Cooking Sausages

Preparation:

Defrost thoroughly prior to cooking. We recommend defrosting overnight in the fridge, but you can immerse the sealed vacuum pack in cold water for an hour if you're in a rush. Once defrosted, please cook them within 48 hours.

Before cooking, remove from package and wipe away any excess moisture with a paper towel. We recommend leaving them uncovered at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour prior to cooking. This isn't necessary, but it will help to ensure even cooking and prevent the casings from splitting.

Remember that these are raw sausages, so whichever cooking method you choose, please ensure that the sausages are cooked through before eating.

 

Cooking: 

Oven 

The default way of cooking sausages in England. 

Every oven is different, but after some trial and error with various ovens, this is what we recommend trying:

  • Preheat your oven to 200 °C if it's a 100V electric oven, or 180°C if it's a gas or 200V electric oven.
  • Put baking paper on an oven tray and evenly place sausages on top.
  • Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, until just starting to brown on top.

Fish grill

With a good fish grill this works very well.

Ubiquitous in Japanese kitchens, these are basically a mini gas barbecue, but vary quite significantly in power and quality.

  • Preheat the fish grill on max heat for 3-4 minutes.
  • Evenly place the sausages on the rack and turn down the heat to the lowest setting.
  • Bake for around 10-15 minutes until nicely browned. If your grill only has a top burner, you'll need to flip the sausages halfway through.

Frying pan

Very moist and rich, but can be too greasy for some.

It's a bit of a faff, but for a better end-product, we recommend simmering the sausages first. You can of course skip the simmering and just fry them as is, but make sure they're at room temperature first, and don't cook them at too high a heat, otherwise they'll likely split before cooking through.

  • Add the sausages to a pot of boiling water and simmer for about 10 minutes over low heat.
  • Remove sausages and put them into a hot frying pan (no oil necessary).
  • Brown either side and serve.

Barbecue

This is the best way really...

Cooking over a charcoal grill is always going to result in the tastiest sausages, though gas grills are a close second.

To each their own, but we think the best way is to par-cook them over indirect heat with the lid closed, and then finish them off over direct heat to give them a nice char.