Hotlinks are a sort of sausage popular in the United States. You will find that American barbecue, soul food, and Cajun and Louisiana Creole cuisines all use hotlinks sausage.
Notably, pork, beef, or a combination of the two is commonly used to make hot links. Other cuisines, such as jambalaya and gumbo, sometimes include this sausage as an ingredient.
The herby pork flavor hot links offer proves to be excellent for any moment and time – be it lazy weekend mornings or rushed weekday mornings. And it’s so amazing that everything from scrambled eggs to hot dog buns goes nicely with them.
Once you learn how to make breakfast hot links, you will find yourself making them. A word of caution, though, it is so good, you may get stuck on it.
Tips on How to Cook Hot Links
Check for Doneness – When there is no longer any pink color in the sausage, and the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees, it is fully cooked. To be safe to consume, sausage should be completely cooked through and have an internal temperature of 160 degrees.
It’s important to remember that raw or undercooked sausage can include germs that cause food poisoning.
Be Careful – You have to wait until the sausage links are done to shift them. If you try to force them apart, they may break. They will be able to move freely once they have cooked sufficiently.
To avoid a grease mess, you will have to cook over medium heat. Cooking on high heat might be faster, but it causes grease to spray everywhere. It creates a huge mess, and you may risk burning yourself.
Moreover, it’s critical to let the grease drain off the sausage. This greatly improves the sausage’s taste.
Cooking Hot Links
Simmering – Get a large skillet to contain your heated links, then pour ⅔ cup of water. Proceed to turn the heat to high in the skillet and place it on the stove.
Once the water has reached a boil, begin to carefully lower as many hotlinks into the skillet. It would help if you tried to stack them in a single layer. Then reduce the heat to medium and gently bubble the water.
Proceed to cook and simmer the hot links for 5 to 6 minutes on low heat. Remove the cover of the skillet with an oven mitt.
Turn the hot links over with tongs and replace the cover on the skillet. Continue to cook the hot links until they’re fully hot all the way through for about 5 to 6 minutes more.
Pour the hot water out of the skillet if you want slightly crispy and browned hot links.
Then continue to cook the hot links in the skillet over medium heat for another 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the hot links once in a while to ensure even browning.
Remove the hot links from the skillet and serve them hot. Refrigerate any remaining hot links for 3 to 4 days.
Roasting – Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and set a wire rack on top of a rimmed baking sheet.
Cut in between the links if they are still strung together. Then place as many hotlinks on the wire rack as you want to roast. Allow a few inches – about 5 cm – between each link to ensure even browning.
To cook the hot links for 10 minutes on a wire rack on a baking sheet in a preheated oven. Then turn the hot links over with tongs and return them to the oven. Go ahead and roast them until both sides are golden brown and they are heated all the way through for about 10 minutes more.
Using oven mitts, you should remove the baking sheet and wire rack from the oven. Since grease from the heated links may have leaked onto the baking sheet, try to take care.
Go on and serve the hot links with your favorite sides or chop them up into smaller pieces to use in another dish.
Notably, when it comes to cooking hot links, you have a set of possibilities, just like with other sausages. You can rapidly cook hotlinks in the microwave or a pan on the stove because they are already flavored.
Moreover, to give the hot links a smokey taste, place them on the grill and cook until they’re fully cooked. Roast hot links on a wire rack in the oven for a slightly crispy texture or to create a large batch at once.
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Cooking Time for Hot Links
Cooking Hot Links
Cooking Time
Simmering
15 minutes
Roasting
20 minutes
Print
Hot Links Sausage Recipe (16 hotlinks)
Ingredients
- 4½ lbs of pork butt
- ½ lb of pork backfat or fatty pork belly
- 5½ teaspoon of kosher salt or sea salt
- One teaspoon of Cure #1
- 1½ teaspoon of granulated garlic
- 1½ teaspoon of granulated onion
- One teaspoon of ground black pepper coarsely
- One tablespoon of dark brown sugar
- 1½ tablespoon of sweet paprika
- Two tablespoons of red pepper flakes
- 1½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1¼ spoon of ground chipotle pepper
- ½ cup of dry milk
- ½ cup of ice water plus more if needed
- 28–32 mm hog casings
Instructions
- Start by cutting the meat and fat into 2-inch pieces, then season it with salt and cure #1; let it chill for at least 12 hours and up to 48 hours so it can cure.
- Pig and pork fat – partially frozen in a freezer for 20 minutes – are ground through a medium-sized plate.
- Then you can mix in the ice water and all of the spices until the meat is sticky.
- Stuff it into hog casings, twist into 6-inch hot links, and hang to dry for 2-3 hours at room temperature.
- Go on to preheat your smoker to 130-140 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Proceed to hang the sausages in the smoker for 30-60 minutes until the skin is dry to the touch and free of smoke. Then apply smoke for 3-4 hours until you obtain the desired color.
- Then raise the smoker’s temperature gradually to 170F-175F until the internal temperature reaches 154F-158F. To achieve this, you may need to raise the smoker temperature to 185F-195F.
- Alternatively, you can poach the sausages for 25 to 30 minutes in 167°F water until the internal temperature reaches 154°F. Poaching is a far more efficient and effective method.
- To get a temperature of 154 degrees Fahrenheit, bake the sausage for 40-60 minutes at 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
- You can refrigerate or freeze the sausage once it has cooled down. Placing the sausage in an ice bath to cool it down rapidly is a good way. It will result in a product that is fuller and plumper.
- Serve and enjoy.
You can watch this video recipe to know how to cook hot links.