Sausage food safety

Hodders · 27 Jun 2012 at 12:08

I've agreed to help out at the school summer fayre and have agreed to do teh BBQ.

There will be sausages and burgers. Burgers are easy to cook fast and cook through, but sausages have to be properly cooked.

Given that we will have about 250 people wanting food my idea is to use the school kitchen and cook the sausages through before finishing/browning them off on the BBQ. That way no-one gets food poisoning and we serve people nice and fast with safe food.

One lass says that this is dangerous as we will be 'reheating' the sausages. My argument is that this is fine as what can happen to a cooked sausage in the 20 minutes between it being cooked through in the oven and then browned on the grill. If you had a bowl of chilli that went cold cos the phone rang, you'd reheat it with no worries. When exactly are the bacteria supposed to have time to regrow after the cooking takes place ?

It's leaving food after reheating and *before* eating that is dangerous as you are providing a nice warm place for bacteria to multiply but this takes time and can't happen in just 20 minutes can it ?

Is my thinking right here ?

Kimi · 27 Jun 2012 at 12:15

I think sausages are 'done' when they hit 71c, so if they hit that all bacteria is dead anyway?

NXZT · 27 Jun 2012 at 12:23

not being a food hygiene specialist myself....I believe your thinking is sound and as long the cooked/warm sausages are not lying around for too long before being browned this should be safer then the risk of not cooking sausages properly through from scratch on the BBQ. (a lot of memories coming back from my student time eating slightly undercooked sausages... :eek:

)

A lot depends on the grill itself provided, as long there is enough space on the grill slightly away from the coals for keeping sausages hot and/or grilling them under moderate heat without burning I wouldn't bother with pre-cooking.

If the grill is too small and/or required throughput needs to be very high I think pre-cooking is the better/safer option.

Hodders · 27 Jun 2012 at 12:35

Cheers guys....

cainer · 27 Jun 2012 at 12:56

at home i prefer to cook/brown off on the BBQ first then transfer to the oven for 15-20 mins, but for an event i suppose people would be wanting to be served straight from the BBQ so id start them in the oven first in a ceramic dish so they dont brown off to much then brown off on the BBQ for 5-10 mins

glitch · 27 Jun 2012 at 15:08

Hodders said:
One lass says that this is dangerous as we will be 'reheating' the sausages. My argument is that this is fine as what can happen to a cooked sausage in the 20 minutes between it being cooked through in the oven and then browned on the grill. If you had a bowl of chilli that went cold cos the phone rang, you'd reheat it with no worries. When exactly are the bacteria supposed to have time to regrow after the cooking takes place?

She's right in principle, but not in practice.

The concern would be that if you cooked the sausages through first, allowed them to stand until required and then gently reheated them before serving - just the sort of thing that causes food poisoning.

The safest bet, as you've already figured out, would be to pre-cook the sausages and then finish them off over the coals. Providing you don't allow the sausages to stand cooling for too long and the internal temperature to drop accordingly, you ought to be fine.

The ideal way to do that, at least in terms of simplicity, would be to poach the sausages in a large pan of water first to get their internal temperature to around 65º, then finish them off on the grill.

That ensures the sausages are completely cooked through, remain very juicy and just need the char put on the outside to add flavour and the all-important 'snap' to the casings.

Unfortunately it doesn't work very well with cheap sausages with a low meat content - they tend to go a little 'squidgy' from the poaching.

One other way of cooking the sausages before grilling, and the one that yields the best results in terms of flavour and texture, is to set up some foil trays in a preheated oven with some finely-chopped onions and assorted herbs and spices spread across the bottom and use those as a 'bed' to cook the sausages on.

When done, simply carry the foil tray out to the grill and char the sausages ove the coals. And not only have you just added loads of flavour during the pre-cooking, but you've also got yourself a ready-made supply of fried onions to accompany them - just make sure you cook the onions through properly before serving.

