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.