Please help me do some sausage

[newarcher]

It might sound completely stupid but every time I go to a BBQ joint, I've always gone with the standard brisket, pulled pork and ribs...but recently my favorite joint had a run on the meats and left me with sausage as one of my choices.  It seemed like a polish style sausage.  Wow, just wow....the sausage had a mild smoky flavor that was just amazing.  I must make some at home.

So this is where you can help me.  I have a local butcher that makes sausage and I'm completely starting fresh here, so you have the opportunity to change my life!

1)  What kind would you buy?  Kielbalsa?  Polish Sausage?

2)  What temp should I smoke at?  I prefer to use uncured raw sausage.

3)  How long will it take to get to 160 degrees if I say smoke at 250 degree smoker temp?

I want to make some for the 4th of July but need to ensure we're not eating at 11:30 PM if the smoke goes long.

Thanks!

 

[chef jimmyj]

The word Kielbasa is the Polish word for Sausage. There are many types, Smoked Dried(Hunter) Kielbasa, Fresh (White, raw not smoked) Kielbasa, Wedding Kielbasa (Double smoked with lite garlic), Weijska vee-AY-skah (Country style. Single smoke with heavy garlic) Kielbasa, Kabanosy (snack sticks) Kielbasa, Krakowska (3+ inch thick slicing style) Kielbasa and a few more.

Weijska, aka Country Style is what is most commonly available in the States labeled as Smoked Kielbasa, Polish Sausage or Polska Kielbasa. This is smoked with Cure to give the pink color, and fully cooked when you buy it. You just heat and eat. If you want to use your smoker, about 60 minutes at 250 should be enough to reheat to 145 without drying it out.

If the Butcher has Fresh Kielbasa, it is Raw, most likely No Cure, and you can smoke it at 250 to an IT of 165.  About 1.5 to 2 hours. When cooked the interior will likely be gray like a cooked Brat, but some butchers make one big batch with Cure, smoke some and hold back some to sell as Fresh to be grilled or simmered but NEVER Smoked. In this case, if you smoke it, you go from one to the other. So ask the butcher if there is cure in the sausage. Have fun...JJ

 

[newarcher]

Thanks for the very informative post JJ.

I'm confused by your last paragraph in that you say I can get fresh kielbasa without cure and smoke to 165 IT. That I get. However later you say that some butchers hold out some without cure for grilling or simmering but never smoking. Am I reading that wrong?

 

[chef jimmyj]

Thanks for the very informative post JJ.

I'm confused by your last paragraph in that you say I can get fresh kielbasa without cure and smoke to 165 IT. That I get. However later you say that some butchers hold out some without cure for grilling or simmering but never smoking. Am I reading that wrong?

One big batch...WITH...Cure but hold out some to sell as Fresh. Pretty common. My Grandfather had 3 butcher shops. Each made 100 lb batches, salt, pepper, garlic a little marjoram and Cure#1. 75 lbs got Smoked, 25 lbs sold as Fresh Kielbasa. This is Way less work than doing all the math and weighing ingredients for 2 batches with identical additions, sans cure...JJ 

 

[newarcher]

Thank you.

I went and the didn't have anything fresh. They had some really nice polish sausage that was pre-smoked...just the right amount of heat and a nice smoky flavor. The only non-smoked sausage they had was frozen and had cure already in it.

I'm thinking of just getting some of the raw johnsonville brats and smoking them.

The pre-smoked worked well because it's done nothing but rain in GA so I didn't have any windows that would have guaranteed me time to smoke anything fresh anyway.

Thanks for the advice! I'll get to it eventually!

 

[chef jimmyj]

You might try making your own. Hundreds of recipe here and folks to walk you through. A Kitchener Grinder and 5lb Stuffer can be had for $200 total. Casing and meat is cheap and you likely have the ingredients in your kitchen already...JJ

 

[marctrees]

Newarcher - WHERE do you live???  It matters.

Look, I am a Sausage maniac.

Ukrainian heritage, Milk and Sausage raised me  on GREAT stuff, VERY rarely available, like basically NEVER, unless you live in Chicago, part of Brooklyn, NY,  or similar, AND go to the Polish Meat Markets, dwindling as we speak.

Also, in those places, like $5/ lb, not some damn boutique pricing.

Cause their main customer is w the immigrant, but reallllyyyyy dying of now, so slowly closing.

Virtually everything available commercially is fine ground, salty as hell.

Salty as Hell and TOTAL TOTAL crap compared to REAL old school sausage.

The closest that is commercially distributed is the ---- JOHNSONVILLE ----   FRESH uncooked uncured varieties.

In the fresh raw meat section at store, NOT in the pink  weeeniee sausage area.

And DONT overcook them, WORLD of difference.

ONLY IF  you want a new hobby, go to the world renowned Sausage site, ...  this is the Premier sausage forum, none better ....

http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/  Marc

 

[marctrees]

Chef JJ definately knows.

But keep in mind, commercial public terms have degraded SOOOOOO much.

"Kielbasa" is SOOO loosely used nowadays.

ALLL it means in 99% of places is somekinda stuff stuffed inna tube casing.

