Friends, the under a dollar pineapples have returned to our local grocery store. Except for this year the price is even better at ninety-seven cents! Remember when I wrote about the ninety-nine cents pineapples we used to make IPA terriyaki? Well, clearly a new low price record this time around. And while I cannot understand how it can possibly be profitable to sell pineapples in perfectly good shape for such a price, we are taking full advantage of the sale!
This means that besides this recipe for a quick sausage and pineapple appetizer we have coming up the IPA Pineapple Sorbet we promised you last year as well as Pineapple Salsa, Beer Braised Pork and Pineapple Tacos al Pastor and Pineapple IPA Slushies. Maybe spiked with rum...Or maybe not since that may turn them into yet a different craft beer cocktail. But don't worry. We will not publish all of these all at once. Even though it does sound tempting.
Love the summer time cooking with beer and mixology part of craft beering. Love eating and drinking the results even more. Hope that you are following along.
How to Make Pineapple Sausage Bites
As far as ingredients go, use fresh pineapple and select and appropriate type of sausage.
We used smoked pork and turkey blend sausage, but kielbasa would have been a great choice as well.
Or if you'd like a spicy kick to the bites, get some black pepper seasoned andouille or chorizo sausage.
All these options are great partners for ripe pineapple chunks and a bit of red onion (we like its caramelized, crunchy contribution to each bite).
THE GLAZE: The IPA and brown sugar glaze adds great aromas and helps keep the pineapple sausage bites extra moist while boosting the caramelization. We used a small amount of juicy IPA or New England IPA (NEIPA), the highly coveted hazy IPA style that continues to be all the rage among craft beer fans nationwide and the world over.
If you are not into using IPA, mix the brown sugar with OJ and proceed with the pineapple sausage bites recipe as written.
Side note. If you somehow landed on this page not expecting a discussion of IPA flavors and have never tasted a NEIPA - do so. It will change everything you thought you knew about what IPAs taste like. You need not be dubbed a hophead to enjoy or even fall in love with this style. Take this from me - American IPAs are towards the tail end of my list of craft beer styles ordered by preference but I actually enjoy NEIPAs.
In fact I will be making a NEIPA screw driver cocktail for the blog soon! The juicy, citrus mouthfeel and perceived sweetness of the style make it perfect as a substitute for plain orange juice. It will be one heck of a strong craft beer cocktail. Where is the weekend?
Recipe
Pineapple Sausage Bites
Ingredients
- 1 lb smoked sausage such as kielbasa
- 1 pineapple
- 1 red onion
- ½ cup IPA New England style IPA recommended
- 4 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil for greasing baking sheet
Instructions
- Slice the sausage into bite sized circles.
- Clean and slice the pineapple into bite sized pieces to roughly match the size of the sausage bites.
- Clean and cut the onion into small pieces.
- Using toothpicks or small oven safe cocktail sticks assemble mini skewers with sausage at the bottom, onion in the middle and pineapple on top.
- Turn the oven on to 350 - 375 F (depending on the strength of your oven).
- In a small sauce pan bring the IPA to simmer and remove from the heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved.
- Arrange the skewers sideways onto a grease baking sheet.
- Glaze generously with IPA/brown sugar using a brush and place in the oven. After 10 minutes carefully flip the skewers and apply more glaze.
- Bake for another 7-8 minutes, apply glaze again and broil for an extra 1-2 minutes for a better caramelization.
- Arrange the cooked skewers onto a platter in upright position and serve.
Notes
Beer Styles to pair with Pineapple Sausage Bites
We urge you to go with a NEIPA with this appetizer. Delicious pairing, both Chris and I feel like it is the best. But you may also consider:
- tropical/citrus profile hopped IPAs and pale ales for aroma resonance (like the Tropical Torpedo we used in these IPA Mango Fritters)
- malty and crisp brews such as Vienna lager, Dunkel and Munich Helles for sweetness matching (pineapple) and palate cleansing carbonation (sausage fat)
Find out more about NEIPA and the different IPA styles.
Addiction to the style is spreading like a wild fire and such are the demands of the craft beer marketplace that most breweries simply oblige and add one or more beers in the style to their line ups. Even breweries like our local New Belgium which is one of the nation's biggest craft breweries and has historically made Belgian styles (at the core of their very existence and success) have jumped on the proverbial bandwagon.
