All Beef Kielbasa with 90/10... An experiment.

[worktogthr]

Hey everyone! As I have mentioned before I am always trying to find healthier alternatives to some of the smoked meats that I have learned to make from this site. The sausage bug has bitten me badly. I've already made kielbasa with a mix of 80/20 pork and 80/20 beef and it turned out great and was eaten by myself and family pretty quickly. I got a great deal on some 90/10 and figured I'd attempt to make my own lower fat all beef kielbasa, something I can enjoy for a weeknight meal and feel a little less guilty about.

Here are the ingredients;

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

I've had good success making fresh chicken sausages and some fresh pork chorizo where I used about a 90/10 ratio. In both cases I added 1/2 cup of NFDM to a 5 pound batch. This will be the first smoked sausage I make with this fat ratio so I am curious to see how it works out.

Mixed until it felt right:

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

Fried up a test patty

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

Great flavor and pretty juicy considering the lower fat content. Stuck it in the fridge overnight along with my stuffer. Soaked some natural hog casings and cases them this morning.

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

Dried them in the smoker for about an hour at around 130-140 until they felt dry to the touch:

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

When they were dry I loaded up the AMNPS with a hickory, cherry, maple, and apple blend from Cookin'' Pellets. Going to smoke 3-4 hours depending on color and then finish them in a hot water bath. I will be back. Wish me luck!

 

[worktogthr]

At 3 hours they have some nice color so I decided to pull them from the smoke:

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

Warm water bath to finish:

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

Then in ice water to cool down. Took about 20 minutes in the bath to reach 152 IT. I'll be back!

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

 

[oregon smoker]

Looks Interesting !!!

As we are always on the quest to make sausage be as healthy as can be and still taste good. (is that possible :) ? ).

would you be able to post pics of before and after hot water soak? very curious on the end result. 

Keep On Smokin,

Tom

 

[oregon smoker]

You were ONE click of a button ahead of me....LOL

Thanks for the update,

Tom

 

[worktogthr]

Here is the final product. First the cut picture:

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

And here's the shot of the whole bunch: set on a rack to bloom at room temp for a few hours:

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• worktogthr
• Oct 10, 2015

Texture is great. Definitely not as juicy as 80/20 but not dry or crumbly at all. Think this is a real good alternative to the full fat version. I'll post more pics tomorrow night when I grill them up for dinner! Thanks for looking!

-Chris

 

[reinhard]

I really love it when someone try's new way's of making sausage [or anything for that matter].  Have to say using a mix that lean would never enter my mind for kielbasa [or most sausage] but who am I to say being that I never have tried.  The kielbasa you made looks very nice.  I like the fact that you added some powdered milk to the mix.  I  usually use one cup per 5 pounds but I think with the mix being 90/10 your reduction to a half a cup was spot on.  It retained what moisture there was in the mix and it helped I'm sure.  Very nice job!!! 

Reinhard

 

[mrbeef]

Those look great. It's easy to get the sausage bug once you start making some. Once again great job!

 

[worktogthr]

I really love it when someone try's new way's of making sausage [or anything for that matter].  Have to say using a mix that lean would never enter my mind for kielbasa [or most sausage] but who am I to say being that I never have tried.  The kielbasa you made looks very nice.  I like the fact that you added some powdered milk to the mix.  I  usually use one cup per 5 pounds but I think with the mix being 90/10 your reduction to a half a cup was spot on.  It retained what moisture there was in the mix and it helped I'm sure.  Very nice job!!! :points: Reinhard

Thanks so much for the compliments and the points. Means a lot coming from one of the sausage experts!!! I agree that using meat that lean is not ideal but the whole reason I got into cooking many years back is because I needed to lose a great deal of weight. I did the whole grilled chicken and brown rice for a while but needed to learn how to make healthy but still tasty food. BBQ doesn't necessarily equate with healthy so I'm always looking for a way to make it just a bit better for me. Thanks again for the kind words and all of your posts from which I have gleaned so much useful information!

 

[worktogthr]

Those look great. It's easy to get the sausage bug once you start making some. Once again great job!

Thanks a lot! Yeah the bug got me bad haha

 

[pc farmer]

That looks perfect to me. My wife doesn't like fatty sausage. Normal sausage to me so I will be trying this.

Have a recipe?

 

[worktogthr]

That looks perfect to me. My wife doesn't like fatty sausage. Normal sausage to me so I will be trying this.

Have a recipe?

Thanks so much! Here's the recipe. Adapted it from the recipe on lets make sausage website

Beef Polska Kielbasa

5lbs. of 90/10 ground beef

8 cloves crushed fresh garlic (substitute granulated garlic at 1 teaspoon per clove).

2 tablespoons Kosher salt

1 tablespoon fine ground black pepper

1 tablespoon dried marjoram

1/2 cup of NFDM

1 level teaspoon Prague Powder #1 or Instacure #1

1 cup ice water

Mix, stuff and place links on the racks of your smoker and set in your smoker at 140 with no smoke for the first hour to dry your sausage.

Once dry to the touch, apply smoke for about 3-4 hours until they get dark red in color.

Continue to cook with no smoke between 140-165 (cooking temp) until they reach 152 IT. Or you can finish it a hot water bath (much faster) with the water not hotter than 165 degrees. I have learned in the last few months that this is easily achievable in a pot on the stove. When they reach 152 IT in either the smoker or hot water bath, place in ice water bath immediately to cool. Let them bloom at room temp for a few hours. Cook and enjoy! I am fairly new to smoking sausage but this cooking process has given me good results so far.

 

[DanMcG]

Nice looking sausages!

 

[chef jimmyj]

I don't recall having Beef Kielbasa but these look great....JJ

 

[worktogthr]

Nice looking sausages!

Thanks a lot!

I don't recall having Beef Kielbasa but these look great....JJ

Thanks for the kind words. I've only had beef kielbasa once or twice. Usually it's all pork or a mix of pork and beef but I just wanted mess around with what I had and make something a little leaner. Got a good deal on 90/10 beef so that's what I went with.

 

[old bones]

All Beef Kielbasa is a new one for me also; It looks good.... I might need to try this sometime.

Looks Good!!  Great Post..

John

 

[disco]

Great experiment. Points

Disco

 

[ndwildbill]

Looks great. Low fat doesn't always mean loss of flavor.
Points

 

[worktogthr]

All Beef Kielbasa is a new one for me also; It looks good.... I might need to try this sometime.

Looks Good!!  Great Post..

John

Great experiment. Points

Disco

Looks great. Low fat doesn't always mean loss of flavor.
Points

Thank you all very much! I'm always on the quest to make healthy but crave worthy food so I really enjoyed trying this out. If I only I could find a way to make lean ribs and pork butt haha

 

[oregon smoker]

Spare Rib ???

 

I'm sorry for this response but it immediately poped into my head and had the immediate compulsion to  share it

we as well are always looking for anything to help in the quest to have healthier ...... the problem is this hobby ,,,, it is just to good of eats so many times caution is thrown to the wind. 

Tom.  

 

[crazymoon]

WT, nice job, they look excellent!