How to have a decent brat whenever you want.

Notes

By Michael Voigt

Nobody in my house likes chorizo, Polish, or Hungarian sausages. I love them. When we buy brats, we also pick up a package of that oddball stuff that I like. The thing is that I also really like brats, so we’ll make one or two of the other sausages for me and freeze the rest of the package. Unfortunately for me, we consume bratwurst in moderation. I might be kind of slow, but I just figured out how to have a brat, chorizo, or what have you on a whim. The secret is to keep a package of brat buns in your freezer and to have a toaster oven. To make a perfect sausage right from the freezer, simply put the sausage in a microwave safe dish. Then splash about a quarter cup of water over it and defrost it in the microwave. Don’t go nuts here, you just want it to be barely thawed. Then toss it in your toaster oven. Mine comes out perfect if I set the dial to “dark”. When the dial works its way around to light, break off a frozen brat bun and put that in the toaster as well. When the toaster goes ding, you have a perfect sausage snack. I recommend having a jar of kraut in the fridge and stone ground mustard at all times for the brats. Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce is awesome on already spicy chorizo. Baked beans are my go-to condiment on a Hungarian sausage, so I like to keep a single serving pull-top can in my pantry at all times. I like to load a Polish up with ketchup, yellow mustard, kraut, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, onion, relish, and a sprinkle of celery seed.