vigorously simmering water. As for the oven method for large batches, steam the links until a probe thermometer inserted in the center registers the temperature specified in the recipe.

Smoking serves two primary purposes: It's a gentle way of cooking a sausage at a low temperature, and it adds another layer of flavor to the finished sausage. Smoked sausages also adhere tightly to the casing, creating that appealing “snappy” texture found in hot dogs and pepperoni.

Because smoke is an assertive flavor, I generally choose to smoke sausages that are boldly seasoned and/or firmly textured. Smoke would overpower the flavors of a more delicate sausage, such as the Chicken-Beer Sausage
(page 120)
, but it is complementary to robustly flavored sausages such as Liverwurst
(page 128)
and Summer Sausage
(page 84)
.

Electric smokers offer the most control, because you can set the temperature and maintain it throughout the cooking period. You can add smoldering wood chips for flavor without having to build a large enough fire to cook the sausages. These types of smokers have built-in racks; you can place your sausages directly on the racks or suspend them, but in either case you want to be sure not to overcrowd the smoker. The goal is to allow the smoke to circulate easily around the links.

The amount of wood chips or logs that you add to your smoker will determine how smoky your finished sausage is.