Clean Your Grill First
If you have not used your gas grill for a long time, it is imperative to clean the residue and the dust that settles in the cooking grates.
Anyone using the gas grill should make sure that it is clean after the barbecue session.
Once you are done looking after the aforementioned crucial aspects, move on to the action of grilling Americas favorite barbecue delight.
How To Cook Brats On A Gas Grill
Learning the art of how to expertly grill brats is fairly simple. First, select the type of bratwurst you want to eat. German sausage, pre-cooked bratwursts, and fresh butcher brats are all good options. In our opinion, you simply cant beat meat from a local butcher.
Once you have your bratwursts, then you can prepare your grill for cooking. Heat one side of your grill to medium-high heat , then the other side to medium-low heat. This is called the two-zone method, and trust us, theres a method to this madness.
Prep the cooking surface by spraying the grates with a light coating of oil. Avoid adding too much oil and try to use an oil with a high smoke point. You want to enjoy the smell of the brats cooking, not a plume of smoke in your face.
If youre using fresh, uncooked brats, go ahead and place them on the grill first on the indirect heat side until they reach an internal temp of about 150 degrees.
Then transfer your meat to the direct heat for about 1-2 minutes until beautifully grilled on the outside. Why the two different temps? You want to avoid allowing your brats to stay in the direct heat for too long, or else the casing could burst from the fat rendering under high heat.
At this point, you can crack open a cold one and enjoy this huge hit of summertime cuisine, or if you are waiting to serve your food, use the simmering method after the brats are grilled to keep them warm.
Serving Grilled Brats For A Party
I created this fun brat board to give you some inspiration for hosting game day or a backyard bbq! Its simple to put together, and guests will love it. You grill the brats and vegetables, everything else is store-bought. Or if youre looking to make something homemade, this Italian Potato Salad is a great side.
- grilled brats
- potato chips
- grilled onions and peppers
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How To Cook Brats On A Pellet Grill
Learn how to make perfectly cooked bratwurst on a pellet grill!
Whether you are using a Traeger, Camp Chef, Pit Boss, or any other brand of pellet grill, weve got you covered.
Get ready for the juiciest, most delicious brats youve ever cooked before, and they are super easy to make on a pellet grill.
Lets Go!
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How To Grill Your Brats
Ok, now its time for the main event.
At this point your grill should be clean and you should have one side ripping hot and one side medium to low. Your brats should be fully thawed, raw, and lightly oiled.
Our goal is to fully cook the insides of the brats while also getting a nice sear and crisping up the outside WITHOUT splitting open the casing and losing precious juices.
So, two options stand before us:
Option A:
Put the raw brats on the searing hot side until the outside crisps up and then move them to the lower indirect side to finish cooking.
This method works great for some larger thick cut steaks.
The problem with this method for our situation is that your brats will EXPAND as they cook due to the simple laws of thermodynamics. If you have already crisped your skin, while the brats were a smaller size, they will now crack and split open as the inside heats up and the sausage expands.
No good.
Better Option B:
Put the brats on the indirect side to slowly cook them and raise the temperature until they are ALMOST done, then move them to hot side for the final sear.
If your indirect side has a temperature of about 325 deg, this will take roughly 20 minutes.
Our final internal temperature target is 165 deg, so your best bet is to move the sausages to the HOT side when they look fully expanded and are at about 150 deg internal temp.
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How To Season Bratwurst
When seasoning your brat, lightly roll the sausages in our signature Traeger Rub prior to putting them on the grill.
Our Traeger Rub is ideal for brats, because it will give you a slight hint of chili pepper and garlic while also adding an herby oregano and basil profile to your brats. The seasoning you go for is going to depend on your personal preferences or the recipe youre following.
Remember that youll only want to roll your brats in your seasoning of choice if youre planning to toss them on the grill.
If youre braising, simply add your rub of choice to the beer/broth mixture instead.
Some recipes will call for vegetable oil, but this step isnt necessary when youre using a Traeger. Other grill or cooking methods use oil simply because they operate at a very high heat, and the oil is necessary to keep the brats from sticking to the grate.
How To Cook Brats On A George Foreman Grill
Brats are a summer staple, but you can enjoy them year-round if you have a George Foreman Grill. Cooking brats on a George Foreman Grill is simple, quick and satisfying.
Video of the Day
Tip
Brats on a George Foreman Grill cook up in nine to 15 minutes, depending on your desired degree of doneness. Serve right away.
