Old World Kielbasa Recipes

KIELBASA, HOMEMADE KIELBASA, FRESH POLISH SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Put the garlic through a garlic press or mince really fine. Put the seasonings into a small pot with a pint of water. Boil and then cool. Here's where my Mom always said taste it and I wouldn't. That could account for the variance in taste from year to year!
• Meanwhile, cut the pork off the bone. Cut into strips maybe 1" by 3". Doesn't have to be exact size, we get pretty sloppy with it. Strips go through the grinder better than chunks. Don't trim anything off, unless you just can't stand not to. Trust me, if there's not enough fat, the kielbasa will be dry and hard. DO trim off any bloody-type stuff though. We then put the meat into plastic dishpans, pour the cool liquid over, add about 4 cups ice cubes and mix together until your hands freeze. It should be kinda sloppy. If not, add more water or ice. Cover with aluminum foil or such and put in fridge over night to marinate so the meat soaks up the flavor. Stir occasionally. The ice will probably all be melted the next day before you make the sausage. The meat kind of absorbs the flavors. Yes, it will smell up the fridge. In fact, it will smell up the whole house! Open the windows. Make the neighbors crazy!
• Next day, take the casings out and soak in warm water for several hours; it makes them more flexible. Cut in 4 ft. lengths. Shove the meat in the freezer for 1/2 to 1 hour before you start. The meat stiffens up a little and it's easier to put through the grinder. (We forget to do this a lot!) Stick one end of each casing on the faucet and run warm water through the inside of the casing.
• Ready? (Keep everything as cold as you can) This is the fun part. Put a little oil on your hand and run it over the horn where the meat will come out. Run casing through fingers to drain slightly. Put a casing on the horn. One person helps push the meat through the grinder while the other holds the casing while it is filling up. It kinda curls up as you hold it. I find for me that it's better if I hold it up while it's filling, less pressure on the casing. We make each one about 12-16". Or until it splits! Tie it off with string or knot the end if you can get it close to the end of the filled casing. Some people twist it every 6" or so to make smaller sausages. If the darn thing splits, you gotta scrape out the meat, dump it back with the other stuff in the dishpan and start over. Some years you're lucky, but some years the darn things split all the time. That's one reason for soaking the casings for a longer time, they don't split as easily. Sometimes it's just a bad batch of casings. Then all you can do is swear at it.
• We put the coils of sausage back into clean dishpans (on a rack if possible) and put back into fridge to kinda dry overnight. Then we pack them in Saran, aluminum foil, ziplock bags, anything that will keep the smell in, and put the packages in the freezer. We make 2-3 lb. packages. Since I have a vacuum sealer, I use that. It works really great.
• By the way, the sausage is pale because it is not smoked. We don't care for smoked kielbasa. But you can smoke it before freezing. Can't help you with that, though!
• We've been able to keep the sausage frozen for months. Just keep everything cold and clean while you're working. Keep a lot of paper towels handy to dry hands, answer the doggone telephone, etc.
• We have found over the years, that pork has become much leaner now.That is sometimes a problem. We've considered buying more fat and mixing it in but never have. It worked out all right just not cutting off any fat. But insufficient fat makes for dry sausage.
• It takes up about 1-1/2 hours altogether to fill the casings. It's really simple and easy. Of course sometimes we have splashes on the walls when "someone" gets a little rough pushing the meat through the grinder. Hey, that's the fun of it. It's a messy job, but someone has to do it.
• Oh yeah, the house smells for 3-4 days. But it smells good. If you like garlic. All the seasonings are to your personal taste. You really need a lot of salt though. The pepper -- eh, how much do you like? We like a lot. Same with the garlic.
• We keep a little of the ground meat and cook a couple of small patties of the sausage. That's when you can taste it and find out what you did wrong in the seasoning, too late, of course.
• Use the plate in the grinder which grinds the meat coarse. It's better if the meat is a little chunky. You don't want a mealy texture.
• If you run a search on google, you can find other information under kielbasa.
• One recipe I found says to knead meat and seasonings. Supposedly the more you knead, the more tender the sausage. We've never tried that.
• In recent years, we've set aside 3-4 lbs. of the ground sausage meat and made it into small patties like breakfast sausage, and larger patties like hamburgers. The grandkids really like that. We do, too. But for Easter and Christmas, it has to be the links.

POLSKA KIELBASA

Steps:

• 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.

SAUSAGE AND SAUERKRAUT

Steps:

• Place the sauerkraut, caraway seeds, brown sugar, and apple into a large saucepan over medium-low heat, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, and cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
• Place the bacon and onion into a skillet over medium heat, and cook until the bacon is almost crisp and the onion is beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir the bacon mixture into the sauerkraut. In the same skillet, brown the kielbasa sausage in the remaining bacon grease until the sausage begins to brown, 10 to 15 minutes; stir into the sauerkraut mixture. Spoon the sauerkraut and sausage mixture into the prepared baking dish.
• Bake in the preheated oven until bubbling, about 1 hour.

HOMEMADE KIELBASA

Steps:

• The better and fresher the meat is, the better the taste of the kielbasa.
• They say it adds a little moisture and some additional flavor.
• Others want all lean meat in their sausage.
• The next step is to slice narrow strips of the pork and cut those strips into thirds.
• Then grind the pork using a medium size plate in the grinder.
• This grinds the meat coarse.
• When making traditional homemade kielbasa, the meat should be a little chunky.
• This is where commercial kielbasa with its smooth, mealy texture is inferior to hearty, substantial, homemade, traditional version.
• Once you grind the meat, it's time to add the spices.
• Mix the salt, Cure #1, sugar, black pepper, garlic, onion powder, mustard seed and water and mix thoroughly into the meat.
• When the meat mixture is prepared and you are ready to stuff it into the casing, you should make sure to soak the casing in warm water first.
• once the casing have been rehydrated and become flexible, you should rinse them three or four times to ensure you remove as much of the unwanted salt as possible.
• You can do this by putting one end of the casing on the faucet, letting the warm water run through the inside and flushing out the salt.
• The casings can then be cut it into 4 foot lengths to prepare them to be stuffed with the mixture of beef, pork and a variety of spices.
• To properly cook the kielbasa and add that delicious smoky flavor, your smoker must maintain a temperature of 165 degrees until the kielbasa's internal temperature gets to 155 degrees.
• It must also contain the right wood chips to impart the smoky flavor many people love in their kielbasa.
• The smoky flavor acts like a seasoning and there's no substitute for it.
• For people with charcoal or wood smokers, all it takes to create flavorful smoke is to add some cherry wood or apple wood chunks to the fire.
• The key to creating the most flavorful kielbasa sausage is a consistently low temperature.
• Smoking the kielbasa at between 160-165F is ideal.
• Once the temperature in the smoker has reached 165 degrees, put in the sausages and leave them for three to four hours.
• That gives the internal temperature of the sausages to reach 152 degrees and the smoky flavors to permeate the kielbasa.

OLD-WORLD KIELBASA

Steps:

• In a Dutch oven, saute onion in butter. Add remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until cabbage is tender. Serve with a slotted spoon.

OLD WORLD SAUERKRAUT SUPPER

Steps:

• Fry bacon until crisp.
• Drain, reserving drippings.
• Add flour to bacon drippings.
• Blend well.
• Stir in sauerkraut and bacon.
• Transfer to crockpot.
• Add remaining ingredients and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours, or HIGH for 3-4 hours.