Tailgate Food Ideas: A Simple Southern Game-Day Menu

Football season in the South runs on Saturday mornings, a full cooler and somebody's grill already going in the parking lot. If you're the one feeding the crowd this fall, here are our favorite tailgate food ideas: a simple game-day menu you can pack in one trip, a few breakfast ideas for the early kickoffs, and how to cook sausage on a grill or flat top so it comes off juicy every time.

We've made our sausage from the whole hog, the same way, since 1964. Southern Living says don't miss "the famous Stripling's sausage," and it happens to be one of the easiest things in the world to cook in a parking lot.

A Simple Game-Day Menu

You don't need twelve dishes. You need one good thing hot off the grill, something to snack on, a couple of sides and a cooler that stays cold. Here's the menu we'd pack:

• Before kickoff: sausage biscuits made with Fresh Pan Sausage, or Fresh Breakfast Links straight off the flat top.
• Off the grill: Smoked Links and Sausage Dogs on buns, piled with grilled peppers and onions.
• For a big crowd: a Smoked Boston Butt or our Original BBQ Pulled Pork, warmed through and served on slider buns.
• The snack table: beef jerky, a Snack Stick Sampler, summer sausage, Red Rind Hoop Cheese and a few bags of Fried Peanuts.
• On the side: a pot of Brunswick Stew, a jar of Pickled Okra and some Chow Chow for the sausage dogs.
• Sauces: Stripling's Original BBQ Sauce and Jalapeno Honey Mustard.

Tailgate Breakfast Ideas for an Early Kickoff

A noon kickoff means the lot fills up at breakfast time, and nothing gets folks out of their chairs like sausage on a hot griddle. A few tailgate breakfast ideas that travel well:

• Sausage biscuits. Slice a roll of Fresh Pan Sausage into patties at home, stack them between squares of wax paper and keep them in the cooler. Cook them on the flat top and tuck them into warm biscuits. Hot or Jalapeno Cheese will wake everybody up.
• Links and eggs. Fresh Breakfast Links, mild or medium, brown on one side of the griddle while the eggs scramble on the other.
• Breakfast burritos. Brown pan sausage, scramble in eggs and cheese, roll it up in tortillas and wrap each one in foil. Keep them on the warm edge of the griddle and let people grab one as they walk up.
• Sausage gravy and biscuits. If you've got a cast iron skillet and a camp stove, pan sausage gravy is about the best way we know to start a game day.

How to Cook Sausage on the Grill or Flat Top

Fresh or smoked, sausage wants steady, medium heat and a little patience. Heat that's too high splits the casing and leaves the middle behind.

On the grill

1. Heat the grill to medium and leave one side cooler, with no coals or burner going under it.
2. Lay the links across the grates and turn them every few minutes with tongs. Don't poke them with a fork, because that's where the juice runs out.
3. If they brown faster than they cook, move them to the cooler side and close the lid for a few minutes.
4. Finish them over the heat for a minute or two to crisp the casing.

Our Smoked Links come in mild, medium, hot and Jalapeno & Cheese, and the Jalapeno & Cheese was named a finalist in the University of Georgia's Flavor of Georgia contest. It's a good one to have on the grill on a Georgia Saturday.

On a flat top or griddle

Brown links over medium heat, rolling them so they color all the way around. Add a splash of water, cover them with a dome or an upside-down foil pan for a few minutes to steam them through, then uncover and let the casings crisp back up. Pan sausage patties need no help at all: a few minutes a side over medium heat, flipped once. Put sliced peppers and onions on the other half of the griddle and everything comes off at the same time.

How long to grill sausage

Links usually take 15 to 20 minutes over medium heat, depending on how thick they are and how cold they were coming out of the cooler. The clock is only a guide. Pork sausage is done when an instant-read thermometer in the center of the thickest link reads 160°F, the USDA's safe temperature for ground pork. Fresh or smoked, cook every link to 160°F before it comes off.

Feed a Crowd Without Firing Up a Smoker

When the whole section is stopping by your tent, let the smoked meats do the work. Our Smoked Boston Butt is seasoned with Stripling's pork rub and slow smoked over hickory until it pulls apart with a fork. It arrives fully cooked and runs five to seven pounds, enough to feed ten to sixteen people. Warm it through at home, pull it, and carry it to the game in a covered foil pan.

Our Original BBQ Pulled Pork comes already sauced and fully cooked, so it only needs heating. The five-pound size is made for a crowd: set out slider buns, slaw and pickles and let everybody build their own. For a smaller group, a slab of Smoked Baby Back Ribs runs 10 to 13 ribs and feeds three or four, with nobody standing over a smoker all day. Browse all of our ready-to-serve smoked meats.

The Snack Table

Something has to hold everybody over until the grill is ready. Set out:

• Peppered Original Beef Jerky, recognized in Food & Wine as one of the "Top Ten Test Kitchen Discoveries."
• A Snack Stick Sampler, two each of cracked pepper, pepperoni and teriyaki, fully cooked and ready to eat right out of the wrapper.
• Hickory Smoked Beef Summer Sausage sliced thin, a wedge of Red Rind Hoop Cheese, crackers and a jar of Hot Pepper Jelly.
• Queso Blanco Cheese Dip with browned pan sausage stirred in, kept warm on the side of the grill.

What to Bring to a Tailgate

Pack the night before, so game-day morning is just loading the truck:

• Two coolers: one for raw meat and one for drinks, so the meat cooler stays shut and cold.
• Plenty of ice. Cold food should stay at 40°F or below.
• An instant-read thermometer, two sets of tongs (one for raw, one for cooked) and a clean platter for anything coming off the grill.
• Foil pans, heavy-duty foil, paper towels, trash bags and hand wipes.
• Buns, biscuits and slider rolls, plus mustard, barbecue sauce and a jar of pickles.
• Charcoal, or a full propane tank for the grill or flat top.

Food left sitting in the sun is the one thing that can ruin a good tailgate. Don't leave cooked food out more than two hours, or one hour when it's above 90°F. We wrote more about that in Keep Your Sausage Balls Out of the Danger Zone.

Order Early in the Week

Our sausage, barbecue, bacon, Brunswick stew and steaks ship Monday through Wednesday, and orders placed after 11 a.m. on Wednesday ship the following Monday. For a Saturday game, order early in the week. Fresh items arrive cool to the touch, so put them in the refrigerator or freezer as soon as they're in the door. Our shipping page has the details, and you'll find every link, patty and dog in our sausage collection.

Closer to home? Our stores in Cordele, Perry and Bogart carry the full Stripling's lineup, so you can pick up the sausage on your way to the game.

Wherever you park this fall, bring the sausage. We'll see you at kickoff.