When was the last time you had smoked Polish kielbasa? Growing up in a Mexican/Cajun household this wasn’t a sausage that we ate much of. It wasn’t till college when I had the opportunity to have dinner with a Polish mate of mine and his family. They served a dish called Kapusniak.
Kapusniak is a Polish Cabbage soup that utilizes smoked kielbasa. One bite and I immediately fell in love with this sausage. The soup itself was delicious but the smoked kielbasa in this soup was incredible. Seasoned very simply with a smoky juicy bite and an incredible texture. It was delectable.
I love making this sausage at home. It’s a family favorite and it’s a great sausage for all occasions. I hope you get a chance to enjoy this classic Polish sausage.
Follow basic smoked sausage preparation practices when making this sausage.
- Clean and Sanitize all of your equipment.
- Keep your meat and grinder parts super cold (below 34F)
- Any liquid that is added to the mince needs to be ice cold
- Mix your very chilled meat and seasonings till the mince becomes very tacky
- Stuff the mince into sausage casings and prick out any air pockets
- Refrigerate your sausage overnight to allow the cure to work
- The next day follow this smoking schedule (Optional)
-Start at 110F – 120 for 1.5 hours, with your baffles opened (this dries the sausage)
-Increase the temp to 125F for 1 hour and begin to add your favorite smoke
-Increase to 135F for 1 hour
-Increase to 155F for 1.5 hours
-Increase to 175F till the internal temp reaches 145F
Here are a few things you might find useful when making sausage
- High Quality Natural Casings (AA Grade)
- Iodophor Sanitizer
- MK4 Thermapen (Accurate Thermometer)
- Chef Knife – KOTAI
- Boning Knife
- Sausage Pricker
- Iwatani Professional Chef Torch
- Insta Cure #1
- Non Fat Dry Milk Powder
- Meat Grinders
- Meat Mixers
- Sausage Stuffers
- Smokers
- Bella’s Cold Smoke Generator
Enjoy the video and the recipe. If you have any questions feel free to ask away. If you make this at home I’d love to hear about how it came out!!
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This recipe has been adapted from the book Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing by Rytek Kutas pg. 207
Polish Keilbasa
Ingredients
- 700 g lean pork
- 300 g pork back fat
- 15 g kosher salt
- 2.5 g insta cure #1
- 10 g sugar
- 5 g garlic powder
- 1 g marjoram
- 5 g white pepper
- 20 g nonfat dry powder milk
- 100 ml ice cold water
- hog casings
Instructions
- Clean your meat of any silver skin, sinew, arteries and cut into small strips or cubes. Place the meat and fat in the freezer for an hour or until the temp reaches 32f – 34F.
- Prepare all of your seasonings and clean and rehydrate your casings
- Grind your very chilled meat on a course plate (10mm) then grind your very chilled fat on a 3mm plate (or the smallest one you have)
- Add all of the seasonings and any liquid to your mince meat then mix till it becomes very tacky. If you grab a small handful it will stick to your hand if you hold your hand upside down.
- Stuff your mince meat into the casings, link, and prick out any air pockets. Refrigerate overnight
Smoking Schedule
- The next day set your smoker to 115F with the baffles open for 1 hour. This will dry out your sausage.Next raise the temperature to 125F for 1 hour and begin to apply smoke.Raise to 135F for 1 hour, then raise to 155F for 2 hours, then raise to 175F till the internal temp reaches 145F
- Once cooked submerge in ice cold water then allow to bloom for several hours at room temperature. Enjoy!
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What is your meat cut for lean meat and also what does the powdered milk do in recipes
I like to use the ham but if you have fatty pork shoulder that works as well. It’s actually cheaper for me to get ham than it is for me to get shoulder so I use ham with added backfat in a lot of my recipes. But any 70/30 ratio lean to fat works for this recipe. Milk powder acts as a binder in fresh/smoked sausages. It improves the texture and has really good water holding capacities so it makes the sausage juicer..
Eric, morning… I’ve stopped using powdered additives and now use STPP.. No off taste.. Nor does it add ingredients that can affect flavors of your quality meats….
https://butcherspantry.com/product/sodium-tripolyphosphate/
For a juicier kielbasa, try using the USDA pasteurization tables to smoke to a lower temperature and still be safe for consumption…
I prefer ~136F for a 1-1.5 hour hold time just to be on the safe side…
The pasteurization times for beef, lamb and pork are listed in Table C.1.
Temperature… ……. Time…. ……. Temperature… …….. Time
°F (°C) (Minutes) °F (°C) (Seconds)
130 (54.4)……….. 112 min
131 (55.0) ……… 89 min………..
132 (55.6)………. 71 min…………
133 (56.1)……………… 56 min…………
134 (56.7)……………… 45 min………..
135 (57.2)……………… 36 min…………
136 (57.8)……………… 28 min………..
137 (58.4)…………….. 23 min…………
138 (58.9)……………… 18 min………..
139 (59.5)……………… 15 min ………..
140 (60.0)……………….. 12 min…………
141 (60.6)……………… 9 min…………..
142 (61.1)……………… 8 min………….
143 (61.7)……………… 6 min
144 (62.2)……………… 5 min
145 (62.8)……………… 4 min
Table C.1: Pasteurization times for beef, corned beef, lamb, pork and cured pork (FDA, 2009, 3-401.11.B.2).
Excellent tip..
I use the standard Official Polish Government recipe for Kielbasa (and everyone that tries it tells me don’t change anything because they know I like to tinker). You’re recipe is close with almost everything, but you are somewhat low on the salt (not too bad of a thing for health reasons), but you’re almost triple on the sugar content. I’m sure it’s good, but probably too sweet for me. Powder-milk? It’s not necessary, just use more ice-water (about a cup per 10#) and you won’t have any binding issues. Keep up the great work, it’s a good channel that I enjoy.
Having difficulty finding Pork Back Fat to buy
Cant I use Pork Belly instead?
sure. Just make sure your overall ratio is 70/30. Pork belly is generally 50/50
LOL. The recipe is from a Polish butcher…
Interesting comment especially considering the only difference between this recipe and the great sausage maker Rytek Kutas’s polish recipe is this one has white pepper instead of black pepper.
Yeah. Not sure what type of Polish sausage he is used to.. Rytek’s recipe is great. This recipe is very similar with what seems to be slight modifications. As I look at both recipes sided by side Rytek’s recipe calls for more salt, less sugar, no cure, no powder milk, less marjoram, coarse black pepper (not fine white pepper), and he calls for fresh garlic rather than garlic powder. His is great too😁
What wood did you smoke with?
Oak wood, but hickory is good as well
Why 145 internal temp? All other sites say 152 to 165. Thanks
When you cook a sausage low and slow like we do here you can technically finish it at a much lower temp, which produces a better sausage. It’s all about pasteurization. When you hit 145f let it hang there for 30 minutes before you remove them from the smoker. It’s amazing..
So i should let it hang for 30 minutes with the smoker off when i hit the 145? Thank you.
The idea is to keep th einternal temp at 145 for at least 30 minutes to pasteurize the sausage. However you can do that is fine.
Do you use a water pan when smoking your kielbasa? I was thinking this might get me past the dreaded stall when smoking. Thank you.
I don’t use a water pan.
You have been very helpful. Thank you.