Spiral Kupaty

Recently, while attempting to re-connect with the Russian side of my heritage at the Greenwood Market, I discovered spiral Kupaty from Red Square Foods. Kupaty are Georgian style sausages that are eaten throughout Russia. Normally (at least in my limited experience), they come as ring sausages about the thickness of a hotdog, where the two ends of the link are tied together. What caught my eye about the Red Square Kupaty is that it was a thinner sausage shaped into a continuous spiral forming a disk the size of a small Frisbee.

I had never seen this form factor for a sausage before, so I had to buy one. The sausages come in plastic vacuum packs containing one or two sausages. The main ingredients listed are pork, chicken, lamb, onions, cilantro, dill, garlic and pepper. How can you go wrong with that?


I noticed that the Kupaty seem to come in light and dark versions. I assume the darker ones are smoked or otherwise precooked, although the labels were identical. Anyhow, I went with the lighter version. Although the normal method of cooking these things is pan-frying, the two times I have made them, I grilled them, with fantastic results.


I served the sausage atop a platter of rice and grilled veggies.


With rice, one sausage is enough to feed 3 people (or 2 adults and 2 kids). The flavor and texture of these sausages is just amazing. After grilling over lump with some hickory, the skin becomes crisp and parchment like with a distinct "snap". The filling is soft but not mushy, a little on the fatty side. The flavor is wonderful, full of onion and garlic flavor with a liberal amount of cilantro and dill. The sausages leave a slightly peppery aftertaste. I think these unique sausages will become one of my grilling favorites. Plus, they look so cool. Naturally, because of the shape and the name, they were promptly dubbed Georgia Cow Patties.

--Dave

Greenwood Market
8716 W Golf Rd
Niles, IL 60714
(847) 803-0013

d4v3 wrote:After grilling over lump with some hickory, the skin becomes crisp and parchment like with a distinct "snap". The filling is soft but not mushy, a little on the fatty side. The flavor is wonderful, full of onion and garlic flavor with a liberal amount of cilantro and dill. The sausages leave a slightly peppery aftertaste.

Dave,

Tasty sounding description, they look good, plus have a cool nickname. High on my must try list, thanks for posting. Nice pictures.

Enjoy,
Gary

That does look good. Interesting array of meats in one sausage. BTW, grilling a whole spiral like that is how they do Italian sausages in Tampa, where the mostly Sicilian-backgrounded folks make a thin lamb-casing sausage that is quite similar to the Barese one finds around Chicago. The skill is to avoid unravelling or breaking the sausage when turning it-- something that you seem to have mastered.

Wow, that's an interesting sounding sausage! I look forward to trying it.

Thanks for posting about it.

Antonius

JeffB wrote:BTW, grilling a whole spiral like that is how they do Italian sausages in Tampa, where the mostly Sicilian-backgrounded folks make a thin lamb-casing sausage that is quite similar to the Barese one finds around Chicago. The skill is to avoid unravelling or breaking the sausage when turning it-- something that you seem to have mastered.

Having grilled many a Bari "coil" (mostly in the parking lot next to Soldier Field before Chicago Fire games), I also appreciate your obvious skill. Not only does grilling it whole impress onlookers, but the coils fit very well on the little Weber grills.

Thanks for the interesting post. I will be sure to grab some Kupaty if I ever run across any.

Kristen

In connexion with the grilling of such coils of sausage, I have seen in person and in pictures Italians handle the task with the sausage placed in a sort of grill rack, not unlike what one uses for fish, and, more commonly, with two skewers stuck through the coil. I myself would be afraid to try it without some such stabilising tool, though I have successfully fried whole coils indoors in a pan, using just two utensils to help me do the flipping and removal (once they're largely cooked, they firm up and handling them is much easier). I suppose one could do it on a grill without too much risk of unwinding with sufficiently long utensils, but I haven't tried it...

Antonius

Ah yes, "coil" is the word I was looking for, not spiral.

Actually, the kupaty is much thinner than Italian sausage (it is hard to tell from the pictures). It is only a little over 1" thick. The coil is probably about 11" in diameter , so it is much easier to flip. Plus, they have somehow glued it together. In fact, I purposely unwound it a little so it would cook on the inner surfaces. I do have a great utensil for flipping big things, though. It is a stainless steel spatula with a flexible blade that is four inches wide and 10 inches long. Just the right size for this sausage. I think I got it at Target.

d4v3 wrote:Ah yes, "coil" is the word I was looking for, not spiral.

Actually, the kupaty is much thinner than Italian sausage (it is hard to tell from the pictures). It is only a little over 1" thick. The coil is probably about 10-11" in diameter , so it is much easier to flip. Plus, they have somehow glued it together. .

d.,

Normal, basic Italian sausage is, indeed, much thicker but, as JeffB noted above, this looks to be the same gauge sausage as various Italian ones that are made with sheep's intestines. Here in Chicago, one most often sees them as 'Barese' (lots of garlic, lots of fresh parsley, no fennel), though Caputo's has both Barese and a couple of other Sicilian sausages (hot and mild) that are that size as well.

There was a discussion about sheep intestines as casings not too long ago and I'll try to find it...

Antonius

Clearly, the season of sausage is upon us, based on the posts about sausage-making, stuffer-cleaning and coiling.

My family has always 'coiled' the sausage we make in Louisiana. I thought it was to make packing/cooking easier for big batches and groups of people. Never had problems wrangling the coil on the grill--using long tongs to scoop under the whole coil, then flip.

crrush wrote:Never had problems wrangling the coil on the grill--using long tongs to scoop under the whole coil, then flip.

This is the method I use as well. Long tongs = Great success.

Yesterday, I met Kupaty's bigger and beefier brother. This is another tasty Russian style sausage made by Red Square Foods in New Jersey. Like the Georgian Kupaty, it comes in a coil. However, it is encased in cow intestine rather than lamb, so it is of a much heavier gauge.

A big plus for me is that the package has a cartoon picture of a cow (who appears to be straining to make more coils of sausage). I love anthropomorphizing my food.

The main ingredients are Chicken, Pork and Beef instead of Lamb. The sausage is spiced with nutmeg rather than the dill and cilantro used in the thinner sausage. It also seems to have less pepper. Unlike the Kupaty, it does not contain onions, but does have a fairly healthy dose of garlic.


Being cow intestines, the skin is not as delicate as the sheep encased version. However, it still has a nice snap to it when grilled. The grind is also coarser, and the sausage seems much leaner, but it is not nearly as dense as its Polish brethren. Overall, I think I like the Kupaty better, but this Kielbasy is still a very nice sausage. Like the Kupaty, it seems to come in smoked and non-smoked versions, and is available at the Greenwood Market in Niles.