Beer and Brats: Memorial Day Weekend

Oh no, no, no. Not those brats. Bratwurst.

The first time I ever saw bratwurst was in May – but we didn’t cook it for Memorial Day weekend. It was a barbecue to celebrate our first year of law school. It was BYOM – bring your own meat – believe it or not (oh come on, we were poor grad students). This one guy brought something they called bratwurst – it looked kind of funny. This one guy is now my husband and we now eat all kinds of wursts – more on that later.

Brats just lend themselves to beer. It’s a perfect pairing.

There’s a whole lot of debate about whether you should grill brats – or boil them. Either way is good – but doing both is even better!

So here’s what you do:

BEER AND BRATS

1 onion
2 T butter
1 bottle beer (lager is a good choice – remember that the point of the beer is to add flavor so use something that you like)
4 bratwursts

Slice the onion and place it in a large skillet with the butter. When the onions are soft and translucent, add enough beer in the skillet to cover the onions. Add the brats and cook for about 10 minutes – enough to parboil and absorb the flavor of the beer.

Your brats are cooked (hooray) at this point. Remove the brats and the onions from the beer/butter.

You could eat them now. But throwing them on the grill crisps the outside and makes them brown so toss them onto the grill for a few moments (you could also throw the onions on for a moment if you wanted). You should see lovely hash marks on the outside as the brats grill – don’t overdo it.

Of course, if you’re in a hurry or out at the park, you could skip the parboiling by buying beer brats and simply tossing those on the grill.

Now for the fun part… eating them! They’re delicious enough to eat alone or in a bun. But try adding…

Mustard (spicy is terrific)
Ketchup (hubby wouldn’t dare but kids love it)
Sweet Relish (again, hubby considers it sacrilege but I think it’s great)
Sauerkraut (make your own or buy some from the deli section of the supermarket)

And of course, don’t forget the potato salad and the beer!

Next up: what beer goes best with brats?

(Image: Newscom)