How To Grill Bratwurst - You're Doing It All Wrong

On the surface, grilling is a straightforward cooking technique: Fire up the grill, throw on some meat, turn it over to cook a little more, and take it off. But if you want your meat to really shine, it pays to be a little more attentive throughout the process. You'll want to grill a bit differently depending on what meat you're using, and bratwurst — the classic German pork sausage — is a case in point.

Chowhound recipe developer Ksenia Prints knows this all too well, and she has all the steps you need to take to grill the perfect bratwurst in this "You're Doing It All Wrong" video. Cooking bratwurst perfectly doesn't need to be an onerous task. A key part is just preparing the grill right and paying attention to the sausages' position on it; these tricks don't really require extra time. That said, to take your brats to the next level, Prints does also recommend taking a few minutes to give them a beer bath so it'll feel like you're eating them in a real German beer hall.

Before your bratwurst hit the grill, Prints highlights one key preparation to make: splitting your grill's surface into a hot and a cold zone. On a charcoal grill, this means having the majority of the coals on one side, whereas for a gas grill, it's just the hottest part, likely above flames.

After this, your bratwurst can go from the refrigerator onto the grill — no need for any other preparation, contrary to some home cooks' opinions, says Prints. "One mistake that many people make is that they're boiling their brats first." Start them in the grill's hot zone for a few minutes. Exact timing varies, but whenever they start getting grill marks, it's time to shift them to the cold zone.

Bear in mind that a grill is normally pretty hot, so realistically speaking, that "cold" zone isn't that cold. "In the cold zone, brats don't stop cooking: They're going to continue getting the heat from the side but not directly," notes Prints. A common mistake is cooking brats too hot and too fast. Placing the brats in the cold zone helps them cook "low and slow," more or less the opposite to cooking a fancy steak, where you want a fast, hot sear. Too much direct heat can make them split open. If you're cooking a bunch at once, it's okay to do this in reverse, starting some of them in the cold zone and moving them to the hot zone. When they're brown all over with some grill marks, they're done.

Before your bratwurst are cooking or while they're grilling, Prints suggests preparing a beer bath to add some bonus flavor. The first step here is choosing the right beer. "I personally prefer a pilsner or another German beer that's a little bit lighter," says Prints. "You don't want to go with a very dark beer like Guinness, it's just not the vibe we're going for."

Heat up the beer in a pot on a stovetop so it's warm but not boiling, and make sure to use a pot wide enough to fit a few bratwurst at once. Next, you'll add one or two sliced yellow onions in there to cook for 5 to 10 minutes so their flavor infuses into the beer. When your bratwurst are cooked, you can put the beer bath pot on top of the grill and put the sausages in for 5 to 10 minutes (more time equals more flavor infusion).

When it comes to serving your bratwurst, Prints recommends using hot dog buns — brioche is nice, but regular sesame ones are fine too. Finally, the toppings — and this is a bit of a choose your own adventure situation, she says. "I'm partial to sauerkraut and good mustard, but you can go with any topping you like. Raw onions are also going to get that German feel going, as well as curry sauce for a currywurst type of combo ... you do you." Once those toppings are on, you can serve up your perfect bratwurst.