Well ok, maybe “volition” is the wrong word. But when I’m frying them, it’s not unusual for them to roll back and forth when heating up. How do they do that?
The water contained inside the sausages heats up, creating steam. The steam then escapes through little pores in the sausage skin at such a velocity that it generates enough force to move the sausage.
In the UK we used to prick sausages lest they explode. This is why they were called “bangers”. For some reason this doesn’t really happen any more - maybe because sausage manufacturers are using artificial intestines for the skins, not the real thing.
jjimm, I imagine the skins are probably pre-pricked.
hehheh hehheh hehhehhehhehheh!
Bangers and mash.
Suddenly it’s all so clear.
The sausages would bang open and the potatoes are mashed.
Logical naming method then.
And for dessert:
spotted dick
wait. what?
I’ve notice a different cause for non-sessility in sausages. When cooking the skin in contact with the pan will contract in the middle, pulling the straight wienie into a little arc. The arc-ed wienie is unstable, being balanced on its rounded ends with its middle humped up in the air. So it rolls to one side to a more stable position. The new, uncontracted patch of sausage skin now touching the pan starts contracting and the process starts all over again.
(Wow, that sounds like an excerpt from a Nicholson Baker novel … .)(
I’m not convinced that the steam vented from a sausage could exert enough force to significantly move it … .
Julie
Just don’t get them started on blood pudding.
In my odd family, we don’t like to eat sausages (brats specifically) until they explode. We boil 'em in beer and then grill 'em until the skin pops and they nearly split in half.
MMMMM…char
If you tried that while grilling an Americanized Bratwurst, you would likely either lose an eye or set yourself on fire.
-lv
I’ve cooked those bratwurst - they like to turn themselves inside out and look like roadkill, don’t they?
BTW, we used to prick the sausages before cooking them.
Some of us still do (granted, it’s probably more tradition than because we actually expect them to explode anymore).
The wonderful Nigel Slater says this is a bad idea, because the flavour-bearing juices and fats flow out of the sausage rather than marinating the meat. He recommends a long, slow cook in a frying pan to infuse the sausage with flavour*. If you’re worried about fat content you could always prick them just before eating, and let the fat flow out of them then.
*Which is what I tried to do earlier, except my stupid cooker is malfunctioning, and because I was wasting my time posting to this message board, didn’t notice the bloody things burning.
Also, steam can cause the skin to bulge out, forming irregular bubbles that roll it over. I’ve only ever seen this happen with hot dogs (I’m a cheap college student), but I’m sure it could happen with other sausages.
The sausages don’t move. Everything else around them does. Don’t you read history?
[sub]“E Pur Si Muove”[/sub]
[Qadgop the Mercotan** is surely correct. The movement of hot cylinders is often illusory. Countless erotic metaphors are founded on such misconceptions. Countless misconceptions have been blamed on illusions. I should quit before I start quoting Ms. Wilson’s songs. Perhaps I should quit before I post this. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Ok, all of this explains the sausage simply rolling over or moving a little laterally. But I’ve observed them rolling rapidly back and forth for maybe 10-15 seconds. They’d need two holes on opposite sides, with the steam alternating between the two.
Two holes may be the case, but consider one hole that rocks the sausage up to, but not beyond, its rolling center of gravity, and then dissipates. The sausage would therefore roll back, by which time the steam could have built up to do it again - thus the sausage would rock back and forth like a shithouse door in a gale.
Only when cooked over too high of a heat for too long of a time. Which is why you really “cook” them by boiling them in beer and onions, then just brown them on the grill, it’s easier to grill them without setting things on fire that way.
And let all the flavor out? Savages!
-lv