Smoked Bratwurst Smothered in Cheddar
smoked bratwurst. all invited
There is a version of this with a bun and it is worse. Three brats on a plate, cheese over the top, mustard on the side, fork.
Use sliced cheddar, not grated. Grated cheese melts into separate threads and leaves gaps. Slices laid over the top melt into one sheet and drape, which is the whole look — glossy, continuous, running down into the gaps between the links.
And melt it on the plate, under the broiler, not in the pan. In a pan the cheese finds the metal and burns before it finds the sausage.
- Feeds
- 2 to 3
- Hands-on
- 5 minutes
- Under the broiler
- 2 minutes
- Needs
- Smoked brats, already made
What you need
The plate
- 6 smoked bratwurst, already cooked
- 8 slices sharp yellow cheddar, from a block, cut thick
- 1 tbsp butter
- Coarse black pepper
Beside it
- Good coarse mustard, in a bowl
- Pickled banana peppers or hot cherry peppers
- A cold beer
How it goes
1 — Warm the brats in a dry pan first
Butter in, sausages in, four or five minutes over medium heat turning them, until they are hot through and the skins have tightened and caught a little black again. Cold sausage under hot cheese gives you hot cheese and cold sausage.
2 — Line them up touching on an ovenproof plate
Side by side with their edges against each other. Gaps are where the cheese escapes to the plate instead of staying on the meat.
3 — Slice the cheddar thick, off a block
About as thick as a coin, and cut from a block rather than out of a plastic sleeve. Pre-sliced cheese has starch on it to stop it sticking to itself, and that starch is what makes it go grainy instead of glossy.
4 — Overlap the slices over the whole length
Shingle them across the top so there is no bare sausage showing. It will look like too much cheese. It is the correct amount of cheese.
5 — Broiler, high, two minutes, watching
Top shelf. The cheese goes slack, then shiny, then starts to run down the sides. Pull it there. Another thirty seconds and the fat splits out and it goes oily.
pro tip — If your broiler runs hot and fast, leave the plate on the lower shelf instead. You want it melted and running, not browned and bubbling.
6 — Pepper over the top, mustard alongside
Coarse black pepper straight onto the cheese where it will stick. Mustard in a bowl on the side, never on top — it cuts the richness better when you decide how much per bite.
Ten minutes and a plate of this. There is no reason this is not dinner more often. LFG.