I butchered my hog the other day and am now in possession of a couple hundred pounds of pig. So...I figured I'd get to work.

I've tried no less than a dozen kielbasa recipes the past few years and all but one (that was close but no cigar) resulted in a lot of wasted meat.

Today, I endeavored to persevere.

I found a recipe online from the same guy I got my SPAM recipe from (which is awesome BTW), so I figured I'd give him another go.

First, the meat. 4# of ground pork and 1# (actually 0.84) of ~80/20 beef. I added around 1/2 pound or so of pork fat as I like a juicy sausage.



Had to grind up the fat to mix it in and pulled out one of my latest purchases: The Cabelas Carnivore. If you're looking for a great grinder, look no further! This thing will grind up a live yak and, while laughing at you, say, "Is that all you got?"



Then, I added the spices.



As well, I added and mixed in by hand the binder (powdered milk) and the salt water which resulted in this concoction.



Into the fridge it went for about an hour or so whilst I prepared the stuffing stuff.



Almost final product. I made these links and two small loaves. Now they are sitting in the fridge for about 8 hours to dry out the casings. Then, into the smoker for a few hours of applewood smoke goodness.



Then? We'll see if it was a success.

It's going to be a late night.

"Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made."

Just kidding. Used to eat a lot of it as a kid in Chicago.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Used to eat a lot of it as a kid in Chicago.

Not quite as good as kishka though, huh?

Fast forward to 2:20 mark Be sure to view the dancers!!!

Being Lithuanian, Polish, and English my family has made a lot of kielbasa. Looks good to me.

quote:

Originally posted by Kuisis:
Being Lithuanian, Polish, and English my family has made a lot of kielbasa. Looks good to me.

Polish, Ukranian, Hungarian here. Sadly, though, none of my family was much into making sausages so I've had to experiment a lot with recipes. I have Italian and breakfast sausages down well, as well as a great bratwurst recipe. Kielbasa on the other hand has been a struggle.

Got a recipe you'd care to share?

quote:

I found a recipe online from the same guy I got my SPAM recipe from (which is awesome BTW)

I stopped reading right there. Care to share a link?

Oh yea, yummy looking kielbasa!

Tried to find the youtube link I used to have for the walk through. Apparently no longer active. Good thing I wrote it down.

It's a little labor intensive, but it turns out as good or better than the store-bought SPAM.

5# ground butt
1# ground ham
7 tsp Tender Quick
3 Tbs sugar
3 Tbs corn starch
1 Tbs kosher salt
1 cup cold water

1. Mix dry ingredients in water until dissolved and mix well with meat.
2. Spread into two 9X5 pans and press down hard to remove any air pockets.
3. Seal them tightly with foil and put into a water bath (larger pan filled with water), and bake at 250F for around 3 hours until internal temp of 155F.
4. Remove from oven and press with a heavy object (big brick or whatever works...the idea is to compress the meat as much as possible) while still hot.
5. Cool completely (put in the fridge overnight...with the brick).
6. Once cold, slice and enjoy.

Nicely done!

winning!!!

Looks good Gustofer! Do you cook the kielbasa further after the smoking operation? If so, how? We’ll want a report.

Laying the porcine pipe, as it were.

I make my own Andouille:

Andouille Sausage


1 ½ yards of sausage casings
4 lbs. lean pork meat
2 lbs. pork fat
¼ cup minced garlic
2 tbs. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
¼ tsp. dried thyme
1 tbs. ground paprika
¼ tsp. crushed bay leaf
¼ tsp. dried sage
5 tsp. hickory-flavored liquid smoke

Soak casings in cold water for about an hour to soften up. If using natural casings, rinse thoroughly to remove salt.

Cut pork and pork fat into ½ inch wide chunks. Pass them once through the coarse blade of a meat grinder. In a large bowl, mix together the ground pork/fat mixture and all remaining ingredients.

Cut the casing into 26 inch lengths and tie a small knot in one end of each. Fit the open end over the tip of the sausage stuffer and slide it on until the tip of the stuffer touches the knot. The casing will look like accordion folds. This keeps excess air from getting into the casings.

Fill the hopper with the sausage mixture. Turn the machine on and feed the stuffing gradually into the hopper. The sausage casing will fill and inflate gradually. Stop filling about 1 ¼ inches from the funnel end and slip the casing off the funnel, smoothing out any bumps carefully with your fingers and being careful not to push the stuffing out of the casing. Tie off the open end of the sausage tightly with a piece of string or make a knot in the casing itself.

Smoke sausage links in prepared smoker

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Looks good Gustofer! Do you cook the kielbasa further after the smoking operation? If so, how? We’ll want a report.

I cook my kielbasa by putting them in a pan with water, turning the temp to boil the water down until the sausage fries and just browns. That's just me though. Others may do it differently.

These are supposed to smoke to a temp of 153F, which should be safe, but I'll likely fry them up as above just to be sure. Safe pork temp should be around 145F, but I like to be a bit careful when making sausages as they warm up and cool down several times and there's opportunity for bugs to get in anywhere along the process. Keeping things always cold is key.

Thanks for the Andouille recipe olfuzzy. I'll have to give it whirl.

What kind of smoke do you use?

Good Kabasy (as the Poles in Philly call it) has to have lots of Marjoram and garlic, did you include that?

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Thanks for the Andouille recipe olfuzzy. I'll have to give it whirl.

What kind of smoke do you use?

I use Hickory for everything

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Good Kabasy (as the Poles in Philly call it) has to have lots of Marjoram and garlic, did you include that?

Garlic yes, but this recipe did not include marjoram oddly enough. All the other recipes that I've tried have had it. It'll be interesting to see the results.

quote:

Originally posted by olfuzzy:

I use Hickory for everything

Hickory seems a bit strong, but it's worth a try. Next time.

Around here fresh polish sausage has marjoram, kielbasa usually doesn't. I have Rytek Kutas" recipe book and am making his kielbasa recipe next weekend. I recommend his book to anyone looking for info and recipes on sausage making.