Sausage Vesuvius, Danger Will Robinson [Krakus Sausage]

LTH,

Like ever other food centric Chicagoan I read the October '07 Saveur cover to cover, some silly fluff, some over the top cool, such as a slice of Burt's Pizza on the cover, a few interesting well fleshed out articles, even a joint or two I felt motivated to try, Krakus Homemade Sausage being one of the later.

Saveur mentions Krakus's kabanos as air dried with a nice Snap, being a lover of all things sausage, especially with Snap, a trip to Krakus was in order. Yes, the kabanos have terrific Snap, though to my taste they are somewhat bland. On page 50, Polish Pork Primer, Saveur says ..."boldly scented with caraway and are smoked and aged for varying amounts of time." I detected no caraway and little smoke, an ok sausage for snacking, but, as Steve Z said, it's no landjager.

Krakus Kabanos Sausage



In addition to kabanos I bought a variety of sausage for dinner, including two types of mettwurst, mild in natural casing, spicy in a plastic case. My typical Polish sausage routine is to lay down a bed of lightly rinsed fresh sauerkraut, sliced apple, sprinkle of caraway seed, layer the sausage adding additional kraut a splash of water, stock, apple juice or whatever is handy, and simmer.

Ok, so what about the Vesuvius part already............I, retrospectively quite stupidly, put the plastic cased mettwurst in the pot as is, when I cut into the sausage it literally Erupted in a 5-foot arch of steaming hot red-tinted pig juice. It's damn lucky I was wearing glasses at the time or a trip to the hospital would have been in order.

We spent 15-minutes cleaning up red tinted pig fat off the wall, floor, counter appliances, my face/hair/arm, frankly I'm surprised I wasn't badly burned.

Beware the Mettwurst


Enjoy,
Gary

Krakus Homemade Sausage
4772 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL
773-736-3524

Yeah, I've been the victim of random sausage attacks in the past also. I always poke a couple of small holes in them to serve as a pressure relief valve when cooking.

I love good kabanos but have not been able to find a consistent source. Can anyone recommend a place that has a high quality, smokey stick that is a little on the dry side?

Cogito wrote:. . . I love good kabanos but have not been able to find a consistent source. Can anyone recommend a place that has a high quality, smokey stick that is a little on the dry side?

I think they offer a good one at Produce World in Morton Grove (which I don't think they make in-house). At times, they are a little less dry than I like. I those cases, I just hang them out on a cabinet knob in my kitchen for a couple of days.

=R=

Produce World
8800 Waukegan Rd
Morton Grove, IL 60053
(847) 581-1029

Cogito wrote:Yeah, I've been the victim of random sausage attacks in the past also. I always poke a couple of small holes in them to serve as a pressure relief valve when cooking.

I love good kabanos but have not been able to find a consistent source. Can anyone recommend a place that has a high quality, smokey stick that is a little on the dry side?

I used to always buy kabanos (I called it kabanosy, as did the label?) at Kasia's - when I lived a block away from their Chicago Avenue location.

They'd usually have it in a couple different stages of dryness.

Grab a couple potato pancakes while you're there.

Kasia's Deli
2101 West Chicago Avenue
Phone: 773.486.6163

I've been addicted to the dried Kabanos at Joe & Franks for a few years. They are made in-house and are aren't refrigerated as is the case in many other deli's. Some days they have some that have obviously been hanging for some time---YUM!!!


Joe & Franks
7147 W. Archer Ave.
Chicago, IL
(773)586-0026

G Wiv wrote:Krakus Kabanos Sausage

Are you sure this was made by Krakus? Looks more like a product of Sidney Viszys & Sons to me...

GWiv wrote:I, retrospectively quite stupidly, put the plastic cased mettwurst in the pot as is, when I cut into the sausage it literally Erupted in a 5-foot arch of steaming hot red-tinted pig juice. It's damn lucky I was wearing glasses at the time or a trip to the hospital would have been in order.

We spent 15-minutes cleaning up red tinted pig fat off the wall, floor, counter appliances, my face/hair/arm, frankly I'm surprised I wasn't badly burned.

Beware the Mettwurst

Gary, sounds like you mett your match, thankfully your none the wurst from this nearly tragic experience.

Mettwurst, like revenge is a dish best eaten cold.

Gary -

The trick with kabanos is to let it dry. My folks (both from Poland) buy this stuff all the time and almost never eat it fresh. You hang the sausages in a cool, dry place in the basement (we hung it next to the furnace). You then wait a week or more until the kabanos reaches your preferred level of dryness. As it dries, the flavors concentrate and the kabanos becomes a bit greasier as the oil slightly renders out of it. We eat it fairly dry--it turns a deep brown and snaps off in one clean piece. You're looking for something at least this dry (we usually go a few days drier than this, but I have difficulty waiting around for all that tasty sausage)



They are my favorite dried sausages, bar none. They are a little disappointing when eaten on the moister side. Trust me on this one.