The Grey Cup is Sunday and if you plan to watch the game and haven’t made dinner plans, you’re in luck.
Here is a recipe for a satisfying creation you might get served at a football game, or at a parking-lot tailgate party before kickoff. It’s also food that will taste great in front of the TV in your living room.
The recipe is called beer brats. Brat, in this case if you’ve not already guessed, is short for bratwurst. It’s a nicely seasoned, German-style sausage made with pork, or a combination of pork, veal and/or beef.
The bratwurst used in today’s recipe was made by Port Alberni’s Hertel’s Meats (hertelmeats.ca). It’s a good product that’s sold at many Vancouver Island supermarkets. You can, of course, use another type of bratwurst in this recipe; just make sure it will nicely fit into a hot-dog-style bun.
According to the German Missions in the United States website, germany.info, bratwurst have been eaten for centuries and are designed to be grilled over a wood fire. The website notes that during cooking, the sausages may be basted with beer to help brown them evenly and are traditionally served with mustard on a small crusty roll.
Many Germans, of course, have immigrated to North America and those settling in places such as Wisconsin continued to eat bratwurst. But rather than simply baste them with beer, some folks decided to simmer bratwurst in beer, and then grill and brown it and serve it in buns.
When reviewing recipes for beer brats, I found that some took a no-fuss approach, simply simmering sausages in beer flavoured with onion and butter. Other recipes were more adventurous, with items such as garlic, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar being added.
Some recipes also ask you to marinate the sausages in the beer mixture before you simmer them. Others sometimes ask you to put the sausages, once grilled, back in the beer mixture you simmered them in until ready to serve.
I used a mix of the suggested approaches and came up with a tasty recipe that I think you’ll enjoy, even if you don’t watch the game today.
Because the beer simmers for a while, it loses most of its alcoholic edge by the time the sausages are ready to eat. That said, if you don’t wish to use alcohol, my recipe gives you the option to replace the beer with apple juice. If you don’t have an indoor grill or barbecue, I also provide an option to brown the sausages in a skillet once simmered.
My recipe yields four (two-sausage-each) to eight (one-sausage-each) servings. My always-starving son could easily eat two, but older folks may only desire one.
If eight sausages are too many for you, after simmering them, set aside the ones you’ll grill. Let the unneeded ones cool, then freeze for another time. Or cut the recipe in half and simmer the sausages in a smaller, seven- to eight-inch wide pot.
If you’re feeding a large group, the recipe could also be doubled or expanded even further. Just get out a bigger pot and make sure the sausages are covered in beer when simmering.
Beer Brats
Bratwurst sausages, simmered in a flavoured beer mixture, grilled and stuffed in buns with tasty toppings. If desired, you could serve the sausages with potato salad or coleslaw. Sausages are cooked when an instant-read meat thermometer, inserted sideways into the centre of the sausage, registers 160 F (71C).
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: About 30 minutes
Makes: four to eight servings, depending on appetite
2 Tbsp (1/8 cup) butter
1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 Tbsp brown sugar
• a few pinches garlic powder and chili flakes
8 bratwurst sausages (each about 85 grams)
2 (375 mL) cans or bottles lager or pilsner (see Eric’s options)
8 crusty hot dog buns, split and warmed
• toppings, to taste, such as pickle spears, whole grain mustard, sauerkraut and/or grated Swiss or Gouda cheese
Place butter in 10-inch wide, deep cast-iron skillet or a similar-in-width pot set over medium heat. When butter is melted, add onions and cook until tender, five to seven minutes.
Remove pan from the heat and mix in brown sugar, garlic powder and chili flakes. Set sausages in a single layer on top of the onions, and then pour in the beer. Set pan over medium-high heat and bring beer to a gentle simmer, lowering heat as needed to maintain that simmer. (Don’t rapidly boil or sausages may burst.)
Simmer sausages until just cooked through, about 12 to 14 minutes, turning halfway during the cooking process. Remove sausages from beer mixture and set on a plate. Continue simmering beer mixture until the liquid has reduced by half, and then remove from the heat.
Heat your barbecue or indoor grill to medium-high (see Eric’s options). Grill sausages on all sides until richly coloured. While the sausages grill, return beer mixture to a simmer. When grilled, return sausages to beer mixture and turn to coat, and then remove from the heat.
To serve, sandwich beer brats in buns and top as desired with pickles, mustard, sauerkraut and/or grated cheese. Also top the brats with some of the onions from the beer cooking mixture.
Eric options: If you don’t want to use alcohol, replace the beer with unsweetened apple juice and omit the brown sugar, as the juice will have natural sweetness. If you don’t have a grill, after simmering, you could brown the sausages in hot oil in a skillet.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His latest is The Great Rotisserie Chicken Cookbook. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
