50# of smoked Polish Kilbasa

[uncle_lar]

todays project
I made up a 50# batch of polish sausage.
half is in the smoker now! ( I need a bigger smoker)
and the other half will get smoked tomorrow
heres some shots of the process.
I will post a few of the finished product later on or in the morning
the butts all boned and chunked up

I add the seasoning before I grind it , It helps with the mixing
I add the water and soy protien after I grind it.

here is about half of it stuffed and ready to link.

hanging to dry a little and ready to head to the smoker


here's a couple shots of my spice shelf I put up last week


thanks for looking

 

[grothe]

Lookin good....nice setup ya got there!
lookin forward to the smoked pics...

 

[mulepackin]

Looks good from here!

 

[downunderdags]

g'day uncle .wow awsome set up mate. and the sausages look even better
.what skins are you using and what size skins are thay .im just a newbie .got to ask this questions lol. thanks

 

[cajunsmoke13]

Sausage looks great Lar

 

[uncle_lar]

I get my casing from my local butcher, natural hog casing I do believe they are 32-34MM and they are long! my stuffer holds about 15# at a time and I can ususally stuff the whole thing full into one length of casing.

heres a few shots of the first batch after 8 hrs in the GOSM




closeup

 

[cajunsmoke13]

. Nice looking sausage

 

[black_dog]

Nice was wondering if you put a pan of water in smoker to keep them from shriveling up. Mine shriveled up so I put them in hot water to plump back up. ED

 

[DanMcG]

Great looking stuff Unc! Thanks for sharing the Q-view

 

[bassman]

Great looking sausage! Thanks for the Qview.

 

[uncle_lar]

Yes I smoke with a pan of water. I do simmer or steam mine to plump them up before I eat them. I also use soy protien in my recipe to hold some moisture. I try not to let the smoker get much over 155* usually smoke for about 8 hours.

 

[rivet]

Beautiful kielbasa, AND your shelf and fridge. Nice professional setup. If only I had the space!

 

[lcruzen]

Fine looking sausages!

What temp do you smoke them at in your GOSM and what recipe do you use?

 

[bayoubear]

if you dunk them in ice water for a few minutes the second you take them out of the smoker shrinkage wont be such an issue, looks mighty tasty!!!!!
good job.

 

[uncle_lar]

I run the GOSM at about 150* try not to let it get over 160 ever during the duration of the smoke
I use Rytek's recipe out of his book
I cut the salt, and the soy protein about in half, otherwise its about the same.

 

[black_dog]

I did the soy protein also. I ran smoker at 160 and they were in smoker about 12 hrs and they never got over 147 deg. Thought dried casing was somehow stopping temp from heating inside of sausage. Finished in hot water and they turned out very good. Casings were a little tough but still very tasty.. Think water will help cooking. Thanks for info. ED....

 

[isutroutbum]

Hi Uncle Lar:

Thanks for posting. The sausages look delicious, and the set-up is pretty cool!

I've got a "noob" question for you - after you stuff the sausages, you mention in one of the pictures that they 'are ready to be linked'. Do you link them by twisiting after they are stuffed? I'm having a little trouble with this, as I've had casings break on me (I'm probably over stuffing). I've also seen in books that you can twist to link them as you stuff, but that has not worked for me either.

Any tips or suggestions that you'd be willing to pass along? I'm all ears! :)

Thanks in advance!

Best,
Trout

 

[pantherfan83]

ISUTroutBum,

You didn't ask me, but I'll chime in so you can get more than one opinion. There's lots of ways to do it. If you are going to fill the entire length of casings before you link, you really have to be careful not to over-stuff. You just want to hold minimal pressure on the casing at the end of the stuffing tube. Enough pressure to keep them from coming off too fast as the sausage is coming out the tube, but not tight enough to fill them really plump.

What I do is run out enough for about 3-4 links at once. I then make 2 pinches into the sausage to form 2 links (or really one link and the start of the next) and twist the link in between the 2 pinches. In effect what you are doing is twisting every-other link. When you twist one like at a time, you have to remember to twist one way one time and the other way the next. When you twist every-other link, you are achieving the same thing but it doesn't matter which way you twist. It's easy to do, but I'm not sure I did a good job explaining it. The every-other twisting method is faster than twisting every link, but probably a little slower than stuffing them all, then twisting all at once afterward, but my way there's less of a chance of having a blow-out due to over-stuffing. Even if if you stuff a long section and go back and twist them later, you can still use my method of linking so you don't have to remember which way to twist every time.

 

[decepticron]

Great looking sausage. I have found that different mixing techniques made a big difference on water and fat retention. I coarse grind, mix with spice then regrind twice on medium plate then mix untill the meat paste appears to become stringy. I then pipe the sausage. Having access to a mixer grinder is a big advantage but you can buy a cheap hand mixer and it makes life a lot easier it does a better job mixing too.

 

[isutroutbum]

PantherFan83 - your explination makes complete sense. Thanks for the advise. I will give it a try this weekend . . . gonna make 15 pounds of garlic Kilbasa.

Best,
Trout