Kielbasa and an experiment

[Grouperman941]

I really put my new grinder to work, making a couple of new (to me) sausages.

I cut up two big butts and a whole beef chuck roast (shoulder muscle) into cubes, saving the bones for sauce and removing the coppa muscles for curing.

With 10 pounds of the pork, I made polska kielbasa Wezdona. After a day of curing, I ground it coarsely, added cure and seasoning, and mixed with my Kirby Mixer for about a minute and a half. After a little rest, I stuffed into hog casings, and it looked like this:



It rested a day in the fridge before I smoked it with apple for 90 minutes. I had two coils, so I wanted to try one finished in a water bath and one in the smoker. For my water bath, I used my Calphalon roasting pan in my oven, which I set to 160 and let the pan full of water sit there while I prepped everything else and smoked. It held pretty steady at 160 by the time I was ready to check it (over an hour).

The first kielbasa was put in the bath right after smoke. It got to 155 fairly quickly(don't remember exactly), and I took it out and cold-showered it. It looked good, but it had lost all the nice color it was getting in the smoker.



The second kielbasa sat in the 200 degree smoker for over 4 hours and had not broken 140 degrees, so I ended up giving it a dunk too. It finished in less than 20 minutes, and did not lose its color.



I let them bloom at room temp and then moved them to the fridge. I was surprised to see that by morning, the color had returned to the first kielbasa -- so much so that it was hard to tell which was which.

Mickey mouse-shaped test patty:



Money shot:




With the rest of the meat, and some cubed belly, I tried a sausage called Metka. This is a cured and cold-smoked sausage. I wanted to try using beef middles, and I thought I would like it. These were ground 3 times through 3 mm plate, freezing in between.




After smoking and resting, it looked good, and tasted pretty good, too but I did not like the texture. Not sure if I did something wrong, but I don't care -- because I cooked them to 155 degrees in my oven and they were awesome:



I have eaten them cold, sliced and fried, and sliced and baked, Each has its own character.

[iceman]

Fantastic job!  :)

[Smoker John]

Looks great

[piratey]

I tried doing a kielbasa smoke last Wednesday. I didn't have sausage hooks, and the casings naturally rolled into a donut shape, so I just put them on the racks.  The casings popped after an hour in the smoker, at 130, for every single kielbasa.  Any idea why?

Even though they popped, the shape had already set, if that makes sense.  I just finished the smoke and it was pretty good.

[pmmpete]

I tried doing a kielbasa smoke last Wednesday. I didn't have sausage hooks, and the casings naturally rolled into a donut shape, so I just put them on the racks.  The casings popped after an hour in the smoker, at 130, for every single kielbasa.  Any idea why?

When smoking sausages, I prefer to smoke them on racks, because I can smoke the sausages evenly by rotating the racks from top to bottom, and spinning the racks 180 degrees, during the smoking process.  Even though I have added a fan to my smoker, when I hang sausages, they get smoked and heated unevenly, and it's a lot harder to flip hanging sausages from top to bottom, or to move hanging sausages around inside the smoker chamber, than it is to rotate racks.

But I don't know why your casings split.  That hasn't happened to me.

[Grouperman941]

Thanks for the tips, Pete. I jury-rigged a hang rod for the kielbasa. The tight coils heated fairly evenly. When it was time to pack them up, I just cut the top of the loops and had perfect horseshoes, like Hillshire Farms packaging.

I was afraid to get grill marks on the sides if I laid them down. Good to know that is an option. Increases my capacity by a lot.

[Grouperman941]

Any time I have ever had a sausage burst, it was old casings, overstuffing, or an air pocket that I missed. This is on fresh sausage I was grilling though.

[Habanero Smoker]

I tried doing a kielbasa smoke last Wednesday. I didn't have sausage hooks, and the casings naturally rolled into a donut shape, so I just put them on the racks.  The casings popped after an hour in the smoker, at 130, for every single kielbasa.  Any idea why?

Even though they popped, the shape had already set, if that makes sense.  I just finished the smoke and it was pretty good.

Vitaliy

As mentioned, the most common reason why sausage splits during smoking/cooking is over stuffing the casings. The meat expands while it cooks. If you are not making links, generally you can stuff a little tighter, but there is a limit to how far the casing will stretch. Other problems could be adding too much water. For smoked sausage you can go up to 10% of the meat weight, but 5% is more common. Bad casings can also cause the sausage to split. And there is a possiblility that it could be a combination of problems.

[cobra6223]

g looking sausage and pretty talented on the Mickey Mouse ! do you pancakes? :D

[pikeman_95]

Your sausages look great.
I found it interesting that when you let them sit over night the looked the same. I know the cut shots sure look good. Did you find your recipe in this book. (Polish Sausages, Authentic Recipes and Instructions.)  I know the name of you sausage look like they might have come out of this book. I think this is a good book to add to ones references.

Kirby

[Grouperman941]

Your sausages look great.
I found it interesting that when you let them sit over night the looked the same. I know the cut shots sure look good. Did you find your recipe in this book. (Polish Sausages, Authentic Recipes and Instructions.)  I know the name of your sausage look like they might have come out of this book. I think this is a good book to add to ones references.

Kirby

Kirby,

The recipes were from the Marianski book. I finally got a dedicated drill for my mixer, plus a good grinder, so it is time to go nuts on sausage making. I will check out that book you mentioned for sure. We are getting a new house with a huge garage, and I should be able to make a temp-controlled room in there so I can make sausage year-round. Doing anything with ground meat in the summer and fall here is iffy, no matter how much ice I use.

Here's the money shot on the metka braunschweiger (cooked, which might mean it's no longer metka)



It tastes like a combination of summer sausage and bologna.

[pikeman_95]

Your Mitka looks great. You might have gotten it a little hot in the oven because I see a little fat out. I probably would have water bathed it also. You could always hang it in a fridge and let it dry out a little. You would be surprised how fast it will loose moisture in the fridge. The (Polish Sausages, Authentic Recipes and Instructions.) book is very detailed how to process and spice the sausages. I know I have found it very interesting.
Kirby

[Grouperman941]

Your Mitka looks great. You might have gotten it a little hot in the oven because I see a little fat out. I probably would have water bathed it also. You could always hang it in a fridge and let it dry out a little. You would be surprised how fast it will loose moisture in the fridge. The (Polish Sausages, Authentic Recipes and Instructions.) book is very detailed how to process and spice the sausages. I know I have found it very interesting.
Kirby

Yes, this was the last batch I did and I actually forgot about it while working outside. :-)  I had shut the oven off at 150 degrees IT with the intention of leaving it like 15 minutes more but got distracted. I did a couple in a water bath and baked the others at 200 to see if it made a difference. I found it negligible.

[pikeman_95]

As most ovens don't go much below 200 the water bath method is a safer way to go. I have made a digital control system for my water bath and it takes the water to what temp I put on the controller and takes it right to that temperature. I will post some pictures in a while later. I am not quite done remounting it all in a water proof box. I will send you some pictures of the set up when I get it done. Send me your personal email and I will share some pictures.

[bundy]

Looks really good !!