Can you "pre-make" beer brats?

[TallBill]

I'm going to a volleyball tournament this weekend and bringing a cooler with burgers/brats and a grill. We have a VERY short time to cook food and eat, so I cant soak brats in beer on low heat like I usually would.

Can i let brats simmer for 4-5 hours the day before, then toss em in the fridge, then ice, then grill them the next day? Wouldn't be as good, but still worth doing over just tossing brats on the grill out of the package?

 

[miketheidiot]

shoudlbe fine i suppoe

 

[joesmoke]

seems like it would be ok... bound to be better than out of the package

 

[spidey07]

Just poach them in beer for about 10-15 minutes then put them in the fridge. Then you can finish them on the grill. If you simmer brats for 4-5 hours you're doing it wrong.

But brats even without the beer should be amazing if you know how to grill. Just grill them over medium heat for about 25 minutes turning frequently.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Just poach them in beer for about 10-15 minutes then put them in the fridge. Then you can finish them on the grill. If you simmer brats for 4-5 hours you're doing it wrong.

But brats even without the beer should be amazing if you know how to grill. Just grill them over medium heat for about 25 minutes turning frequently.

I simmer brats for 4-5 hours all the time till the beer turns into a syrup. They taste amazing. I may be "doing it wrong" but they are fucking great.

Plus if I do this for at least a few hours, they don't need to be cooked as long on a grill. Remember, time is short.

 

[spidey07]

Everybody has their way of doing brats of course. Poaching them in the beer makes them almost fully cooked, all you're doing on the grill is browning the casings and finishing the cooking. 10 minutes for coals, 10 minutes to cook and you're done.

If you did fully cook them (and that's what you're doing with the 4-5 hour thing) then again the grill is just to brown them to get that wonderful snap of the casing. Since you put them in the fridge, fully cooked you'll still need them on the grill 5-10 minutes to heat them up/brown them.

Whatever you choose, you'll be fine with poaching them or cooking them. The grill will just be to finish/heat them up.

 

[theknight571]

We do this all the time.

I always had problems getting brats fully cooked straight from the package, without burning them. I learned this technique and now I never have any problems.

We use beer and onions for simmering.