How Long To Boil Brats (And Why)?

Exact answer: 10 – 15 minutes

A Brat is a concise word for ‘bratwurst’, it is a sausage that is made of pork, veal, or beef. Bratwurst is an interesting word that roots back in Germany. ‘Brat ‘ is meat that is prepared for consumption by removing bone and fat. ‘ Wurst ‘ is a sausage that is enclosed in natural casings.

Bratwurst is highly rich in protein and low in carbs that it is useful for those following diet in low carb. Every region has its style of making its bratwurst with different ingredients, sizes, preferred cooking methods, and serving. There are different cooking methods such as grilling, steaming, poaching, and boiling. Brats are never cured or smoked. They are always sold fresh and preserved in the refrigerator. Boiling brats before you put them on the grill or pan-frying in a skillet is an easy and most popular method of preparing bratwurst.

How Long To Boil Brats?

Boiled brats in beer is a quick and easy way of preparing bratwurst. If you are planning to consume boiled brats, they should be boiled for at least 10 – 15 minutes. Getting fresh bratwurst from the slaughterer is the best, but as pre-packaged brands, you can go for Hempler’s or Johnsonville brats are good as far as national brands go.

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In a skillet, add the raw bratwurst, sliced onion, the beer enough to cover the sausage, and half a stick of butter into it. Bring the beer to a slow boil, turn down the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. They’ll be partially boiled at this point. To finish the cooking from the inside, remove the boiled brats from the liquid and boiled brats are ready.

As per chiefs, one should grill the brats after boiling so that they taste good. To get the juicy and crispy taste of brats. After that, grill them on a preheated grill for 10 -14 minutes. It should take about 20 minutes to grill the brats depending on the thickness of the brats. Remember to turn them so each side gets caramelized. The brown color is the sign that brats are cooked properly.

To know if the brats are done take the temperature through an instant-read thermometer. If the internal temperature reaches 160°F, sausages are done. If not, return to the pot and continue cooking. Remove the sausages from the pan and serve immediately or cool to room temperature lightly covered with plastic wrap.

Why Boil Brats For So Long?

Boiled brats are one of the heavenly delicious pleasures of sausages. Brats are boiled for a long time because to get the center of the sausages to cook. It is done for both safety reasons as to ground meats can have bacteria distributed throughout the meat and also so you don’t serve them to your guests while they are still raw in the middle.

If you directly grill the brat over high heat you will sure crack, blacken and burn the skin before the center is done. That may not give you a good experience to eat. Cooking brats through the boiling procedure is one of the traditional cooking methods.

The time you start cooking and you realised that you never took the brats out of the freezer? don’t get irritated, you can still boil frozen bratwurst. You just need to add 5 minutes to the cooking time of the recipe, so the bratwurst will take about 15-20 minutes to boil in the liquid.

Many people prefer to boil brats before grilling because it adds depth flavor to the sausage by cooking brats in beer. Simmering sausage helps to keep the bratwurst juicy by sealing in moisture and flavor.

Brats are full of fat and flavor, it’s pretty hard to cook brats. The ultimate tip to the success of your sausages, don’t prick the brat with a fork, use tongs instead. This causes a loss of flavor and moisture in the bratwurst.

Conclusion

While preparing brats at home, always handle them with care before and during cooking. So, as not to slit the vegetable casing of the brats to keep the flavors inside.

It’s best to start boiling the brats in hot water or beer, without oil or butter over medium-high heat. After a minute, reduce the heat to medium for boiling the brats for 10-15 minutes. At the end of boiling let the brats rest for 5 minutes before grilling and after the grilling, they will be full of flavor, crispy, and very juicy.

After grilling the bratwurst you can serve them with onion and beer mixture or you can serve them on a bun like a hoagie roll.

References

1. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6975210/
2. https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.02629