Ready-to-eat sausages are a reliable food item, but people still manage to give them a rough, unrecognizable shape that can be delicious.

So, let’s look at the following joint sausage-making mistakes and how you can avoid them or address the root cause.

Sausage safety starts when you pick up the package and place it in your shopping cart. Since hot dogs are considered “cold foods” when purchased, they should be kept cold until they are in the refrigerator. Unless a different date is marked on the package, an unopened box of hot dogs can be safely stored in the fridge for up to two weeks. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sausages can be stored for one week once the package is opened. Links can be frozen for up to two months if there is no significant reduction in quality.

Do not leave sausages at room temperature for over two hours or more than one hour at temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Although sausages come fully cooked, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends reheating them to at least “hot” before consumption. This can reduce the risk of contamination by harmful bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes.

The best option is to slowly warm sausages by boiling them in a shallow bath of flavored liquid. To do this:

Place a disposable aluminum pan over the direct heat source of the grill.

Pour a cooking liquid, such as broth or beer, into it.

Once the liquid boils, remove the pan from direct heat and add the sausages.

Once the sausages are cooked through (about 5 minutes), remove them from the pan and place them over direct heat to char quickly. The result should be a juicy, flavorful, and utterly intact sausage.

By installing a dual-zone grill, you can easily avoid using only direct heat. If you use a charcoal grill, place all the hot coals on one side and leave the other for indirect heat. If using a gas grill, turn on the burners on one side of the grill and leave the burners on the other side off. To avoid splitting the casing, cook the sausages from the side over indirect heat. Over direct heat, the links should cook through well.

When cooking sausages, most people grill, pan-fry, or even throw them in the microwave. However, there are other options for cooking sausages. Baking sausages in the oven is a great way to cook them evenly with minimal effort. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the sausages in a heatproof dish or pan lined with aluminum foil, such as a saute pan or Dutch oven. Once the range reaches the desired temperature, bake the sausages for 15 minutes. Properly baked sausages should look slightly curled and brown.

Another alternative way to cook sausages is to boil them in boiling water.

With an average of 190 calories and 17 grams of fat, sausages are not considered a healthy food, according to Better Homes & Gardens magazine. However, a few “non-meat” links may make you feel less guilty. Ball Park Lean Beef and Hot Dogs sausages contain only 80 calories and 5g of fat. Jennie-O Turkey Sausages contain 70 calories and 6g of fat, and 97% lean Jewish beef sausages contain only 45 calories and 1g of fat. However, these sausages have at least 380g of sodium and various preservatives.

In Sweden, hot dogs are often served with mashed potatoes, cucumber, fried onions, and shrimp salad. Total hot dogs in Chile are served with avocado, sauerkraut, tomatoes, chili peppers and cheese. In Colombia, hot dogs are usually topped with salsa, cheese, fries, and quail eggs.

The United States also has a rich palette of regional styles of hot dog preparation. In Kansas City, mustard, sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese are often added to hot dogs. For example, the Polish Boy hot dog is served in Cleveland with fries, coleslaw, and sweet barbecue sauce. In southwest Sonora, the hot dog is wrapped in bacon, fried, and then stuffed with pinto beans, roasted peppers, fried onions, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, relish, and green salsa. So throw a dart at the map – you’ll probably end up at a place with interesting hot dog toppings that can spruce up an ordinary lunch.

The benefits of ketchup as a hot dog topping can be discussed all day. However, there is a genuine reason why Chicagoans don’t add ketchup to hot dogs. As many people in the city claim, adding ketchup will ruin the flavor that made you want to eat a hot dog in the first place.

For fans of hot dogs with ketchup, Chicagoans hold a special place because the Chicago hot dog is firmly entrenched in the city’s psyche.

In almost every recipe, the first step is to preheat.

If the grill has yet to be appropriately preheated, it’s challenging to utilize the method of double cooking over direct and indirect heat. Hot dogs should be moved back and forth between the hot and cold sides of the grill.

Grilling cooked hot dogs.

If you are worried about pathogens, you should know that hot dogs come fully cooked, and simply bringing them to a hot temperature is enough to kill any pathogens lurking in them.

Do not oil hot dogs before grilling.

Cooking hot dogs in the microwave can ruin the appliance.

When time is short, it can be tempting just to put the sausage in the microwave and be ready to eat in 5 minutes. However, microwave cooking can harm both your dish and the microwave itself.

Sausages are known to contain many additives. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, some of these additives have high levels of minerals. This can cause hot dogs to catch fire in the microwave.

Overcooking is the worst thing you can do.

If you are going to cook sausages, do the right thing. You should add the hot dogs to boiling water and cook without a lid for about 4-6 minutes. Then, remove the hot dogs and place them on a plate lined with paper towels until cooked. If you are worried about the sausages getting cold, use a steamer running on low heat so the links stay consistent.

It would help to not leave the sausages in boiling water for more than 6 minutes. This will result in loss of flavor deterioration of texture, and can lead to tearing, says Lacademi. Since boiling is already a suboptimal way to cook sausages, overcooking is the worst thing you can do to link.