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Grilling season has arrived, full of storm and fury. Amid that storm and fury another often overlooked season has arrived. Sausage season. You can feel it in the air. Just like how some people can tell it’s going to rain because their right elbow starts swelling, the intermingling of various meats, spices, and the heat from charcoal grills makes my left knee itch. Bratwurst, smoked sausages, heck, even the humble hot dog all shine their brightest in the summer. No better time for getting out the grill and cooking up a few links.
A note before I delve into the deep mysterious recesses of sausage lore. This post should not scare away any vegetarians, vegans, or anyone with a diet that restricts their food intake. There are thousands of types of sausages, many of them not including any meat whatsoever. Halal, kosher, and other religious diets also have many types of sausages that fit comfortably into their strictures. If you only eat raw carrots and celery, I guess this post probably won’t resonate with you, but I’m sure we could figure out a way to make a sausage that fit your diet preferences. What I’m saying is that sausages are for everyone. You just need to look in the right place to find one that fits you.
Outside of chicken thighs, fresh – that is non-cooked – sausage is probably the most intimidating thing for me to grill. First off, you must get them fully cooked. Especially if you’re grilling a pork-heavy sausage. Unlike a burger where a little medium rare wouldn’t hurt anyone, you don’t want any pink in a brat. While eating raw pork probably won’t give you worms anymore, it’s still gross and not FDA recommended. If it’s undercooked whoever you’re cooking for will probably ask you to put it back on the grill. There are few things more humiliating than having to put something back on the grill. Especially if it’s a fully dressed sausage. I’d rather parade naked up and down the Miracle Mile than have to re-grill a sausage. Secondly, it’s hard to tell when a sausage is fully cooked. You don’t want to pierce the skin, which lets out the juices. Cutting it in half to check for any pink also throws people off. Who wants to two half pieces of sausage? Ridiculous. The people want whole intact hogs. So, you either have to burn them to a crisp, buy a a meat thermometer, or rely on your ability to judge doneness through touch and guesstimates alone. That can be scary.
Fortunately, I’ve conquered my fear and become a pretty god sausage griller. I probably tend to err on the side of overcooked, but I usually get it right on the money. The key is you can’t put them on too high of a heat. You don’t want the outside charred and the inside cold. Doing that could ruin a whole dang grill out.
Despite the fear that can go into grilling a sausage, trust me when I say it’s worth it. The snap of the skin when you break the casing, the hot but not too hot juices playing over your tastebuds, the medley of spice, fat, and condiments, the smell of the grill, together they conduct a symphony for your senses. A symphony rivaling Beethoven’s greatest. A true ode to joy. One of the common threads of Dang Dude’s food blogs is praising variety. That theme, or leitmotif, to continue the symphony analogy, continues here. Most people are probably used to hot dogs, and maybe a fresh bratwurst, or potentially even a smoked sausage. The world of sausages is so much larger than that. Just take a look at this Wikipedia page, “List of Sausages.” I’ve seen few things more beautiful than this list. And it’s an incomplete one. It doesn’t really include vegetarian or vegans varieties, and there are surely more and more arcane and powerful sausage types purveyed by local vendors every day. Heck, a local Polish place near me, Kurowski’s if you live in Chicago, has probably twenty-five unique types of sausage for sale every day of the week. And they’re all good. I can’t pronounce the names of them, and hardly know what’s in them, but they all taste amazing. It is truly astounding.
I have to stop myself before I just start listing various sausages I’ve eaten. So, I’ll make a point about condiments. Condiments are key to the sausage experience. While many sausages shine on their own, condiments add an additional layer of flavor that truly polishes the experience to a radiant glow. I’m not a condiment purist, so I won’t insist that you only use mustard on your sausages. Neither will I disown you if you just use ketchup. That’s cool with me. I, of course, will also encourage people to branch out and try onions of various preparations, coleslaw, sauerkraut, curry, pickles, salsa, hell even mayo can be alright on a sausage. The world of sausage is yours to explore. Don’t waste the opportunity.
I haven’t gotten around to making my own sausage, though if I ever start making a little more expendable income it is surely on the horizon. It seems like fun. Mixing spices, blending proteins, stuffing casings. And then best of all, grilling and eating those bad boys. Sausage is not a refined food. While I would put it up there with the best Alinea has to offer, the sausages I’m thinking about come served in a bun on a paper plate. They have to be eaten with a beer in one hand and the link in the other. You have to make sure the dog doesn’t eat yours off your lap. You’ll probably get a stain on your shirt from the grease or the mustard. And heck, if you want to pluck yours off the grill with your bare fingers and eat it like that, I’m not going to judge.
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