Grilling Sausages: How to Get Them Juicy, Browned and Perfectly Cooked

Few things are more satisfying than putting a batch of your own homemade sausages on the barbecue. The smell, the sound of the sausages sizzling over the heat and that first bite into a beautifully browned casing are part of what got many of us interested in sausage making in the first place.

But grilling sausages successfully isn't simply a matter of putting them over the hottest part of the barbecue and waiting until they're brown.

The goal is simple: cook the sausage evenly while keeping the inside juicy and developing a beautifully browned exterior.

Fresh or Already Poached?

Before you start, it's important to know whether you're grilling a fresh raw sausage or one that has already been poached.

A fresh sausage needs to cook completely through on the grill. A poached sausage has already been cooked, so grilling is mainly about reheating it and developing colour and flavour on the outside.

The two therefore require slightly different approaches.

Don't Start with Too Much Heat

One of the most common mistakes when grilling sausages is using too much direct heat.

The casing quickly becomes dark while the centre remains undercooked. Excessive heat can also cause the casing to split, allowing precious juices and fat to escape onto the coals.

For fresh sausages, moderate heat and a little patience produce much better results.

Grilling Fresh Sausages

Whenever possible, set up your barbecue with two heat zones: a hotter direct-heat area and a cooler indirect-heat area.

Begin cooking fresh sausages over the cooler part of the grill. Close the lid if your barbecue has one and allow the sausages to cook gradually.

Turn them regularly so they heat evenly on all sides.

As the sausages approach their required internal temperature, move them over the hotter section of the grill for the final few minutes. Turn them frequently until the casing develops the colour you want.

This gives the centre time to cook without burning the outside.

Grilling Poached Sausages

Poached sausages are much easier to finish on the barbecue because the centre has already been cooked.

Place them over moderate direct heat and turn regularly until they're heated through and evenly browned.

Because you're mainly developing colour and flavour rather than cooking raw meat, they usually require considerably less time on the grill.

This makes pre-poaching particularly convenient when cooking a large number of sausages for a barbecue. Much of the work can be done beforehand, leaving only the final grilling when it's time to eat.

Turn Them – Don't Stab Them

Use barbecue tongs to turn your sausages.

Avoid sticking a fork into them. Piercing the casing unnecessarily allows moisture and rendered fat to escape, which can leave the finished sausage drier.

You've spent time developing a good protein bind and carefully stuffing the casing. Keep those juices where they belong—inside the sausage.

What About Flare-Ups?

Fat dripping onto hot charcoal can produce sudden flames. A little flame isn't unusual on a charcoal barbecue, but prolonged flare-ups can quickly burn the casing.

If this happens, move the sausages temporarily to the cooler side of the grill until the flames settle.

This is another reason a two-zone barbecue setup is so useful.

Check the Internal Temperature

Colour alone doesn't tell you whether a fresh sausage is safely cooked.

Use a digital food thermometer to check the centre of one of the sausages, particularly when cooking thicker sausages or poultry-based recipes.

Follow the safe internal temperature appropriate for the meat and recipe you're preparing.

Insert the probe through the end of the sausage towards the centre where possible. This leaves only a small opening in the casing while allowing you to measure the temperature accurately.

Don't Keep Cooking Once They're Done

Another common mistake is leaving sausages on the barbecue simply because everything else isn't ready yet.

Once the sausages are properly cooked and nicely browned, move them away from the heat.

Continued cooking will eventually drive moisture from the sausage and can turn something juicy and tender into something dry.

Charcoal Adds Something Special

Gas and electric grills can produce excellent sausages, but I have always enjoyed cooking sausages over charcoal.

The heat, occasional touch of smoke and flavour created as the sausages brown over the coals add something that's difficult to reproduce in a frying pan.

You don't need an elaborate barbecue either. A simple charcoal grill with enough room to create a hot and a cooler zone is perfectly capable of producing excellent results.

Let the Sausage Speak for Itself

When you've selected good meat, balanced the fat correctly, seasoned carefully, developed a proper bind and stuffed the sausage well, grilling should be the easy part.

Control the heat, turn the sausages regularly and don't rush them.

After all the work you've put into making your sausages, they deserve a little patience during those final few minutes on the barbecue.

Reference: Grilling Homemade Sausages