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Next Fire Up The Grill At Dinnertime
The other special part of this beer brats recipe is that theyre made entirely on the grill. Typically Wisconsin-style brats are boiled on the stovetop, then finished on the grill, but I prefer to make these beer boiled brats entirely on the grill. Its nice to keep the entire cooking process outside, especially during the hot & humid summer months nothings worse than a steaming hot boiling pot on the stove in the middle of July!
The secret to cooking beer boiled brats entirely on the grill lies in zone grilling. By creating 2 zones of heat on your grill, you can boil the brats with really gentle, steady direct heat before grilling them over strong direct heat for a deliciously charred finish.
If youve never grilled with indirect heat before, dont panic. Its the simplest thing:
- Zone grilling on a gas grill Prepare your gas grill for zone grilling by turning 1-2 burners on to their highest heat setting & 1-2 burners on their lowest heat setting. This creates a zone of strong direct heat & a zone of gentler direct heat .
- Zone grilling on a charcoal grill with zone grilling Prepare your charcoal grill for zone grilling by lighting charcoal and arranging the majority of it on one side of your grill. This creates a zone of strong direct heat & a zone of gentler direct heat .
If youre still unsure about zone grilling, be sure to check out this post for more information!
Safe Internal Temperature For Brats
Just like any other type of meat, you dont want to overcook your sausages.
The USDA recommends cooking bratwursts to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Thats their official advice, but in our experience, an internal temperature of between 140 and 145 degrees Fahrenheit yields the juiciest brats.
Once the internal temperature of your brats gets to about 155 degrees Fahrenheit, the delicious proteins in your brat will start to contract, squeeze out all the juices, and get a bit dry. It probably wont impress your friends, and itll take a lot of extra fixings to try and save them.
Instead, we recommend you shoot for an internal temperature of between 140 and 145 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature, youll be able to ensure the brats are fully cooked through, while the bulk of your moisture has been preserved to ensure all those juices make it to a bun.
Do not take your brats off the grill if theyre under 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Theyre not ready and could make people sick and ruin your outdoor gathering real fast.
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Can You Fry Bratwurst
Heat a large cast iron skillet with a drizzle of canola oil over medium-high heat until it just starts to smoke. With a fork, poke a few holes on each side of the bratwurst sausage to keep them from bursting while they cook. Cook the brats for about 4 minutes per side, or until they are nicely browned.
How Do You Keep Brats From Curling Up
Most cooking equipment applies heat asymmetrically, causing shrinkage. Partly to avoid this problem, modern hot dogs do not have a collagen skin. Brute force, by using skewers or confining the sausage in a barbecue grill clamp, will cause the collagen to break down and the meat to shrink.
Sausage can be made from a variety of meats, including beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, and fish. It is also possible to make sausages from other types of meat, such as beefsteak, veal, or lamb.
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Arrange The Brats On The Grill
Once the grill is nice and hot, it is time to place the brats on them. Layout the sausages vertically while ensuring that they are evenly spaced so that they can heat at an equal rate.
While placing the brats ensure that you put them all at once. This will make tracking cooking progress easier for you.
What Is The Best Wood To Smoke Bratwurst
When choosing a good smoking wood for brats, we recommend a heavier scented wood like Mesquite or Hickory to stand up to the strong flavors of the bratwurst.
Save the milder fruitwoods for more delicate proteins like chicken and fish.
You can use larger chunks in a charcoal smoker, fill a pellet tube with wood pellets, or, the easiest option, fill a smoker box with wood chips and place it right on your gas grill setup for indirect cooking. No need to soak.
- Wood Smoker Chips best used with outdoor smokers, smoker box, smoker pouch, and gas grills
- Coarse grade barbecue smoking wood chips produce smoke quickly
Ideally, you do not want to be opening and closing your smoker too often.
If you are checking on the progress every fifteen minutes or so, a lot of the much-needed heat will escape your smoker and the overall temperature will decrease.
Also resist the urge to repeatedly poke every brat with your instant read thermometer throughout the cook.
Much of the delicious juice will be lost through these holes you have poked. Wait until about an hour and a half in and the pick ONE brat to be the test subject.
Your bratwurst will turn a lovely golden brown color when they are ready to be eaten and have reached the desired temperature.
At this point, you can take them right off the smoker and serve, OR, you could throw them on a hot grill for 30-60 seconds a side if you want a darker, crispier exterior on them before serving.
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Whats The Right Bratwurst Internal Temp
Cook bratwurst on the grill until a safe brat internal temp of at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit is reached. You might be wondering why it matters if you reach this brat internal temperature if youre cooking premade sausages. But you do need to have them measure 160 degrees F by an internal meat thermometer for them to be safe to consume.