Like "Ribeye"

SOOOO sloppily used now.

Amazing, anything from that area of the Cow, is a Ribeye.

VERY few people don't get that, they are usually buying "Rib steak", (WAY better than "Ribeye" IMHO)

Not as bad, but still silly, ... "PRIME Rib Roast"

How bout just "Rib Roast", UNLESS it IS Prime?????  

You cannot depend on terminology unless you know you are speaking to an accurate person.

VERY rare.

I had a "carpenter" here recently to discuss a deck, I was talking beam , joist sizing.

His responses, all he had was "Dat board" , and "Dis board".and "De udder board"

Sent him home. 

Amazing.    Marc

 

[chef jimmyj]

Check this post out. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/129813/kielbasa-start-to-finish-for-chef-jimmy

Shannon is Polish and his family recipe is generations old. Real easy to make and can be smoked or cooked off fresh. l added .5g Dry Marjoram per 1000g Pork because Dad liked it that way.

For the math...Divide 1000 by the weight of Your Pork in grams. This number is your Multiplication Factor for the rest of the ingredients. In the example : 1000/1800=1.8 so, 17g Salt for 1000g pork X 1.8 = 30.6g Salt in an 1800g batch.

No grinder? Buy Ground pork at the store. No Stuffer? Soaked Dry Corn Husks, like for Tamales, work great. Overlap wide ends about 2". Fill with about 2oz of sausage mix, Roll, tie and Smoke to an lT of 150-160 and eat...JJ

 

[shyzabrau]

l added .5g Dry Marjoram per 1000g Pork because Dad liked it that way.

I bow to your vast experience, naturally, but can you even taste such a small amount of marjoram? I recently made a garlic sausage with 1.2 grams per kg and I don't taste it. (Of course, I used a LOT of garlic, so the subtlety may be masked.)

 

[chef jimmyj]

 
I bow to your vast experience, naturally, but can you even taste such a small amount of marjoram? I recently made a garlic sausage with 1.2 grams per kg and I don't taste it. (Of course, I used a LOT of garlic, so the subtlety may be masked.)

I try to have the Sum greater than the Parts. People should wonder what makes Your's better than any they have tried. Kielbasa should be Pig forward with Garlic a player but not blowing away everything else. The remaining herbs and spices should give the Kielbasa it's style and regional distinction, enhancing and adding harmonic notes but not standing out. If you taste Marjoram, Mustard, Allspice, Black Pepper or whatever other ingredients...You put too much! I think about the magic that was Grandma's Tomato Sauce. Tomato but so much more. She taught 4 daughters how to make it, no recipe, watch and learn. Aunt Alice's was closest but Clove heavy. Aunt Johanna, Salt and Pepper competed with the everything else. Aunt Virginia made her's spicy from Red Pepper and Mom's was Garlic forward. All were good but NONE were Grandma's...JJ

 

[shyzabrau]

 
I try to have the Sum greater than the Parts. People should wonder what makes Your's better than any they have tried. Kielbasa should be Pig forward with Garlic a player but not blowing away everything else. The remaining herbs and spices should give the Kielbasa it's style and regional distinction, enhancing and adding harmonic notes but not standing out. If you taste Marjoram, Mustard, Allspice, Black Pepper or whatever other ingredients...You put too much! I think about the magic that was Grandma's Tomato Sauce. Tomato but so much more. She taught 4 daughters how to make it, no recipe, watch and learn. Aunt Alice's was closest but Clove heavy. Aunt Johanna, Salt and Pepper competed with the everything else. Aunt Virginia made her's spicy from Red Pepper and Mom's was Garlic forward. All were good but NONE were Grandma's...JJ

I get what you're saying and I was discussing my tendency towards "extreme sausages" with one of my party guests on Tuesday. 

I naturally like big and bold flavors, but I also make heavily flavored sausages because they are generally used as a snack instead of a meal.

I can see myself "evolving" towards more subtle sausages as I get more experience (and fill up my freezer). 

That said, I still want to do a fajita sausage and a garam marsala sausage and ...

 

[marctrees]

Re: JJ Post #11 -  JJ - You almost make me cry... serious.

OMG, this concept , is SO SO SO important.... the difference between a Chef and a good cook., the ability to choose spicing types and amounts.

I have always envied those that can somehow take something basic and make it DELICIOUS.

I do not have that ability.

I just dump stuff in , often overpowering.

I DO read, I do study, but the palate discernment is what I lack.

I do NOT know how to achieve that perfect taste.

Even mashed potatoes... made some very milky buttery taters a week ago, could not understand why so bland.

Then, added a bunch of salt/lemon citric acid/pepper blend, went from really blahhh to pretty good.

JJ - I'm dead serious- this concept deserves a sticky maybe title "Chef Spicing"

I could not mean that more.        Marc

 

[GaryHibbert]

Marc you could easily have been describing me. My taste buds are so burned out from too much of everything that I now need LOTS of flavor. Subtleties are wasted on me.

JJ I agree with Marc that a post on the subtle use of herbs and spices--different combinations and amounts--would be of enormous interest and help.

Now if we just had a Chef willing.....

Gary