We’re helping to celebrate UK Sausage Week by giving you the low-down on how to get the best out of your wurst – once you’ve decided on which one’s your favourite of course!
COMMON MISTAKES
I’m sure we’ve all had a dodgy BBQ sausage in our time… charred on the outside but soft and pink and going to make you ill on the inside. Even frying can result in the centre not being cooked through properly. So here’s our quick guide to getting the BEST out of your WURST.
1. Avoid a high heat
The higher you have the heat, the less the fat will render, the faster the sausage skin will burn and the less likely you will have a perfectly cooked centre. This is why the BBQ sausages all too often fail; if the coals are too hot, then everything chars on the outside whilst the centre doesn’t get properly heated through. A low heat when frying for example, will gently melt any fat in the sausage leaving it crisp and golden on the outside. The sausage will have a chance to cook through evenly as well.
2. Don’t add fat
Of course it depends on your cooking method, as a frying pan may need a little fat to prevent sticking and burning, but generally speaking sausages will contain enough fat of their own to aid the cooking process. Grilling is seen as a healthier option than frying, as it allows some of the sausage fat to drip away during cooking, but the heat can be difficult to control. If roasting in the oven, you wouldn’t need to add any additional butter or oil.
3. Check the temperature!
Ultimately, you want to be serving up perfectly cooked and flavoursome sausages every time, so the key here is to cook… but not overcook. Sausages, no matter the type, will always be at their best for flavour and juiciness, when not over cooked. We would always recommend probing a sausage carefully and only towards the end of their suggested cooking time, as pricking sausages will result in a loss of moisture, which will detract from the flavour.
So, when your sausages look nicely browned and ready, you should probe them with a thin tip food thermometer – ideally at both ends and in the middle – to check that they have actually reached an internal temperature of at least 75°C (167°F) for at least 30 seconds.