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Stop frying sausages as butcher's simple cooking method makes them tastier

Sausages are a popular food, but they can be quite tricky to cook properly, as they often end up with an undesirable texture and taste quite bland if you fry them in oil

[A small collection of Sausages frying in the pan, captured in close up during December 2024. Very good for illustration.]

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Sausages are a popular choice for dinner in many households(Image: Christine Rose Photography via Getty Images)

Sausages may appear straightforward to cook, given that you simply need to heat them through in a pan but they can end up with an unpleasant texture and a rather bland flavour if you fry them in oil. While it's long been the traditional method, you don't actually need to add any cooking oil at all, as sausages contain a generous amount of fat that should naturally render down and crisp up the skin on its own.

Adding oil to the pan often causes it to combine with the sausage fat, which makes the casing cook too quickly, leaving the skin prone to burning and splitting.

Cooking with oil frequently results in sausages that are charred on the outside yet undercooked and pink in the middle, with all those tasty juices seeping out into the pan and ruining the overall flavour.

Expert butcher Matt Rhoades from True Bites, a family-run butcher's shop, recommends cooking sausages in the oven instead, as this produces a far juicier and more flavoursome result.

Matt said: "Cooking sausages in the oven is one of the easiest ways to get them evenly cooked, nicely browned, and ready to serve without standing over a frying pan."

Pan-frying sausages is a rapid process, making them far more susceptible to burning and sticking, while the intense heat causes oil to spit leaving you with considerably more washing up to tackle afterwards.

Oven-cooked sausages, on the other hand, benefit from a much gentler heat, allowing the fat to melt away gradually so they cook through at a steadier, more consistent rate, reports the Express.

[Picture of sausages cooking in a oven ]

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Sausages cook more evenly when placed in the oven(Image: Getty)

Allowing sausages to cook in their own fat takes a little longer, but it guarantees a more even cook, giving the skin a proper golden-brown colour while keeping all those delicious juices locked in.

Cooking sausages in the oven produces a crispier, more flavourful result and is far more convenient, ensuring they turn out perfectly every single time.

How to cook sausages properly in the oven

Simply preheat your oven to 200C, 180C for a fan oven, or Gas Mark 6. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper or foil to make the washing-up a doddle.

Arrange the sausages on the tray, spacing them out so they aren't touching one another. Resist the urge to prick them with a fork, as piercing the skin will cause all those precious juices to escape, taking most of the flavour with them.

Once the oven has reached the right temperature, pop the sausages in. Most sausages will need around 25 to 30 minutes to cook through properly, though this will vary depending on their thickness.

After roughly 15 minutes, give the sausages a turn to make sure each side gets an even cook.

Once the time is up, remove the sausages from the oven. They should be piping hot, gloriously crispy, and far more appetising than anything you'd achieve in a frying pan.

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