How Long To Boil Brats If Grilling First
Some people recommend that you grill your brats first and then poach or simmer the brats afterwards.
The cooking times here are about the same but the order is reversed 5-10 minutes on the grill first then 20 minutes or more simmering.
The grilling first method is often used when cooking huge amounts of brats for festivals or celebrations.
Brats are grilled first then left to simmer in warming pans or trays with onions, garlic, and other seasonings.
Boiling bratwurst is pretty forgiving so dont stress too much about nailing the exact timing when it comes down to how long to boil brats.
Once theyre done, the traditional way to serve up your brats is on a hard roll with plenty of stone ground mustard.
No mayo, no ketchup. Just mustardand leave the Frenchs yellow mustard in the fridge as brat aficionados insist on a good stone ground mustard such as Inglehoffer or Plochmans.
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Traeger Timberline 1300 Analysis How Long To Cook Brats On Wood Pellet Grill
The Traeger wood pellet grill was a real trendsetter. Grilling as well as smoking products are available to fulfill the needs of just about any kind of size get together.
A Traeger Timberline 1300 is the perfect Barebque grill for a huge family members or somebody that enjoys grilling enormous suppers.
It provides an astonishing 1,300 square inches of cooking area over 3 tiers as the name shows.
You have sufficient area below to feed the hungry mouths at the block party next door or to organize the next sizeable family members party.
Four relative can take pleasure in a dinner of fantastic smoky bbq steaks or some barbeque poultry without feeling unpleasant.
To complement the major barbecuing chamber, the receptacle is additionally incredibly large. A 24-pound tons of wood pellets can be positioned in it when packed to its maximum ability. That is enough to support a lengthy smoking session.
Ideal Grilled Bratwurst Temperature
If you dont already have a meat thermometer, now is an excellent time to get acquainted with one. The grilled brat should reach an internal temperature of 160-degrees F and be free of any remaining pink color. Think golden brown, crisp exterior with stunning grill marks. Luckily brats are fairly simple to make and dont require hours standing over the heat.
If you parboil brats initially, youll want an internal temp of 150-degrees F before transferring them to the hot side of the grill. This allows the sausage to become fully cooked, so when you place them on the grate to sear, they only cook for 1-2 additional minutes.
A thoroughly cooked brat should reach 160-degrees F when you stick a meat thermometer right in the center. Be aware that cooking with raw, uncooked sausages, youll have to be more cautious with their overall doneness.
When you grill pre-cooked sausages, youre essentially just heating them. Pre-cooked bratwurst might require slightly less time, right around 10-12 minutes, to reach the perfect temp.
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Bratwurst Poaching What Is It And How Does It Work
In order to improve shelf life of the Bratwurst you can poach them. This refers to an extra process following the filling process.
If you do not want to eat the sausages directly, you can poach them in a water bath at 75 °C for 25 minutes.
This extends the shelf life in the refrigerator by up to one week.
Personally, I never poach my Bratwurst. I either consume them directly or freeze them.
Speaking about freezing
Meat For 1 Kg Bratwurst:
- 60% pork shoulder
- 40 % pork belly
Can I use different meat for making my own Bratwurst?
The types of meat I use are indicated in the recipes. But you can change the types of meat as you like.
Thats the great thing about sausage making.
So dont get too hung up on the types of meat and cuts indicated.
What is much more important
The meat / fat ratio of Bratwurst
The most important thing for a juicy sausage is the meat/fat ratio and that is exactly what you should pay attention to.
The fat content should be between 25% and 30%.
You can see how this works with the example of a standard pork bratwurst.
Variant #1:
- 75 % lean pork shoulder
- 25 % pork loin fat
Corresponds to a final fat content of 28.75%.
Variant #2:
- 60 % pork shoulder
- 40 % pork belly
Corresponds to a final fat content of 26 %.
This can be done with several cuts as well as types of meat.
It is important to me to know which ingredients are in the final product. Thats why the Bratwurst is made as natural as possible.
Especially when it comes to meat quality, I recommend buying regional and organic products. The taste will exceed our expectations.
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How To Grill Perfect Brats Every Time:
One of the things I love about my 36 inch Twin Eagles gas grill is its versatility. I can count on it to make something as elevated as Rotisserie Prime Rib, or something as simple as the perfect brats. Im able to control the heat easily, as the control panel illuminates to provide a precise control knob setting. And best of all, it has interior lights with hood-activated light switch for nighttime grilling, which weve fully embraced.
Grilling brats is easy! As I mentioned, you can skip the boiling, and head straight to the grill to get started.
