Home Chef Cooking Tips

Summer is when everyone fires up the barbecue for some great grilled foods. But how many times have you purchased some thick , plump sausages only to have them shrivel up as you grilled them.

One of the problems with grilling pork sausages is that they need to be cooked completely through, to kill all bacteria (and prevent any possibility of trichinosis). So the longer you grill the sausages, the more it will dry out. The easiest way to prevent this is to cook the sausage first, then grill it.

The technique you will use is called parboiling. Parboiling consists of partially cooking in boiling water, then completing the cooking process at a later time. For 2 lbs of pork sausages, bring ~6qts of water to a boil. Add the sausages, return to boil, reduce heat and simmer for ~20 minutes. Remove the sausages from the simmering water, then grill until the outsides are browned and crisp. You can also parboil the sausages ahead of time, set the sausages in a bowl, then transfer to the grill when ready.

Not only does the parboiling reduce the grilling time, so the sausage doesn’t dry out, but by partially cooking it in water, the sausage remains juicy, like it should.