I have his book as well and have tried several different recipes from it.

I hate to say anything bad about the Messiah of sausage making, but I have not been impressed with his recipes at all. While my tastes tend to lean towards spicy (not hot, just spicy), I have found his recipes very bland.

It is a good primer on sausage making though.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

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?

I will call my uncle and see which one he uses. It was very good.

That'd be great. Thank you.

Hopefully he'll share.

Well, I messed up in the smoking process...apparently.



Using my Masterbuilt, I set it at 160F and loaded applewood.

My goal, according to the recipe, was to reach 152F in the smoker. This took nearly 8 hours at 160F (recommended temp) vs. the 2-3 hours suggested in the recipe. The low temp was supposed to keep the fat from melting.

However, the length of the smoke melted a ton of the fat, and I ended up with not quite Slim Jims.

While the flavor is perfect, and I'll stick with these ingredients, the quality is not.

Not quite sure where to go from here. Perhaps cold smoking is the way to go? Or, maybe, just doing a flash hot smoke and not worrying so much about the internal temp as it'll be frozen and cooked later anyway.

Hmmm....

Suggestions from the professional backyard smokers are welcome.

I'd be willing to bet the temp is off or had spikes high enough to render the fat out. I just bought and used for the first time an Auber PID controller and wish I had bought it sooner. I have a few smokers including a Masterbuilt and a Sausage Maker, both electrics and neither hold a consistent temp as purchased. The Auber PID kept my temps within 2 degrees once it learned the smoker and it has 6 steps you can program in. I ran the first hour at 120 degrees to dry the casings and then had it bump itself 10 degrees per hour until it reached a max of 170. It cost around $150 but if sausage making is a hobby or smoking is a hobby it's well worth it.

Every time I smell some good kielbasa I'm reminded of going to Duda's Butcher shop, in Perth Amboy NJ as a kid in the 1950's.

They had the stuff hanging up by the ton. You could smell when you were getting close to the place.

Hate to say it ,as a proud 100% pollock ,but I'm not a big fan. I miss pork roll from the east coast far more than kielbasa.

Superb!!!!!!!!!

Pls tell me about that stuffer.

We make sausage from time to time. Back in the day using Denisear’s grandfathers hand crank grinder, now with Kitchen Aid attachment. It’s still slow going and a pain.

If that hand crank deal is as efficient as it looks I may need one!

I had a Masterbuilt electric smoker for a SHORT period of time. I was never happy with the results, plus on the 11-12 time I used it, the thing quit working all together. I gave it away and purchased a Cookshack Smoker(cry once), and could not be more pleased.....just a thought.

Looks good.

Slim Jim or not still looks like it would be good. Used to like Slim Jims as a kid ate a lot of them.

just had some yesterday , with potato's and sauerkraut in the crock pot , stick to your ribs goodness

Try being in culinary school in your early 20's in Charcuterie class with a bunch of 18-22 year old girls giggling and making dick jokes as they handle the sausage coming out of the stuffer into the cases. Those were the days!

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:
Every time I smell some good kielbasa I'm reminded of going to Duda's Butcher shop, in Perth Amboy NJ as a kid in the 1950's.

They had the stuff hanging up by the ton. You could smell when you were getting close to the place.

Hate to say it ,as a proud 100% pollock ,but I'm not a big fan. I miss pork roll from the east coast far more than kielbasa.

Frank-

Check out www.jerseyporkroll.com to satisfy your craving.
Operated by a neighbor of mine.

So first thing, sausage that doesnt contain any nitrates needs to be smoked pretty quick to avoid some nasty issues like botulism. You need to get the sausage out of that 40-140 deg range asap with uncured meat. I would suggest smoking at a higher temp not above 220, ideally not above 200. At around 200 you should hit your target temp in 2-3 hrs, and as long as the sausage has decent fat content you wont have to worry about melting it out.

The recipe has #1 in it, so I wasn't too concerned about it turning.

Since I really liked the spice combination, I'll stick with the recipe and go for a quick and heavy hot smoke next time. I don't want it cooked, just smoked.

I can vacuum seal and freeze it right away.

quote:

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

Abe Froman? Is that you?

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
The recipe has #1 in it, so I wasn't too concerned about it turning.

Since I really liked the spice combination, I'll stick with the recipe and go for a quick and heavy hot smoke next time. I don't want it cooked, just smoked.

I can vacuum seal and freeze it right away.

Gotcha, try a small batch at 200 and see how it goes. Theres an old saying when it comes to smoking/bbq- “You cant make great bbq until you’ve made terrible bbq.”

quote:

Originally posted by medic451:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
The recipe has #1 in it, so I wasn't too concerned about it turning.

Since I really liked the spice combination, I'll stick with the recipe and go for a quick and heavy hot smoke next time. I don't want it cooked, just smoked.

I can vacuum seal and freeze it right away.

Gotcha, try a small batch at 200 and see how it goes. Theres an old saying when it comes to smoking/bbq- “You cant make great bbq until you’ve made terrible bbq.”

Well...I've made a lot of terrible. I suppose I'm due.

Is there a particular temp that I should shoot for, or just do some heavy smoke for an hour our so and not worry about temp given the #1 in the recipe?

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by medic451:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
The recipe has #1 in it, so I wasn't too concerned about it turning.

Since I really liked the spice combination, I'll stick with the recipe and go for a quick and heavy hot smoke next time. I don't want it cooked, just smoked.

I can vacuum seal and freeze it right away.

Gotcha, try a small batch at 200 and see how it goes. Theres an old saying when it comes to smoking/bbq- “You cant make great bbq until you’ve made terrible bbq.”

Well...I've made a lot of terrible. I suppose I'm due.

Is there a particular temp that I should shoot for, or just do some heavy smoke for an hour our so and not worry about temp given the #1 in the recipe?

Well first things first, are you planning on eating this right away or storing it? It sounds like you just want it smoked and to cook it later. If storing for sure add nitrates to it and read up on how to properly cure the mixture. Either way I would still shoot for a 150+ internal temp. I would try making small batches at a time at different temps and see what turns out best. Id up it straight to 200 and if you hit your target temp at around 2-3 hours youre good to go. Make sure you are using a quality temp probe as well, like thermoworks.