Curly “Q” Sausage – Get It Twisted

Someone sent me a video link last summer, showing someone spiral cutting a hot dog. The wienercision was done by Blake Smith from Chow.com, and I remember wondering if this technique would work with parboiled Italian sausage.

Oh, it worked. It worked real good. By the way, I was going to provide a link to the aforementioned video, but Blake ended the demo by putting ketchup on his hot dog, so forget it. Okay, fine, since I did steal his technique, here you go.

Not only does this look very cool, the technique also provides a significantly greater amount of surface area, and when you’re talking about grilling meat, it’s all about the surface area. You could brush barbecue sauce on an un-helixed Italian sausage, but here you’re literally flavoring the sausage inside and out. 

And if you're skeptical about how well barbecue sauce goes with Italian sausage, take it from someone who ate one; it’s a match made in backyard barbecue heaven. I’d like to wish all you a safe and very festive Memorial Day weekend, and I hope you “spring” these curly “Q” sausages on your guests. Enjoy!

View the complete recipe