Kielbasa Recipe

I am going to attempt to make my own sausage this weekend and have been checking out the sausage threads on LTH for good ideas. There is a ton of great info here. One thing I wasn't able to find, and forgive me if I just didn't use the right search terms, was a good recipe for Kielbasa. Does anyone have one they tried in the past that they liked? I am looking to make fresh kielbasa not smoked. This is going to be my first time making sausage and I wanted to pay homage to my Polish heritage.

Any help would be great appreciated. Thanks!

You should into the book Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. It has a recipe for Kielbasa – which I haven’t made yet, but intend to sometime over the next couple of weeks. In addition, the book has incredibly detailed instructions and tons of other great information for the making of many things charcuterie.

inter4alia -

Awesome, thanks for that. I wasn't sure if he had a Kielbasa recipe in there or not. I was going to pick this up anyway. Just reserved a copy at Border's. Do you have any experience with the KA sausage stuffer? Does it suck or can I get by with it? Also I heard some talk about Fox and Obel selling pre-tubed casings, is there a good quantity to weight ratio?

Thanks,

mlit

mlit wrote:inter4alia -

Awesome, thanks for that. I wasn't sure if he had a Kielbasa recipe in there or not. I was going to pick this up anyway. Just reserved a copy at Border's. Do you have any experience with the KA sausage stuffer? Does it suck or can I get by with it? Also I heard some talk about Fox and Obel selling pre-tubed casings, is there a good quantity to weight ratio?

Thanks,

mlit

I do have dreams of a stand alone grinder and vertical stuffer in my future but I have gotten by with the KA setup for the past year. This year for the big game I made a 5lb batch of a chicken sausage and a ten pound batch of andouille, both from Charcuterie, without a problem.

Flip

mlit wrote:Do you have any experience with the KA sausage stuffer? Does it suck or can I get by with it?

The KA meat grinder/sausage stuffer does not "suck" I make sausage on an infrequent, though regular basis, by which I mean 2-3 times a year, and for my under 10-lb batches the Kitchen Aid works well. I once did a 40-lb batch and that was a bit of a pain as the going was slow and required frequent pauses as I cleaned and chilled down the parts.

G Wiv / Flip - Thanks for the feedback on the KA gear. I just grabbed the sausage stuffer attachment (already had grinder) from Williams-Sonoma this evening. Yeah it was $5 more but I called around and no one seems to stock this, its all online-only.

I also nabbed the Charcuterie book from Border's. In flipping through it the recipe calls for smoking. I was planning on making fresh, do I have to tweak this at all? I was always of the mind that fresh was just not smoked but want to make sure. Also, I was planning and making and then eating directly. Do I have to air dry this before hand? If I am just going to pan fry?

Any insight is helpful. Thanks!

mlit wrote:G Wiv / Flip - Thanks for the feedback on the KA gear. I just grabbed the sausage stuffer attachment (already had grinder) from Williams-Sonoma this evening. Yeah it was $5 more but I called around and no one seems to stock this, its all online-only.

I also nabbed the Charcuterie book from Border's. In flipping through it the recipe calls for smoking. I was planning on making fresh, do I have to tweak this at all? I was always of the mind that fresh was just not smoked but want to make sure. Also, I was planning and making and then eating directly. Do I have to air dry this before hand? If I am just going to pan fry?

Any insight is helpful. Thanks!

I don't have my copy handy but a few things off the top of my head:

- If you are planning on cooking over high heat you can omit the pink salt
- The air drying step is there to form a pellicle allowing a better surface for the smoke
- Make sure you use setting #4 on the KA. It seems too slow but otherwise you can burn the speed controller out on your KA. I learned this the hard way with my 6qt pro model.

Flip

Flip -

Good tip on the speed setting. I hadn't even considered it. I spent some more time with Charcuterie last night and found the fresh Kielbasa recipe (the one with the marjoram). I have decided on that. I hit up Paulina Meat Market today and got the 5lb of pork shoulder that is called for. I also picked up some fat back. I added a little probably 1/4 lb to the mixture and have set it in the fridge to develop overnight. I will post more details tomorrow after the process has been completed and end product consumed.

mlit

My mother's family, who lived and worked on a farm, made their basic Polish sausage with garlic, black pepper, allspice, and pork. My mother doesn't remember the proportions, but I found this recipe online. The translation of the ingredients is:

lean pork (shoulder) - 1.5 kg
fatty pork (neck) - 1.5 kg
garlic - 3 cloves
pepper - 10 peppercorns
allspice - 5 berries
salt - 2 tablespoons
saltpeter - 1 / 2 teaspoon
casings

(There's also a cup and a half of water in the ingredients list, but that's for cooking the sausage.)

Obviously, if you'll be eating it fresh, you don't need the saltpeter/cure. Our family would either eat this sausage fresh, or smoke it.

LTH -

Thought I would post an update with pictures of Sunday's sausage making. It went extremely well, and was much easier than I thought it was going to be. I followed the tips in Charcuterie, things like watering down a baking sheet and freezing the grinder parts. Flip's tip on the speed setting (#4) was perfect.

So here are some pictures:

5lb Pork Shoulder


The Grind


The Coil


Saute

mlit, congratuations that kielbasa is simply gorgeous. Are home-made pierogies in your future next?

Jen

Oh, my, that does look delicious!

Pie-love wrote:mlit, congratuations that kielbasa is simply gorgeous. Are home-made pierogies in your future next?

Jen

Here is a primer on that subject from last year.

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=22788&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=grandma+Flip

Flip

That is a good idea. Home made pierogies. I usually do have a problem with the fillings in most store bought brands. I also like mine a bit smaller than normal.