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    Christmas sausage on skewers over the fire – with apple, red onion and mustard glaze

    Spiced Christmas sausage, apple and red onion – glazed over the embers

    • 4 servings
    • Time: 15 min at home + 15 min over the embers
    • Difficulty: Easy
    • 11 ingredients
    • 10 steps
    To the recipe
    Pale pork sausages grilling on a grate over glowing charcoal, with smoke rising.
    Photo: Salimfadhley, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

    Christmas sausage is Christmas's own sausage: a coarse pork sausage spiced with the flavours of Christmas – ginger, cloves, allspice and sometimes nutmeg and cinnamon. It is usually boiled and eaten on the Christmas table with mustard, but on a cold December day outdoors it is at least as good grilled on skewers over the embers. Alternated with apple and red onion and brushed with mustard and syrup, it becomes a small Christmas dinner on a stick.

    There is one thing that sets Christmas sausage apart from ordinary grill sausages: it is often sold raw, or cold-smoked, and then it is not enough for it to brown on the outside. It needs to be hot all the way through. The easiest way is to simmer the sausage at home and just finish it on the grill outdoors – then it is quick by the fire, and hungry children do not have to wait.

    Method

    1. At home: put the sausage in a saucepan with cold, lightly salted water. If you have pre-cooked Christmas sausage from the shop, you can skip straight to step 4.
    2. Heat slowly until the water simmers – it should barely bubble. If the water boils, the sausage splits. Let the sausage simmer for 10–15 minutes, until it is pale and firm all the way through, at least 70 degrees in the middle.
    3. Let the sausage cool, put it in a jar and take it along in the cool bag.
    4. By the fire: let the fire burn down to embers – the sausage should be grilled over embers, not in the flames.
    5. Cut the sausage into pieces of 3–4 cm. Cut the apples into wedges and the red onions into chunks.
    6. Thread sausage, apple and onion alternately onto the skewers.
    7. Stir together the mustard, syrup and allspice.
    8. Grill the skewers on the grate or hold them over the embers for 8–10 minutes. Turn often.
    9. Brush with the glaze for the last 2–3 minutes and turn so that it caramelises. The sugar burns easily, so wait with the glaze until the end.
    10. Roll the sausage, apple and onion in a flatbread with red cabbage and a dollop of mustard.

    Safety with Christmas sausage

    • Raw and cold-smoked Christmas sausage must be hot all the way through. Cold-smoked sausage is not ready to eat – the smoke gives flavour but does not cook the sausage. Small children should only eat it once it has been heated all the way through.
    • Check with a thermometer. Bacteria die quickly at 70 degrees. Put the thermometer in the middle of a piece, not at the end.
    • Grill over embers. In the flames the sausage turns black on the outside before it is hot inside.
    • Metal skewers get hot. Have fire gloves or an oven glove, and let the children use long sticks.

    Christmas sausage on skewers with children

    Food on skewers is perfect for children by the fire: the children thread the pieces themselves, choose how much apple they want and grill their own skewer. Give the youngest shorter skewers made of sticks, so that they can hold them without getting too close to the embers, and let an adult handle the glaze. While the sausage gets ready, the children can make stick bread or build a snow lantern at the grill spot.

    More ideas for food on a stick in food on a stick over the fire, and more about cooking outdoors together in cooking with children over a fire.

    Ways to vary the Christmas sausage

    • With small cocktail sausages: they are pre-cooked and can be grilled straight away – quickest for the youngest.
    • In a flatbread wrap: with mashed potatoes and crispy fried onions, as a Christmas version of flatbread wrap with cheese sausage.
    • With falukorv: the same glaze and the same skewers work with falukorv – more tips in the best falukorv over the fire.
    • Without sausage: halloumi in pieces with apple and red onion, and the same glaze.

    Common mistakes

    • Grilling raw Christmas sausage straight away – it browns on the outside but is cold in the middle. Pre-cook it at home.
    • Letting the water boil – the sausage splits. The water should only simmer.
    • Glazing too early – the sugar burns and the skewers turn black.
    • Grilling in the flames – the sausage gets sooty. Wait for the embers.

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    Frequently asked questions

    Can you grill Christmas sausage?

    Yes, but raw and cold-smoked Christmas sausage needs to be hot all the way through. Pre-cook it in simmering water for 10–15 minutes and then finish it on the grill over the embers.

    How long should Christmas sausage be cooked?

    10–15 minutes in simmering water, depending on how thick it is. The water should not boil, because then the sausage splits.

    Does cold-smoked Christmas sausage need to be cooked?

    Yes. Cold-smoked sausage is not cooked – it should be heated all the way through before it is eaten, especially if children are going to eat it.

    What makes Christmas sausage different from ordinary sausage?

    Christmas sausage is a pork sausage with Christmas spices, for example ginger, cloves and allspice. It is often sold raw or cold-smoked, while ordinary grill sausages are almost always ready to eat.

    What do you serve with Christmas sausage?

    On the Christmas table, often mustard and beetroot. Outdoors by the fire, flatbread, red cabbage and lingonberry jam go well – and a cup of mulled wine.

    More Christmas by the fire: the Christmas buffet outdoors, mulled wine in the pot and Jansson's temptation with embers on the lid. All the dates for Christmas are in the Christmas guide.

    More guides and recipes to read

    More Christmas by the fire

    Christmas buffet outdoors

    Mulled wine, Jansson in cast iron, smoked ham and rice pudding – the whole Christmas menu by the fire, with a timeline.

    To the Christmas buffet

    Mulled wine with the sausage

    Spiced glögg in the pan over the embers – with a children's glögg made from cordial so that everyone gets a cup.

    To the glögg

    Snow lantern at the grill spot

    A cone of snowballs with a candle in the middle – the children build while the sausage gets ready.

    To the snow lantern