Is it just me, or do sausages seem to have a mind of their own when you’re cooking them up in a pan, the oven, or on a flat-top grill?
Even if you place them on the griddle with the gentle touch of a fairy godmother, those pesky sausages will find a way to wringle and wrangle out of their perfectly arranged seats and go for a joyride.
Someone might ask, “Why are rolling sausages even a problem?”
Well, if the sausages keep rolling around, it’s hard, and very often impossible, to cook them evenly. So they end up burning and charring in some spots, while coming out slightly undercooked in others.
So if you’re feeling tired of playing a game of cat and mouse with those sausages, I’ve got good news for you. As somebody who does this too often, I’ve found a trick or two to keep them in place. Put down your chasing stick and listen up, because I have some foolproof tips to share with you.
How to Cook Sausages Without Them Rolling Over
In my experience—and trust me when I tell you all I’ve fooled around a lot to get there—there are three things you can do to stop your sausages from rolling over during cooking: patting them dry, cooking them in the right cookware, or locking them in place with the spatula.
Pat the sausages dry before cooking them:
If you keep your sausages in the freezer, you have to thaw them out before cooking them. Once the sausages have defrosted, they’ll be wet and slippery. Pat them dry with a paper towel before laying them in the pan, baking sheet, or on the flat-top griddle. When they’re dry on the outside, they won’t roll around as much.
This also works for pre-cooked sausages, like hot dogs, when you want to give them a good color. Wipe away the juice from the packaging they came in before arranging them on the hot cooking surface.
Cook the sausages in a sausage pan or sausage roaster:
A sausage pan, like this one, is essentially a cast iron grill pan, but with indentations for sausages instead of lines that impart meat with grill marks. It doubles as a cooking vessel for frying up or baking meatballs, and—as long as the sausages you’re cooking are straight and not curly—will end the sausage-rolling fiasco once and for all.
You can also get a Portuguese sausage roaster, a piece of bakeware specifically designed to cook sausages. They come in all shapes and sizes, like this adorable clay piglet, and they’re a little more compact than your regular cast iron sausage pan.
Lock the sausages in place with your spatula:
Now, this technique isn’t guaranteed to work. But if buying a sausage pan or sausage roaster, it’s better than doing nothing.
It goes like this, and—admittedly—it’s easier said than done: Try locking the sausages in place with your spatula. Depending on how big the sausages are and how spacious the cooking surface is, you may need a second utensil, like a carving fork, to do this.
Only do this trick if you’re frying the sausages on the stovetop, and make sure you’re using metal utensils. If you use wooden utensils, or metal utensils with silicone handles, they might burn or melt.
In Summary
To sum it up, if you want to cook sausages without them rolling around and causing uneven cooking, there are a few things you can try.
- Patting them dry before cooking can help to prevent them from slipping around on the cooking surface.
- Using a sausage pan or sausage roaster can also be effective in keeping them in place, as the indentations in the pan hold the sausages steady.
- Lastly, if you don’t have a dedicated sausage pan or roaster, and you can’t picture yourself owning one, you can try using a spatula to hold the sausages in place, though this method may not be foolproof.
Whichever method you end up using, keeping your sausages in place while cooking will help to ensure that they are cooked evenly and to your desired level of doneness.
Thanks for reading this far and don’t be a stranger!
