Lunch: The Old Lengthwise Sausage Slice Trick
So you're out of hot dog buns, big deal. I was doing some rooftop grilling with friends the other night — not on my roof, that would be in violation of my lease (fine it was my roof) — when just that event occurred. And nobody wanted to walk all the way down those four flights of stairs and ALL the way across the street to the bodega to get more. That would have taken eight minutes. Maybe ten. This 5-second sausage hack, however, made the nice crusty bread I had into the perfect thing for the old hot-dog-to-sausage-sandwich switcheroo. And nobody had to go to the bodega. Actually someone ended up going shortly after for beer, but still.
With a small, sharp knife, slice the hot dog or sausage lengthwise about 2/3 of the way through as if you were going to stuff it, then invert and flatten into two connected halves on a cutting board. Some sausages will be more amiable to this than others. If one ends up being two separate halves, it'll still lie nice and flat on bread. Grill or sear face-down, then make into a sandwich. You can weigh it down with a foil-wrapped brick or other heavy object for a crisper exterior and quicker cook time. I cannot tell you how useful a foil-wrapped brick is in the kitchen. My brick actually came from my roof! What was it doing up there? Try out this method with our signature Test Kitchen tricked-out hot dog recipes:
- Jambalaya Dog with Holy Trinity Relish
- Merguez Dog with Zucchini-Mint Slaw
- Broccoli Rabe and Provolone Dog
- Sausage and Pepper Hero
So grill on roofs, run out of hot dog buns (but not beer), dance a jig on the line of what your lease permits you to do on the largely unfinished roof which was not designed for entertaining (at least until they solve the critter problem #leverage) and other things that apply to the fun little dinner shindig where I discovered my new favorite way to grill sausages this summer.
More sausage for lunch on Food Republic: