Fresh bratwurst pre cook

[jpurol]

I’m making up 50 pounds of fresh brats for my son’s robotics team. I’m wondering if I should sous vide them to ensure they are fully cooked and cut down on grilling time? We have a sausage shop here that sells their brats precooked and I’m sure it’s in a hot water bath. Do I vacuum pack them prior to sous vide or souse vide them naked? I’m assuming I would give them a ice bath like I would smoked sausage? What water temp would I use? What i.t. Am I looking for? Thanks

[glen]

That is an excellent idea, they will finish very quickly on the grill
Vacuum packing is optional but I like to do it

[twilliams]

jpurol when i vacuum pack fresh brats i prefreeze so they dont squish out the ends. I believe that would be a problem if trying to vac pack to sous vide. This is interesting to see what others would do. Feeding to public needs to be handled very carefully and process with pork needs to be done precisely so nothing bad happens. If it were me i would just get extra grills and manpower to cook them as a fresh brat. Or i would just boil in water then vac pac and freeze skipping the soux vide process.

[jpurol]

I thought of boiling but my thought process is that by sous vide it would prevent the fat from melting and still give a consistent, safe i.t?

[glen]

On fresh brats cut the vacuum time trying to stop at barely snug. Set SV at 160 - 165, check with thermometer through the bag after about 30 minutes
Even easier if you don’t bag them
I would think this would be very consistent
With fresh I would worry about the extra manpower cooking them properly, over cooking (more likely) as well as under cooking

[twilliams]

jpurol i havent moved to the sous vide world yet, so my knowledge is very little.

[twilliams]

jpurol or you could precook them on the grill then day of feast reheat in a nesco

[jpurol]

Thank you Glen and twilliams!

[processhead]

jpurol said in Fresh bratwurst pre cook:

I thought of boiling but my thought process is that by sous vide it would prevent the fat from melting and still give a consistent, safe i.t?

You really don’t want to boil the sausage. You bring the water just up to boiling temp and then back the heat down to simmer. Too high of heat will over cook the sausage and possibly split the casings.

You want to bring fresh product up to a high enough temperature for long enough to make it safe and then lower the temperature to a proper serving temperature.

Although more effort, grilling has the advantage of adding a nice flavor that you don’t get with water bath cooking

As twilliams mentioned, when you are serving the public, it is best to have some food prep and food safety background by at least one of the servers.

[JoeB]

jpurol done this dozens times before over the years. I will poach. Ice bath then vac pack and freeze. To serve, defrost, and grill. No worries about cook temps. Just make them look good and ck for 155*. I also cure#1. If they will be frozen for a long time. I do 50-60lbs at a time. Works great. I always appoint the local family grill master in charge Then watch over him with my temp prob.

[JoeB]

I do Sv. But too big of failure for 50lbs. When you’re counted on with no redo’s Poach is the safe way out. Pre-poached (cooked) 155* is a good serving temp for the appointed grill master It also Caramelizes the fat for taste. 50lbs is about 250 links h

[jpurol]

Thank you guys!

[Tex_77]

jpurol You don’t have to vac pack to sous vide, just use big zip lock bags then you won’t have to worry about squishing the brats. Almost seal the entire bag push it into the water until almost all the air is out and seal it up, and you’ll be good to go.