Written by: Roscoe |  Print this post and share it with your buddies!

THE ULTIMATE SAUSAGE POT
Okay, you’ve got a bunch of guys coming over for the game – poker game, football game, Final Four, game 7 of the World Series, whatever. What’s better than a big pot of everyone’s favorite sausage? Cooked in onions, and bacon, and sauerkraut, and… beer. That’s right, we’re cooking with beer here, so go buy a case of beer and don’t drink it all up, ’cause we need some of it for the food.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED

• A big pot
• A grill
• Sausage – one link per person
• Bacon
• A big Onion – red or white
• Red pepper
• Garlic
• Seasonings – salt, pepper, Worcestire, hot sauce
• Mustard – dijon, grain, yellow
• Red wine (or white)
• Ketchup
• Beer
• Sauerkraut
• Bread

HERE’S WHAT YOU DO
First, you get out the biggest pot you’ve got. No wait… first you open a beer and take a swig or two. Now you’re ready.

EVERYONE BRINGS A LINK OF THEIR FAVORITE SAUSAGE
You’ve already told them that. You’ll get andouille, you’ll get Italian, you’ll get spicey, and mild, you’ll get smokey linked, you’ll get chicken sausage, and pork sausage, and veal sausage. The Cookin’ With Roscoe test kitchens have even tried cherry flavored bratwurst, and did that ever add a layer of flavor!

POLISH KIELBASA
So every guy will bring their own personal favorite, and you may even get doubles. That’s okay. What you don’t want to do is forget the kielbasa. Gotta have kielbasa.?Roscoe believes that smoked Polish kielbasa is the best and any host is derelict if he leaves it out. And if you can’t get good kielbasa where you live, call the Kowalski Sausage Company in Detroit, they’ve got an 800 number and they’ll ship it to you. It’s one of the best, if not the best (Roscoe himself has been to Poland and will testify that there’s none better than Kowalski, but of course, it’s all a matter of personal opinion). Dearborn Sausage (in Michigan) is good, too. So there’s no excuse for not having great kielbasa in your sausage pot along with all the other sausages.

GET IT GOING
Get some heat going under your big pot and open a package of bacon. Chop it up – this can be a rough chop – and get it going in the pot. While the bacon’s cooking, chop a big onion, red or white, any kind of onion you like (Roscoe recommends red). This can be a rough chop, too, and chop it real quick, see if you can beat the onion before it makes you cry. Let’s face it, guys don’t really want to cry when they cook. But if the onion beats you, and you start to cry (and especially if there’s someone there watching), just put a towel over your face so they can’t see the tears. Tell them you’re sweating, and keep wiping your face till you stop crying.

ONION IN
Hopefully you’ve stopped crying and gotten the onion chopped. When the bacon starts to crisp up, throw the onion?in the pot to cook with it, grease and all, and if you like it, some chopped red pepper, too. Red pepper goes good in just about anything.

GARLIC, OF COURSE
Chopped, minced, whole, or open a jar and?spoon in as much as you like. Whatever you do, don’t forget the garlic. Then season it all – salt, pepper, hot sauce, Worcestershire. Gotta have Worcestershire, just pour it in, you can’t have too much.

MUSTARD
Roscoe cannot convey the importance of the mustard enough. Aside from the sausage itself, the mustard makes it. Put in any kind of mustard you like. Dijon is good, any grain mustard. Put about a half cup in, then put in some yellow mustard just for good taste and color. Yellow mustard is pungent, and it really kicks up the flavor. Put in a couple spoonfuls. Mix it all in with the onions and peppers and spices and see how good it smells. A little red wine now to help everything mix together, and then a few spoonfuls of ketchup.

GRILL THE SAUSAGE
As each guy comes in with his sausage, put it on the grill to seal and crisp. Either a barbeque or an indoor grill, a George Forman or a stovetop, whatever you’ve got, but grill it (actually, you don’t really have to grill the sausage, but the Cookin’ With Roscoe test kitchen has done it both grilled and not grilled, and grilled is better). When the sausages are crispy, cut each link into 3 or 4 pieces and put them in the pot with the onions and mustard. This can be a gradual process, or all at once, it doesn’t really matter, because next comes…

THE BEER
Naturally, you’ve been sipping on that case of beer, so it’s probably pretty handy. Open a couple bottles and pour them into the pot, right over everything: the bacon, onions, peppers, sausage and everything else in that pot. Then pour in a couple more. And don’t forget to taste each bottle before you pour it. Quality control, right? Gotta make sure it’s okay.

A note about the beer:
You can use any kind you like.??Roscoe likes to mix beers in the sausage pot. A dark beer for flavor, some Mexican beer, good old American beer, it’s all good. Fill the pot about halfway, then mix everything together.

ALMOST FINISHED, JUST ADD KRAUT
Bring it all to a boil, and dump in a couple jars of good sauerkraut. Mix it all up again and then turn down the heat and let it simmer as long as you want, till halftime maybe, or after a few hands of poker. Or until it starts to smell so good that you can’t take it another minute and have to serve it or risk a bunch of guys going berserk.
To serve: transfer the contents of the pot to a serving dish (Roscoe recommends a good old roasting pan), set on the counter or table along with a few pairs of tongs, and have at it.

SOMETHING WITH IT
Sure. While the pot simmers and you watch the game or play cards a while, wrap some good crusty bread in some tin foil, pop it in the oven and get it nice and warm. A hearty grain bread, or maybe a rustic garlic and peppercorn loaf. Rye works pretty well with this, of course. Or some good rolls. Some of the guys will make sandwiches, some will just use the bread to sop up the juice. And there’ll be lots of juice, so don’t serve it on any cheap paper plates.?You want to?use good quality, thick paper plates, don’t want?a mess all over your table or floor.

MELDED FLAVORS
The different sausage flavors meld together with the onions and mustard, kraut?and beer in a way you’d never imagine. The perfect meal for a bunch of guys. It doesn’t get any better.

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-Roscoe