A few months ago New Belgium released the Juicy Hazy IPA we use in this recipe as part of their Voodoo Ranger series. The typical for the style hazy appearance is courtesy of oats and wheat in the grain bill and the citrusy and tropical fruit aromas and flavor of the hops medley is aided by the workings of an American Hefeweizen yeast strain and its esters. An extremely aromatic and clean ale with a respectable ABV 7.5%.
Beers brewed in the NEIPA are typically very low in bitterness, but really...the addition of brown sugar to our glaze would have addressed any problem with bitterness you could have had. Worry not this glaze envelops the pineapple sausage bites in a juicy and sweet coating that brings aromas you would otherwise not experience.
Dee
Would these be ok without the onion? My family is not onion lovers!
Milena Perrine
Absolutely, they will just lack the savory aromatic notes and sweetness of the onion.
Kerryanne
Another fabulous recipe guys!! I picked up 3 pineapples for $2 last week, so they are still plentiful in northern Australia and I just have to give this a try.
As always, thanks for sharing your recipes at Create, Bake, Grow & Gather each week. I'm delighted to be featuring this recipe at tomorrow nights party and pinning too.
Hugs, Kerryanne
CraftBeering
Cool! Thank you so much, Kerryanne!
Helen at the Lazy Gastronome
These pictures make my mouth water!! Thanks for sharing at the What's for Dinner party!
Karen, the next best thing to mummy
I love pineapple and we are having some friends over tomorrow for a BBQ, so I will make some of these #ourminilinkyparty@_karendennis
Christina
I freaking love hazy IPA. Our local store had some and I sh*t you not, we bought them out of it. I'm salivating at the thought of sausage, pineapple, and an IPA glaze. I feel like you wrote this post just for me 😉
I think I've said this before but I live for throwing parties and potlucks. I'm itching for the weather to get nicer so I can throw a summertime bash in my backyard. I am pinning this tasty looking SOB so I have something scrumptious to serve my guests!!!
Kelly Lynns Sweets and Treats
Those look like scrumptious little bites!! Perfect summer appetizer served best with a cold beer 🙂
karrie / Tasty Ever After
I'm going to send you $20 for you to mail me some of those pineapples to me!! In the good old New England area, pineapples are $2.50-2.99, but that won't stop me from making this app!! Two days ago, we went to our favorite butcher shop and picked up some of their homemade kielbasa. It's the best stuff around (they use local farm products) and will be perfect in your recipe. And I'm putting that hazy IPA glaze all over everything!!
CraftBeering
Lol, OK, Karrie:) We will send you all the pineapples we can:)
Sheri
These look so delicious! Going to bring these to the next party I go to. Thanks for a great recipe!
CraftBeering
I bet people will like them:) Thank you so much for stopping by with a kind word, Sheri!
Marvellina|What To Cook Today
I just wish I could grab two or three out of this computer screen! Sadly I can't though! ha..ha...!
CraftBeering
Aww! At least they are super easy to put together. I permanently feel this way about the food you make. Trying to convince Chris to move to the frozen tundra:)
Ben|Havocinthekitchen
Or these bites look and sound just fantastic, and the pineapples have got such a beautiful caramelization - I feel the way this tastes! You've created a pretty fancy appetizer, and I've got to try it. And then repeat. And then transform it into a pizza 🙂 Nicely done!
CraftBeering
Thank you, Ben! We did have some of them over rice, pizza sounds good too:)
Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen
I don't think we have those under a dollar pineapples around here but I'm going to check tomorrow because I LOVE pineapple! I can't wait to see all the goodies you're creating with it. I'll just start with these little bites to whet my appetite for the sorbet 🙂
CraftBeering
Thank you, Kelsie! Sorbet is on its way!
Natalie A
I've never thought of an appetizer like this before. The pineapple sausage bites look so good! I need to make these for my next party!
CraftBeering
Thank you, Natalie!
Dawn - Girl Heart Food
We don't get pineapples quite that cheap around here. I think the cheapest is usually at Costco for maybe $2.97, which is still not bad. For as long as I can remember, every year at the start of Christmas, I'll do up a little platter for hubby and I of these rinky sausage bites with a combination of sausage, gerkin pickle, pineapple, pickled onion and/or cheese. They are no where near as amped up as yours, but we always look forward to them and enjoy them. I have got to give these a try with that delicious IPA glaze! Perfect little nibbles while out on the deck with a cold one 😉
CraftBeering
Cool, I am going to try out the gerkin version you do. I looove gerkins and think it can be an awesome combo!