Can You Microwave Sausages? Everything You Need to Know

Sausages are a severe health concern regarding food safety because pork isn’t the most forgiving meat for bacteria. Eating pork that hasn’t been handled safely increases your chance of being infected by hepatitis E.

Whether you’re trying to reheat some left-over sausages in the microwave for a quick snack or simply trying to microwave your sausages from raw, we have covered the safety aspects so you’ll know exactly what you can and can’t do.

Is It Safe to Microwave Sausages?

Sausages can come in all varieties, from pre-cooked to frozen. In this section, we will cover everything you need to know about the safety of microwaving sausages.

Raw Sausages

Raw sausages in the microwave are a straight no.

To stay safe, raw meats are forbidden in the microwave; the most forgiving would be steak since the bacteria is on the outside of a steak, but for other meats such as beef, pork, and chicken, you should never microwave from raw.

Microwaves don’t cook evenly; even if you have a rotating dish, they still leave cold spots. And cold spots aren’t what you want for raw sausages that harbour bacteria such as:

• Escherichia coli, Salmonella
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Listeria monocytogenes (Lm)

If you try, you’ll cook parts of the sausage thoroughly, but other parts will remain in the danger zone (8 – 63°C), and then you’ll eat that part where the bacteria are multiplying rapidly. Ultimately causing food poisoning.

Always cook raw sausages using methods that cook evenly and quickly, such as oven cooking, air frying, grilling and frying.

Cooked Sausages

This section applies to those who have cooked and frozen their sausages for another day.

You can cook these sausages, provided you’ve done the following:

• Cooked them thoroughly during the first cooking process (No pink meat inside)
• Cooled them down straight after cooking
• Placed them straight in the freezer after cooling down.
• Defrosted them in the fridge.

There’s no exact timing on how fast you should cool your sausages down before freezing, but my rule is that within 2 hours, they must reach below 8°C (Danger Zone). This is based on the advice that any cooked meats left at room temperature after 2 hours must be thrown away.

Assuming that you cool them to 8°C within 2 hours, you should have halted the bacterial growth before it gets dangerous.

The FSA recommends cutting the meat up as soon as it’s cooked to cool it down quicker. I cut sausages a few times to expose their cores, then place them in the freezer after 20 minutes.

I do not recommend putting them in the freezer straight after cooking as the heat may defrost other foods, creating a potential safety breach.

Once frozen, you’ll need to defrost the sausages in the fridge before cooking in the microwave, according to Prof Costas Stathopoulos of Abertay University, due to the number of harmful bacteria multiplying through other methods such as defrosting in the microwave.

Different varieties of Sausages

There are different varieties of sausages that come in a packet, for example:

• Vienna Sausages
• Saveloy Sausages
• Quorn Sausages
• Breakfast Sausages

The rule regarding food safety for microwaving different types of sausages like those above is simple: Always follow the instructions on the packaging. If the instructions don’t mention microwaving, you’ll need to cook them in accordance with the instructions, such as in the oven.

This is because manufacturers have different methods when producing their sausages; some may pre-cook fully, some may partially cook, and some may even add a lot of preservatives to extend the shelf life.

For this reason, it’s essential to follow their guidelines, and you have no idea how they’ve been handled.

Pricking The Skin

When cooking sausages in a microwave, it doesn’t matter how they come; you will always need to pierce the skin.

This is because microwaves don’t heat the food; they heat the water molecules. This causes steam, and since sausages have a skin wrapped around them, the steam can’t escape, leading to a pressure build-up, eventually leading to the sausages exploding.

Pricking the sausages with something sharp, such as a knife, will do the trick and stop it from exploding.

Reheating Sausages in the Microwave

Reheating sausages in the microwave is a relatively safe and easy method, and it is an excellent option for reheating small quantities. This is because heating small amounts is much quicker, which prevents uneven heating.

Still, you must ensure they are cooked thoroughly and stored correctly.

This means:

• Not past the use-by date
• Cooked thoroughly all the way through (75°C)
• Cooled down quickly and refrigerated

If the above criteria were met, follow the steps below to safely reheat your sausages in the microwave.

1. Pierce the skin five times evenly across each sausage.
2. Wrap the sausages in a paper towel or cover with parchment paper to avoid them going soggy
3. Place sausages on a microwave-safe plate
4. Heat for 90 seconds on full power.
5. Take them out of the microwave and check the core temperature with your finger or a thermometer.
6. They are cooked if it’s boiling in the core (steam is coming out).
7. If not, your microwave might not have been powerful enough for 90 seconds, so place them back in the microwave, cook for 60 seconds and check again.
8. Keep checking until the core temperature is boiling.

The rule of thumb is that if you can’t hold your finger on the core of the sausage for longer than a second, it’s hot enough to kill all the bacteria that have survived, and they will be safe to eat.

Additional Tips and FAQs