Oh, and invest in a cheap-ish digital temperature probe just to make sure of things. Something like this is great as you get a nice easy-to-read screen.

Capt Doufos · 27 Jun 2012 at 15:19

You could always buy pre-cooked Bratwurst if you are REALLY worried.

cram · 27 Jun 2012 at 18:44

glitch said:
The safest bet, as you've already figured out, would be to pre-cook the sausages and then finish them off over the coals. Providing you don't allow the sausages to stand cooling for too long and the internal temperature to drop accordingly, you ought to be fine.

Slight correction when you are letting food stand it's not the internal temp you should be worried about but the external temp. The sausage will cool from the outside in and any contamination that is likely to get onto the cooked sausage is likely to come from the outside.

In terms of storing your sausages you could use a coolbox preheated with hot water.

glitch · 27 Jun 2012 at 18:55

cram said:
Slight correction when you are letting food stand it's not the internal temp you should be worried about but the external temp. The sausage will cool from the outside in and any contamination that is likely to get onto the cooked sausage is likely to come from the outside.

Good point, well made, sir.

Happy to stand corrected.

cram said:
In terms of storing your sausages you could use a coolbox preheated with hot water.

And that's a very good shout.

I tip my hat in your general direction.

DcD · 27 Jun 2012 at 20:44

I'd personally just get a digital instant read thermometer and make sure you lay out your grill methodically. Make sure everything's at 75C for safety.

cram · 27 Jun 2012 at 21:37

Couple of other points

You are allowed to (under the food safety regs) a one time window to keep cooked foods at room temp before having to dispose of them. Can't remember off the top of my head what it is but certainly over an hour. However the recommendation is still to keep cooked food at above 65c following cooking to the right temp

Just to pick up on a point made earlier. How big is your BBQ? Do you really need to pre cook. Presumably people coming to the fair have to pay for their hot dogs, burgers? They are not all going to want to eat at the same time. So couldn't you keep a rolling stock of cooked sausages on a cooler part of the grill?

bsoltan · 27 Jun 2012 at 23:06

It can't be that hard to cook a sausage on a barbecue. Just stick them on and dish them out. Make sure they've been on there a while to cook through.

cram · 28 Jun 2012 at 09:48

bsoltan said:
It can't be that hard to cook a sausage on a barbecue. Just stick them on and dish them out. Make sure they've been on there a while to cook through.

lol I don't think he is asking how to cook a sausage on a BBQ. He's looking at the logistics of how to cook safely and serve quickly for a large group of people.

jellybeard999 · 28 Jun 2012 at 12:21

Could boil them first to cook them through, and just colour them on the BBQ. If I were worried, i'd just use a thermometer though.

Kezmo · 30 Jun 2012 at 19:02

come on! bbq them, surely it's not that hard to tell if there cooked, if in doubt slice into one in each batch and check the insides, plate up, job done

One · 30 Jun 2012 at 19:07

Kezmo said:
come on! bbq them, surely it's not that hard to tell if there cooked, if in doubt slice into one in each batch and check the insides, plate up, job done

This way you also get to eat one sausage in each batch

cram · 1 Jul 2012 at 16:32

Kezmo said:
come on! bbq them, surely it's not that hard to tell if there cooked, if in doubt slice into one in each batch and check the insides, plate up, job done

What does slicing into a sausage actually tell you? My eye sight isn't good enough to spot dead bacteria.

flinco · 1 Jul 2012 at 16:38

cram said:
What does slicing into a sausage actually tell you? My eye sight isn't good enough to spot dead bacteria.

If the outside of the sausage is nice and darkened and the inside looks like the right colour - time to eat.

cram · 1 Jul 2012 at 18:16

Unfortunately food containing ground meat often looks cooked before technically its at the safe temp

flinco · 1 Jul 2012 at 18:42

Well you can tell based on how long you've cooked it for, at what temp you cooked it and what the outside of the sausage looks like. It cant be hard not to poison yourself by under-cooking sausages.