Chef Jeff Baker has shared his top tips on how to cook sausages perfectly and highlighted three common mistakes you might be making…
Several sausage recipes rank highly among the UK’s favourite dinners and for good reason.
Whether you like your bangers served with mash, tucked away in a toad-in-the-hole or stripped of its skin and moulded into sausage meatballs - there’s no denying how cheap and tasty sausages are!
To get the best from your bangers Michelin-starred chef Jeff Baker has highlighted some common cooking mistakes and shared some tips on how to cook them perfectly.
Speaking to the Daily Star, Jeff, who has previously cooked for the Queen and is now executive development chef at Farmison & CO, revealed that there’s no need to prick the skins of sausages despite popular beliefs.
Read more: Feeling hungry? The whole family will love this sausage and mash bake
When using quality sausages with high meat content and natural skins, pricking the sausages will cause the juices to run out and the meat will become dry and bland in flavour.
Jeff also stressed that you should never deep fry sausages as the harsh heat can cause the skins to become tough.
Finally, if you’re craving a crispy fry-up-esque sausage, it’s always best to fry them over baking in the oven.
So, how do you cook sausages perfectly? Follow these five simple steps…
1. Take time
It’s best to remove the sausages from the fridge around 20 minutes before you want to start cooking them. Jeff explains that this helps the sausages cook evenly and reduces the risk of the skins breaking in the pan.
2. Ready and weight-ing
Place a heavy-based, non-stick frying pan on the hob on a low to medium heat. Heavy-based pans are excellent for even heat distribution and using a high heat with scorch the outside of the skins before the insides are cooked.
3. Fat-tastic
Jeff suggests adding a teaspoon of duck or goose fat to the pan. Swirl it around until the base is fully covered and then pour away any excess. This will add a delicious flavour and help to ensure they don’t stick too.
4. Control the crowd…
Put the sausages in the pan ensuring they don’t touch each other and keep on a steady heat
Turn the sausages regularly for an even colour. According to Jeff it should take around 10 to 12 minutes for a traditional thick sausage to be cooked all the way through.
5 Be patient!
Rest the sausages before serving just as you would a steak. This gives the sausage meat a chance to relax and become more tender and juicy.
Has this come as news to you or have you always cooked your sausages this way? Do you have any other tips? Head over to our Facebook page to join the conversation!
