Just as with any meat, it’s important to allow sausages to rest after cooking in order to prevent juices from escaping when you cut them If all went well, your grilled sausages will be juicy and moist from the edges to the center and fairly evenly cooked, with a reasonable amount of char on the outer surface and a faint pink smoke ring around the edges Cooking Free-Form Sausages Free-form sausages are even easier to cook than links, though not quite as exciting Because you can form them into thin patties or slender logs, cooking them evenly is not as difficult A patty or a thin log can be cooked just like a hamburger, bearing in mind that you want it to come up to 160°F in the center to avoid mushiness Because sausages almost always have a high fat content, you must be careful to keep an eye out for flare-ups if cooking on a grill over direct heat The easiest way to deal with a flare-up is to just move the sausages away until the flames die down Covering the grill will also help reduce flare-ups by starving the coals of oxygen For fat log-shaped free-form sausages, you can gently lower them into barely simmering water and poach until cooked through, then finish off in a hot skillet with butter or oil, or on the grill, just like an encased sausage THE WRONG WAY TO GRILL SAUSAGES Here are a few things that might go wrong when you grill sausages The Chest-Burster .. .THE WRONG WAY TO GRILL SAUSAGES Here are a few things that might go wrong when you grill sausages The Chest-Burster