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Cracking The Case Of The Perfect Tailgating Food

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For the perfect tailgating treat, grill bratwursts, then bathe them in a beer bath with onions, sauerkraut and celery seed.

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By TONY "FATSO" SICILIANO

Tribune correspondent

Published: August 26, 2008

Updated:

Labor Day weekend is finally here, and to me that means four things:

1) No work on Monday. How can you have a holiday named "Labor Day" and expect me to roll out of the sack early and head into work?

2) No more white clothes for me. As the unofficial end of summer takes place, I will not be that overweight guy walking around in white T-shirts and white sneakers after Labor Day.

3) It's the beginning of the college football season.

4) With the return of college football is the return of tailgating. Nothing goes better with gridiron action than some grill action.

It doesn't matter if you're going to the game or if you're watching it at home. Tailgating is serious business. How would you feel if you went to a game and all the players were moving in slow motion, not giving their full effort? You would be pretty disappointed.

That's the same feeling your friends and family have when you're hosting a big game and you roll out some carrot sticks and dips. They feel cheated and disappointed in the festivities you coordinated. The same way football rivalries stretch back generations and old wounds heal slowly, so do the wounds inflicted by a poor tailgating performance.

Let's say, hypothetically, you have too many friends and you would like to thin the flock a little bit. All you have to do is host a big college football game party at your house and only serve some hummus and Melba toast. I guarantee you will lose half to three-quarters of your friends that day.

Even if you are going to the game, the food you tailgate with is very important. One of the worst memories I have from my childhood was when my father and I went to the old Hall of Fame Bowl at Tampa Stadium. He told me that we were going to get to the stadium early and tailgate for a couple of hours in the parking lot. We get to the stadium; we pull out a card table and some chairs. I looked around the rest of the parking lot to see plumes of smoke and the great aromas that filled the air at the stadium parking lot.

My excitement was almost uncontrollable; in a matter of moments, we were going to be tailgating our heads off and eating like a pack of wild animals. But then my dad brought out a cooler and, to my horror, he pulled out a couple of egg salad sandwiches. I used the soggy bread from the sandwich to wipe away my tears.

When it comes to tailgating and you are grilling up for the game, there is an endless amount of things that you can cook. You can go easy and grill some burgers, or you can go fancy and throw a couple of steaks on the grill. But in my years of watching football and devouring meat, I have come to the conclusion that there is one perfect food to grill, serve and enjoy while watching football: bratwurst.

Oh, the beautiful brat. The perfect food in so many ways, from the way it fits on a bun, leaving your other hand for a beverage, to the generous fat content that makes you feel a little sick after polishing off four of them.

The key to grilling a brat is to understand what a brat is, or in this case, what it isn't. A bratwurst is not a hot dog, and, therefore, cannot be cooked like a hot dog. You can't crank up your grill and throw on some bratwursts until they char on the outside. You are dealing with a raw sausage that needs to be cooked slowly. If you use too much heat, you are going to crack the casing of the brat.

The fat from the brat can then escape the sausage and fall onto your fire. This will cause a flare-up. The flare-up will char the sausage beyond recognition. This is not the result you should be looking for.

Some people say to first boil the brats in beer for 5 minutes and then move them to the grill. My answer: Real grillers don't boil meat under any circumstances. But once the outside of the brat is completely cooked, it is a great idea to move the brat to a beer bath to keep the sausage from drying out. The warm bath also will continue to cook the brat, ensuring that it is completely cooked.

So as you pile into your car for a road trip to see your favorite team, of if you are decorating the whole house in anticipation of the big game, don't just throw anything together and call it a tailgate party. Do it right, and do it delicious.

TONY FATSO'S GRILLED GAME DAY BRATWURST

2 large onions

2 to 3 cans or bottles of warm beer

1 pound of sauerkraut

1 teaspoon of celery seed

12 fresh bratwurst

12 hoagie rolls

Crockpot (if you have electricity) or a stockpot

Prepare your grill for medium heat. Chop the onions into strips, and combine them in the crockpot with the beer, sauerkraut and celery seed; turn the crockpot on high. If you have no electricity at your tailgating site, use a stockpot and the hot grill surface as a stove top.

Grill the brats over medium heat for 15 minutes. Take care not to puncture the casing as you are cooking them. Also, be careful not to do so when you are rolling the sausages.

Cook the brats on all sides. If you have a thermometer, insert it into the end of the sausages. Remove the bratwurst when the temperature reaches 170 degrees.

Transfer the cooked brats to the beer bath. Use tongs to pull the brats out with a healthy pile of onions and sauerkraut. Serve on a bun with favorite condiments.

Tony "Fatso" Siciliano is the host of "On the Grill Radio" from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturdays on WFLA, 970 AM. For information, go to www.onthegrillradio.com.

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