Best Sausages For The Summer Grill

If you can get your hands on some fatty, decadent, extraordinarily delicious German-style bratwurst–like the 100-percent-pork kind Eli Cairo makes at Olympic Provisions in Portland–you'll want to handle it properly.

Warm a bath of beer and water on the grill (half beer and half water, with salt to taste) and slide in a half dozen sausages to get them nice and hot, then quickly crisp them on the grill to get that snap. All you need at the table is some properly fermented kraut and spicy whole-grain mustard.

Need more ideas for the grill? Here we go:

? Fontanini
?Use well-placed skewers to hold this spicy Italian sausage spiral together on the grill (price varies by retailer).

? Snake River Farms
?Sweet, snappy gourmet franks ($13 a pound) made with American Kobe-style beef.

Fontanini | Snake River Farms | Flying Pigs Farm | Lobel's

? Flying Pigs Farm
?We love all the links from this pig farm in Upstate NY, but the Russian-style pork sausage ($12.50 a pound) takes the cake.

? Lobel's
This made-in-NY Andouille ($16 a pound) arrives fully cooked. Color it on a hot grill and slice it over a pile of rice.

Olympic Provisions | Kreuz | Fra'Mani | D'Artagnan

? Olympic Provisions
One of our favorite German-style brats ($30 a pound; includes shipping). Just make sure to warm them through before they hit the grill.

? Kreuz
?Pit-smoked beauties from Texas sausage kings. Absolutely perfect ($2 each).
?
? Fra'Mani
?Coarsely ground, spicy chorizo is delicious with grilled onions and peppers (price varies by retailer).

? D'Artagnan
?Cut into this wine-infused garlic sausage ($9.99 a pound) and eat as-is, or char and enjoy it with crusty bread and mustard.