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Super
Nova Brat (Not!)
In our last issue we began looking
at the workhorses of the typical BBQ gathering - burgers & brats and we
covered how to make a great burger.
Now we're going tackle the "super nova" brat - that
is the brat that is super heated, rapidly expands beyond the elasticity of its
casing and explodes, sending its superheated juices to the four corners of the
grill. Depleted of the mass of its
juices, it collapses in on itself leaving a dense, shriveled, poor excuse for a
dinner :(
To understand the astrophysics of
this phenomenon and thus how to avoid it, we need to understand how these wonders
of the grill are constructed. Brats belong to the sausage and frankfurter
family of ground meat and seasoning stuffed in a casing(yum!).
The casing, whether natural (best) or artificial are thin and fragile but water proof.
Thus if you rapidly raise the
temperature of the water naturally present in the meat itself (i.e. cook them on
"High") you will quickly turn the
water to steam. The steam will be trapped
in the water proof but fragile casing...... Kaboom! Another brat goes super nova.
With knowledge comes the power to
avoid this travesty of the grill. The
solution, though simple, calls for discipline - cook them slowly, gently, over low or indirect heat.
Cooking with indirect heat means the
fire is on one side of the grill and the food is on the other. Thus you avoid the intense radiant heat
rising directly above the fire (even over a low fire) that can send a brat into
oblivion.
Cooking a brat more slowly, 20 to 25 minutes versus 10 minutes
on high, also presents the opportunity to get some smoke on the meat if you
place some hardwood on the fire while cooking.
Another practical solution to avoid
burst brats, that also allows you to safely cook them ahead of time and just
finish them on the grill, is to simmer
them in liquid (yes, I mean beer).
Since the boiling point of the
liquid (beer!) on the outside of the brat is the same as the boiling point of
the water on the inside, the brat can't overheat and burst. Don't actually bring them to a boil though, a
nice simmer is all that's required.
You can finish
the brats on the BBQ to get some grill marks but a few minutes on each side
is all that's needed or else you'll risk sending them super nova.
Labor Day weekend is upon us, go
get'em!
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