Commercial Sausage Cooking

[plandon]

A little puzzle troubling my mind is regarding cooking sausages commercially. 

On the south coast of England is a pub popularly known just as "The Sausage Pub". It's menu consists simply of only (only!) 54 different types of sausages, mash, mushy peas and gravy. 

The food is on your table in 10 or 15 minutes. 

My puzzle is how on earth they do that? 

How on earth can they even hold 54 types of sausages thawed out? 

What's the magic? How do they cook them? 

Any professional chefs want to have a guess how to do this? 

[gfweb]

Guessing...hold sausages at 40F and microwave

[Martin Fisher]

My guess:

Par-cooked and held in the fridge.

Finished, to order, via a dual-plate griddle.

 

 

[demiglace]

I cooked at a German sausage place for a while. We didn't have that many types of sausage but we parboiled and refrigerated. We reheated to order on a flattop.

[Bernie]

They could Sous Vide (say at 60C) in single serves and hold them at that temp till needed then sear them. At the end of the day just rapidly cool and refrigerate for next time. The refrigerated ones then just need a quick microwave to get them internally to temperature then a quick sear to serve.

[chozume]

I've done some work in catering and gourmet sausage production and a common practice is to use a hot water bath to get the internal temperature to whatever safe level is desired. Sausages can be held at this temperature throughout service without overcooking them or drying them out. When an order is received, they are finished à la minute under a very hot grill for only 1 or 2 minutes per side to brown & crisp up the skin and put on some nice grill marks (if that's appropriate for the style of sausage). Cooking them all the way through under intense heat (eg a BBQ or grill) will usually result in the sausages exploding and losing all the juiciness inside - this is a common mistake.

 

Sausages can be prepared this way either fresh or frozen, and by themselves or sealed in cryovac bags.

 

If the sausages are by themselves, it's also popular to use a dark stout beer (eg Guinness) as the poaching liquid. Temperature control of the bath is always key (it's basically a sous vide technique).

 

If the sausages are pre-portioned and sealed in cryovac bags, then the bags can go right from the freezer into a plain hot water bath for a pre-determined time,  then the bag is cut open and the sausages finished as above. Obviously no need for beer or other fancy poaching liquids if the sausages are bagged.

Edited January 3, 2019 by chozume (log)