Mustard-Slathered Bratwurst on the Grill
brautwurst on the grill, pull up
Three dozen on a kettle grill, every one of them wearing a coat of yellow mustard. People see that and assume it is a flavour decision. It is not.
Mustard is a binder and a heat shield. It holds pepper on a wet casing and it keeps the skin from drying and tearing over a live fire. By the time they come off, the mustard has cooked away to nothing — you will not taste it and the sausages will not have split.
The other half of it is where you put them. Not over the coals. Over the empty half of the grill with the lid on, which turns a kettle into a small oven.
- Makes
- 36 bratwurst
- Hands-on
- 20 minutes
- On the grill
- 35 minutes
- Fire
- Two-zone
What you need
The sausage
- 36 fresh bratwurst, raw
- 1 1/2 cups yellow mustard — the cheap bright kind, not Dijon
- 3 tbsp coarse cracked black pepper
- 1 tbsp granulated garlic
The fire
- A full chimney of charcoal, banked to one side
- 2 chunks of hickory or apple, on the coals
To serve
- Soft rolls
- Coarse deli mustard
- Pickled banana peppers
- Sliced raw white onion
How it goes
1 — Slather, do not dip
A spoon of mustard per sausage, worked over the whole casing with your hands until every one is yellow. Then the pepper and garlic rolled on. It is a mess and it takes ten minutes and it is the only prep there is.
2 — Bank the coals to one side
All the lit charcoal in one half of the kettle, nothing in the other. Wood chunks on top of the coals. This is a two-zone fire and it is the difference between sausages and charcoal.
3 — Sausages on the empty side, lid on
All thirty-six on the cool half, vent over the meat so the heat draws across them. Lid down. They are roasting now, not grilling.
4 — Twenty-five minutes, turned twice
They go from pale to tan to a proper brown and the casings tighten. No splitting, because nothing is ever directly over flame.
pro tip — If one splits, your fire is too big. Shut the bottom vent halfway and carry on — the rest will be fine.
5 — Finish over the coals, briefly
Once they read about 150°F inside, slide them over the hot side in batches for sixty to ninety seconds a side. This is for the blistered marks and nothing else.
6 — Pull at 160°F, into a covered tray
Straight into a deep foil tray with the lid on or foil over. Thirty-six sausages come off over fifteen minutes and the tray keeps the early ones as good as the late ones.
Rolls, mustard, banana peppers, onion. Pull up. LFG.