There is nothing better than frying sausages for breakfast to warm you up on a cold morning, but many people are put off by the thought of scrubbing a greasy pan afterwards. Sausages are already quite fatty, and when cooked in oil, the hot grease will spit and make a massive mess on any nearby surface.
However, Elizabeth Barbone, the founder of Cook Fast, Eat Well, has revealed there is a much easier way to get tastier sausages without the clean-up, as all you need is some tin foil or baking paper to cook them in the oven. She said: “Cooking sausage in the oven is easy: simply preheat your oven, line a baking sheet with parchment or foil, and bake. The sausage comes out juicy and tender each time. And the method is less messy than cooking sausage in a skillet or on the grill.”
Frying sausages may seem convenient, but it adds unnecessary fat to an already rich food, making it taste overly heavy and greasy.
The sizzling hot oil in a pan will also cook one side of the sausages extremely quickly, making them more likely to become burned, unevenly cooked, or burst from their skin.
What many people do not realise is that sausages naturally release fat as they cook, meaning there is no need to add any extra oil.
This fat drains away in the oven, and using tin foil or baking paper makes for a much easier clean-up, so you don’t have to spend the morning washing up dishes.
Using the oven may seem easy, but the heat will cook the sausages slowly and evenly, locking the moisture inside. Thus, you get juicy sausages with perfectly crisp skins without any added oil.
How to cook sausages properly in the oven
Cooking sausages in the oven is simple, but it is important to note that you will also need a rimmed baking tray. Sausage juices will run off during cooking, and using a flat tray may cause them to drip into the oven and create a mess.
Line a rimmed tray with foil or baking paper, then preheat the oven to 200 °C. It should take roughly 15 minutes for your oven to reach the correct temperature. Then, place your sausages on the tray, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.
Check the sausages 10 minutes into the cooking time to flip them over so each side browns evenly. Once the cooking time is up, your sausages should be juicy, crispy, and bursting with flavour, so you can enjoy an incredibly tasty breakfast without any clean-up.
It should be noted that different sausages will have different cooking times. Breakfast sausage links or patties will take about 15 minutes, but Italian or bratwurst sausages will take 30 minutes, and fresh ring sausages will take 45 minutes to cook properly.
Do not cook sausage patties made from ground meat in the oven. When sausages are not tightly packed, the fat cannot render evenly, and they will dry out and lose shape while cooking.