Should You Boil Brats In Beer Before Grilling

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By Sana

You should always boil your brats in beer before you are grilling then on your grill. It is necessary for the food to taste best when you are putting it in your mouth and this is one of the reasons why you need to boil your brats in beer before popping them in the grill. There are many people who will tell you to not do so but do not listen to them. I have gone camping a lot of times with experienced people and they have all told me that it is perfectly fine to do so. 

What Are Brats?

Brats or bratwurst is a traditional German sausage. The food is perfect for barbecues. Many people like to have a good sausage in a barbecue party and brats make up to be one of the top choices of the people. When it comes to a tailgate party or a simple backyard barbecue, you can not miss out on the brats. It came into the United States of America with the German immigrants in the 1950s. The first scene was when the brats were being sold to the hungry fans in the Milwaukee County Stadium. Many people took a liking to it and it grew in popularity. 

You can not go wrong with the brats. They are simple to cook and they taste very good. The question that we have today is about the fact that whether one should put the brats to a boil in beer before they are grilled. The community seems to be divided into two groups with the opinion. However, we are going to provide you with the ultimate answer today and valid reasons behind the an answer. We are not just picking a size for the sake of it. So let's take a look. 

Why Should I Boil Brats In Beer?

That is a very valid question that one can have given the debate about the topic. If you go on the internet then one half will tell you to not book the brats in beer before grilling them and the other will ask you to definitely boil it. You may have conflicting thoughts about this and you are not ready to take our word just yet. Well, there is a good reason for doing this. Brats and beer is an iconic pairing that can go along with milk and cookies, wine and cheese, cola and burgers. 

A professional chef and cookbook author Jim Mumford have said that boiling brats in beer is much more effective and efficient because it tightens the collagen casing on the sausage. This makes sure that there is no juice leaking from the sausage and no flare ups is caused. This is good for a wooded area where you are camping. You do not want any flare ups to happen in there. 

You won't need to worry about grilling it for a long time either if you are boiling it first. You should boil it for around 10 to 15 minutes or until the internal temperature of the brat reaches 145 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that the sausage will be completely cooked even before you pop it on the grill. You can eat it like that if you want.

 The main purpose of putting it on the grill is just to get those grill marks and slight smoky flavor if you are using charcoal. You can serve them quickly after that. It won't take much time to grill. There is also the fact that boiling brats in beer can help you cook them evenly. If any sausage is cooked unevenly then it might leave a pink center which is not good. 

People will complain that boiling brats will cause the flavor to go to waste and it will taste bland after that. This is not true. It can only happen if there are cuts on the brats. If there are no cuts then you do not have to worry about any flavor leaking out of it.

The Best Beer For Boiling Brats

Well now that we have settled the fact about boiling brats, the next question comes to the front. What kind of beer is the best for boiling brats? You will be shocked to know that it is the cheapest beer that you can get and it does not really matter much. I know I was shocked at it too. However, there is a reason behind this too. Any subtle flavor that you can get from craft beer can get destroyed because of the boiling and the flavor of the brats. Therefore it is better to go with cheap beer here. You can go with a standard macrobrew. 

The type of beer that you choose is going to affect the taste of the brat a little too. The flavor of the beer is going to get infused with the meat. That slight hint of beer in your brat can makes it taste much better. 

Conclusion 

Thank you so much for giving this article a read. We know that you can go on reading theory for days. So we encourage you to make brats in both ways. Try it by boiling it in beer and the grilling it. We are not going to comment one anyone's taste but it is better to cook it using the beer since it can prove to be advantageous in many manners and not only in respect to the taste. We hope that we have been useful with the info that we brought to you. Take care of yourself and eat lots of delicious food.