I’ve been kind of lazy about making dinner lately, and what is easier and tastier than grilling some hot dogs or sausages? Grocery Outlet, meanwhile, has had an explosion of sausage choices this week so we were able to try a few new ones.
The winner of this batch was Open Nature Smoked Uncured Sausages. This is actually the Safeway brand of sausages. These are 100% pork sausages. They are pretty big, with four sausages in the 12 oz package, and very tasty. That’s probably because they are full of fat, 23 grams for one of these vs. 15 grams for one of the Gilbert sausages below (which are 1/2 oz smaller). Still, if you’re going for flavor, you can’t go wrong with these sausages. Mike rated them an 8.5.
Gilbert’s Craft Sausages is a very new company (started in 2010) offering “gourmet” uncured beef sausages. I got the beef & cheddar and we thought it was pretty good. Mike would rate it a 6.5. Camila, my 9 yo, liked it – and she can be picky. It had a nice flavor, not very overwhelming, and was pretty juicy. I think I might enjoy it more without the cheddar.
One convenient thing about Gilbert’s sausages is that they are individually wrapped. The bad thing is that they don’t have the type/expiration date printed on the plastic, so I still have to keep the carton in the fridge to remember what they are. A 10 oz package of 4 sausages was, I think, $3 at Grocery Outlet.
Finally, one of my kids like chicken sausages and we often buy the Aidells kind. There were none at Grocery Outlet, buy they had Awesome Apple uncured chicken hot dogs. The 10 oz package has 5. Both kids really liked them and they seem marginally healthier, with 7 grams of fat each. But one kid had to eat two to get full, and the other 3 . Of course, the kids gave them a “10”. My oldest says she prefers these to the sausages as they are thinner and easier to eat, plus they look smaller. Less messy too.
One good thing about these chicken apple hot dogs is that they don’t have pork casings. Aidells chicken sausages don’t either, but other manufacturers do. If you are specifically avoiding eating pork products (as my daughter is), this matters.