Nothing is better than waking up on a cold morning and having the time to make yourself a buttered sausage roll to warm you up, but the thought of frying anything often fills me with dread due to all the oil it takes. Oil tends to splatter everywhere to create a massive mess in the kitchen and tends to burn the pan, so I have to spend my morning scrubbing at dishes.
However, I recently stumbled upon a simple cooking method that made sausages really succulent and tasty without needing any oil at all, as you just need a stock cube. It may sound unusual, but poaching sausages in a bit of water and a stock cube will takes less than five minutes but will infuse them with lots of flavour.
Most people fry sausages, but you do not have to as they naturally contains lots of fat, and using oil can cause their skin to burn and become charred while the inside meat stays mostly pink and raw.
The extreme heat from frying them can also cause the sausages to burst open, which make a mess but also dry them out so they are less tasty to eat.
However, if you first poach sausages with a stock cube before placing them in the oven, you give the insides time to cook gently and evenly, ensuring the inside is thoroughly cooked without drying out.
Then, simply put in the oven to allow the skin to crisp up, so you are left with really juicy sausages that taste so much better than simply frying them.
It might seem complicated, but this cooking method is really easy, and when I tried it out myself the poaching took less than five minutes.
How to make juicer and tastier sausages
All you need to do is fill a frying pan with a little water. You just need enough for the sausages to cook and partially cover them halfway, but they should not be completely submerged.
Place a stock cube into the water and then turn up the heat until the liquid starts to boil. Once the water is boiling, turn down the heat to a gentle shimmer.
Then, line a tray with baking paper and preheat your oven to 200C, and it is now time to cook the sausages.
Add the sausages to the frying pan and then let them cook for two minutes. You just need one minute of poaching per side so make sure to flip them over.
After the sausages have been poached, make sure to quickly transfer them to the prepared tray and place them in the oven.
Be careful not to puncture the skin with a fork when moving them, as this could cause all the juices to escape and make them lose a lot of their flavour.
Let the sausages cook for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. You will know when they are down as they should look crispy and brown.
Then, place the sausages on a buttered roll, cover in your favourite sauce, and they will taste absolutely divine when you bite into them.
In my opinion, the sausages were packed with much more flavour while still be really crispy. This proved to me that you do not need any oil at all to cook sausages and I do not think I can go back to frying them ever again.
