First time sausage making and it happens to be Kielbasa...

[bigcitysmoker]

Well I received most of the items I needed to try out my hand in sausage making. My favorite sausage would be Kielbasa so that was my choice for this round. The only thing I was missing was a food scale that UPS didn't get to me in time... I started off with a 8.3 lb pork butt and after removing bone, skin etc ... I ended up with a tad over 5 lbs of meat. After reading many recipes and different pieces of advice, I decided to cut, cool, grind and then season/cure my ground meat.

Using my Kitchen Aid machine with grinder attachment I ground the meat and right away did not like the consistency but kept on going. I felt the holes were too small on the grinder plate and I would have wanted a coarse grind for the pork. I used the larger of the two grinder plates and will need to find a coarser plate for the next round.

Gave the ground seasoned meat about 6 hours in the fridge and now it was time to break in the 5 lb vertical stuffer.

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• bigcitysmoker
• Dec 10, 2012

Kielbasa links were hung in fridge overnight.

Brought to room temperature and then off to the smoker.

I got about 5.5 hours of time in the smoker. The first hour was no smoke at a low 110 - 120F. Then smoke was introduced and temp raised to 130 - 140F. For the remaining 3.5 hrs temps were kept in the 155 - 165F range. For the three hours of smoke - I used an apple/cherry combo.

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• bigcitysmoker
• Dec 10, 2012

and some refreshment ...

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• bigcitysmoker
• Dec 10, 2012

Out of the smoker ...

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• bigcitysmoker
• Dec 10, 2012

Kielbasas were then poached to an IT of 157 - 158F. Immediately removed and brought to an ice bath were I cooled them to an IT of 100F.

They were then hung to bloom ...

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• bigcitysmoker
• Dec 10, 2012

I tried a slice this morning and for being my first time it was very good. As mentioned before, I did not like the consistency and next time will strive and go after a coarse grind for Kielbasa.

 

[driedstick]

Them look good, congrats - hope to see more from ya.

 

[daveomak]

They look darn good to me....   I love eating my mistakes...and changing recipes a tweak ....  more sausage in the freezer that way.....  

 

[smokinhusker]

What's the lime in your smoker for?

X2 and the kielbasa looks great!

 

[jrod62]

kielbasa looks great !!

 

[woodcutter]

What can be seen through the casings looks like you have a good grind. They look very tasty.

 

[bigcitysmoker]

Thanks everyone for your positive comments!

More people than not seemed to enjoy the consistency so I may be stuck making em this way! :-)

Next time I will up the spices and go from there.

Do you guys/gals generally use regular garlic for Kielbasa? I decided for this round to use elephant garlic with hopes that garlic burpups will be minimal - I think it worked out well.

The lime in the smoker was to hold my temperature probe.

 

[smokeamotive]

What's the lime in your smoker for?

I would guess it's to hold his temp probe.

Thats some good lookin sausage there Bigcity! Well done for your first try. Good luck finding a larger plate for your #5 grinder!

 

[boykjo]

I use fresh garlic minced.. Its the only way to go for me.............The Kielbasa looks great.............

 

 

[fpnmf]

Great looking sausage!!!

 

[venture]

I don't like elephant garlic.  It is too mild for me.  But that is just a matter of personal taste.

I like a coarser grind than most folks do.  For the Polish, many like the fine grind.

I would have no problem testing that sausage for you.  Maybe 5 LBS or so?

Now as to the lime?  Was that there just to intrigue us in the pic?  Did you have your therm probe trough that lime?

Fess up now.

G

 

[chef jimmyj]

That Kielbasa looks great! I made Kielbasa as well on Saturday. I will post when I get the pics loaded. I used Shannon127's Recipe... http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/129813/kielbasa-start-to-finish-for-chef-jimmy. It was Crazy simple and totally delicious. I only use fresh Garlic for everything I make. Elephant Garlic is just too mellow to stand up to Smoke...JJ

 

[bigcitysmoker]

The good ole regular garlic will definitely be getting attention next round. I agree the elephant garlic didn't have the smack in the face I look forward to...

Venture, I also enjoy a coarser grind like traditional Ukrainian Kielbasa. How do you accomplish your coarse grind... I believe the 'old school' used to cut and chop all the meat by hand to achieve the coarse consistency. I was looking at the ebay coarse grind plates for the KA Grinder attachment. Has anyone had good results with those plates?

and as mentioned before, the lime was to hold the probe. Yup, just a tad over 5lbs there... The Kielbasa has seemed to gain even more flavor over the past few in the fridge. Good stuff with some cold vodka... :-)