How (not to) cook a sausage

OK - so a few of us went camping last weekend. I'll post more about the food later, but thought I'd share some observations on how not to cook Italian sausage over a campfire. Everyone knows you can cook hotdogs on a (long) fork over an open fire, as these pictures indicate. However, as you'll also see, we also tried cooking Italian sausages in this fashion as well. One of my friends, who we'll call "J," was the first to try this, and we all quickly learned from his mistake (his is the sausage in the front of this picture).


As you can see, his is starting to split already, which is perfectly fine. However, a sausage splitting (unlike a hotdog) is NOT a sign it is done (or even close). When J took a bite of this bad boy, we quickly discovered that it was not, in fact, done. Instead, it was bright red and oozing blood (great food image, I know).

Learning from his mistake, I decided to cut mine open after the outside had cooked a bit (which is actually how I normally cook them anyway). As you can see, mine look delicious, while his (the one to the left now) has a permanent place reserved in a circus sideshow (right next to the bearded lady).


This was a great camping trip, because we were able to cook almost everything over an open fire (we only started the grill once). It made us all feel rustic, which is entertaining if you actually know us.