Polska Kielbasa
User Reviews
4.9
87 reviews
Excellent
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Prep Time
2 hrs
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Cook Time
3 hrs
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Total Time
5 hrs
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Servings
25 links
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Calories
358 kcal
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Course
Main Course, Breakfast, Appetizer
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Cuisine
Polish
Polska Kielbasa
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You are free to use whatever meat you want here: Pork, beef, venison, wild boar, bear -- even duck or turkey. Traditional would be 80 percent pork and 20 percent beef. Go easy on all the spices except the garlic. You should be able to taste garlic in these links. My recipe does that, so make it as-is the first time, then adjust to your liking. A lot of Poles I know prefer to smoked their meats over cherry wood, so use that if you have it. Other choices would be oak, maple, beech, or walnut. You'll need the curing salt No. 1, which you can buy online.
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Ingredients
- 4 pounds pork, wild pig, bear, venison, etc
- 1 pound pork fat (fatback or shoulder fat)
- 36 grams kosher salt, about 2 tablespoons
- 5 grams Instacure No. 1, about 1 teaspoon
- 5 grams ground black pepper, about 2 teaspoons
- 1 gram dried marjoram, about 2 teaspoons
- 10 grams sugar, about 2 teaspoons
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup ice water
- Hog casings
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Instructions
- Chill the meat and fat until they is almost frozen by putting it in the freezer for an hour or so. Take out some hog casings — you’ll need about 3 to 4 standard lengths, about 10 feet — and set in a bowl of very warm water to rehydrate.
- Chop meat and fat into 1-inch pieces. Combine the salt, instacure, sugar, garlic, marjoram and pepper and mix it into the meat and fat with your hands. Let this rest in the fridge for about an hour.
- Grind through your meat grinder (you can use a food processor in a pinch, but you will not get a fine texture) using the fine die. If your room is warmer than 65°F, set the bowl for the ground meat into another bowl of ice to keep it cold. Put the meat mixture back in the freezer while you clean up.
- Add the ice water to the meat mix, then mix thoroughly either using a Kitchenaid on low for 90 seconds or with your (very clean) hands. This is important to get the sausage to bind properly. Once it is mixed well, put it back in the fridge while you clean up again.
- Stuff the sausage into the casings. Kielbasa is normally made into long links tied at both ends to form a loop. Stuff about 2 feet of sausage, then pinch off the trailing end and pull off at least 6 inches of casing from the stuffing tube. Cut the casing with a knife and immediately pull out another 6 inches or so of casing to form the loose end for the next long loop of sausage. This ensures that you will have enough casing to tie off the links. Leave the links untied for now.
- Check each long link of kielbasa for air pockets. You will probably have some. Use a sterilized needle (get the point glowing in the stove burner for a second or so to do this) and pierce the casing all around any air pockets. Gently compress the meat in the link from either end. Don't force it or the casing will burst. When you see no more air pockets, tie off the casings at either end.
- Hang the sausages in a cool place. If it is warm out, hang for one hour. If you have a place where the temperature will not go higher than 38°F, you can hang them as long as overnight.
- Get your smoker going. Smoke the links for at least 4 hours, and as many as 8. I prefer a lighter smoke, so you can still taste the meat and spices. You are looking to get the internal temperature of the links to 155°F. When the kielbasa is smoked, shock the links in ice water to cool quickly.
- Hang them to dry for at least 1 hour before eating, and if you have a cool place (55°F or cooler) you can hang for up to 4 days.
Notes
- Once made, these links will last two weeks tightly wrapped in the fridge. You can seal them and freeze for a year.
- If you're not already an expert at making homemade sausages, here's my tutorial on sausage making step by step.
Nutrition Information
Show Details
Calories
358kcal
(18%)
Carbohydrates
1g
(0%)
Protein
12g
(24%)
Fat
34g
(52%)
Saturated Fat
13g
(65%)
Cholesterol
69mg
(23%)
Sodium
599mg
(25%)
Potassium
216mg
(6%)
Fiber
1g
(4%)
Sugar
1g
(2%)
Vitamin A
15IU
(0%)
Vitamin C
1mg
(1%)
Calcium
15mg
(2%)
Iron
1mg
(6%)
Nutrition Facts
Serving: 25links
Amount Per Serving
Calories 358 kcal
% Daily Value*
| Calories | 358kcal | 18% |
| Carbohydrates | 1g | 0% |
| Protein | 12g | 24% |
| Fat | 34g | 52% |
| Saturated Fat | 13g | 65% |
| Cholesterol | 69mg | 23% |
| Sodium | 599mg | 25% |
| Potassium | 216mg | 5% |
| Fiber | 1g | 4% |
| Sugar | 1g | 2% |
| Vitamin A | 15IU | 0% |
| Vitamin C | 1mg | 1% |
| Calcium | 15mg | 2% |
| Iron | 1mg | 6% |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Genuine Reviews
User Reviews
Overall Rating
4.9
87 reviews
Excellent
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