Sausages are the perfect summer treat, but they can often turn out burned or bland tasting unless you take a few minutes to cook them with an everyday ingredient everyone has in their kitchen.15:19, 24 May 2026Sausages rank among the finest indulgent foods, whether sizzling away at breakfast or grilling on a barbecue, yet they can frequently taste rather bland when cooked too hastily. Many people lack patience when it comes to cooking sausages and tend to crank up the heat without realising this actually strips the meat of its flavour.‌Sausages have a thick casing, meaning the outside cooks considerably faster than the inside, resulting in skin that turns patchy and charred while the meat remains slightly undercooked. Cooking at high temperatures can also cause the skin to burst open, allowing all those flavoursome juices to escape and leaving them dry, shrivelled and decidedly tasteless.‌‌However, Jules Clancy, a cook and founder of Stone Soup, has revealed a straightforward method to guarantee juicier, richer sausages — and all it requires is a splash of water.Jules said: "I normally avoid extra cooking steps. But poaching sausages before browning gives a much better texture. More juicy and melt-in-the mouth that, I make an exception."The other bonus is you can poach in advance, and then it only takes a few minutes to brown your bangers when you're ready to serve."‌It may sound peculiar, but spending just 15 minutes poaching sausages in a small amount of water delivers a significantly crispier texture while keeping them as flavourful as possible.Poaching works by gently cooking the inside of the sausage, allowing more moisture and fat to remain within the meat.‌This ensures the outer skin cooks at the same rate as the inside of the sausage, so every part turns out crispy and gorgeous golden brown.Poached sausages will also stay intact once you grill or fry them, retaining all their natural juices and coming out plumper and richer when it's time to serve.It's an incredibly straightforward cooking hack that requires just a few extra minutes of effort, yet it's virtually guaranteed to make your sausages taste far superior and look as though they've come straight from a professional kitchen.‌How to poach sausages to make them tastierYou will need:Four thick sausagesA frying pan with a lidMethod:‌To start, place the sausages in a frying pan and pour in just enough water to reach halfway up them.You don't want the water to completely submerge the sausages, or they'll end up boiling rather than poaching.Next, set the hob to a medium heat, pop a lid on top and allow the sausages to simmer gently in the water for 15 minutes.‌If you fancy it, you can boost the flavour even further by adding beer, cider, herbs or even a chicken stock cube to the water, though this is entirely optional.Once the time is up, drain the sausages and they'll be ready for proper cooking. You can fry them in a pan, bake them in the oven or throw them on a barbecue outside.Article continues belowIt's perfectly fine to refrigerate the sausages and cook them later if you're hosting a gathering. Once cooked, they'll be gloriously crispy, golden and sizzling with bags of flavour.