Two Kielbasas: 'Basic' and 'Kiełbasa Krakowska Wędzona'

[Kevin A]

I'm making two different Polish sausages— one is a basic 'kielbasa' I've made many times before with slight variations. The second is a new one for me. Many of you are familiar with it (and some have made it). It's called, "Kiełbasa Krakowska Wędzona"(Smoked Krakow Sausage), a larger diameter meat sausage that is traditionally served sliced, cold-cut style. My wife's Polish relatives (from near Krakow) rave on about this product, so I'm up for trying it. An aunt gave me a list of the ingredients and methods. I'm using the US cure#1 (not the Polish Peklosól .6%), but other than that, I've tried to using the same ingredients. They (the Polish in-laws, that is) say the pork is 'better' tasting  in Poland (less water, more fat), so I'll do my best using quality US pork...

Three Days Ahead....

I need a little over 6 pounds of very lean pork for this 11-pound recipe, which will be cut into .75" (19mm) cubes.
I have 10 pounds of a nice pork loin.

Cut into cubes and measured out...


To these cubes, I'm adding a portion of the cure, kosher salt and sugar.


Well-mixed and ready to 'cure' in the fridge for several days...


On to the Kielbasa
I'm sticking with a pretty basic kielbasa recipe, with the ingredients pretty common to most recipes. Some leave out the sugar and marjoram and/or add mustard seeds. So long as there's garlic, salt & pepper, it'll make a good sausage...


The lean pork is coarse-ground (12mm plate used):


On the 'fatty' pork & fat, I used a finer plate (4.5mm):


To this, I added the ingredients and about 1 cup of ice water. I mixed the dry ingredients into the water first to help improve distribution:


After a very thorough mixing (resulting in a sticky paste), I stuffed the meat mixture into 32-34mm pork casings. These will reside in the fridge until I'm finished with the OTHER sausage so I can smoke them together.


Now, the Krakowska...

So now that the pork loin cubes have been curing for a few days, I'm ready to start the process. First the ingredients: very similar list to a garlic bologna, with the addition of marjoram...


First grind: Some lean beef (3mm plate)


Next up: grinding fatty pork...


I mixed these two meats together after the initial grind, and then fed it through twice more using the fine plate. The result is a very silky-smooth, uniform paste that mimics the emulsifying effect of using a processor:


To this smooth paste, I added the 'curing' cubes...


...and the spices.


A thorough mixing creates a desirable sticky meat mass...


Onward to stuffing & smoking:

Nice Sunday morning outside so I set up my Kirby cannon and loaded it up with 11 pounds of the Krakowska meat mixture:


To accommodate the large chunks of meat in the mixture, I used the largest stuffing tube I have— the 41mm howitzer.  :D


Ten minutes later, I had 2-1/2 chubs, 3" in diameter, the biggies about 14" in length. I used hog rings to seal the chubs.


INTO the SMOKER:

Hung the 2.5 chubs and the kielbasa in the smoker. I used a couple of bacon hangers to help distribute the load and minimize touching of the links.
They seem to work pretty well. Using a pellet blend in the a-maze-n smoker. Applied smoke after the chubs & links dried first (low heat for about an hour).
Just started the smoke:


I anticipate this will be a 6-8 hour (possibly longer) smoke, so I'll post more pics as I go along.

More to come...

Kevin :D

[GusRobin]

Kevin,
Looks very good.
Would you mind showing the details of the recipe?

[beefmann]

looks great

[Tenpoint5]

Kevin the big ones look a lot like the biershinken I make with more garlic. If it is that is going to be some good sandwich meat

[pikeman_95]

As usual Kevin you have my intrest peaked. I think I could get into that large sausage. It sure looks interesting. I will be keeping an eye on this one for sure.
kirby

[drunknimortal]

Looking forward to the money shot.

[carnie1]

As usual Kevin you have my intrest peaked. I think I could get into that large sausage. It sure looks interesting. I will be keeping an eye on this one for sure.
kirby

And I will be keeping my eye on this one too !!

[Kevin A]

Okay, time to wrap this up. Thanks, everyone, for the nice comments.

In the Smoker:

After nearly 9 hours in the smoker. Beginning temp of 135°F & slowly ramped it up to 170° over the course of the day/evening.
Here's a peek about 5 hours in...


A temp check indicated after nearly 9 hours the IT was about 135° on the kielbasa, 124° on the krakowska. Rather than wait until 3:00am for them to finish, I pulled the kielbasa first & plunged them into a poaching bath (165°) and less than 20 minutes later, 154° IT was reached.

Kielbasa blooming post-bath...


The Krakowska took a wee-bit longer. I could only fit one of the big chubs into the tub at a time. These took about 30-35 minutes to hit the desired internal temp.
All 3 blooming. They picked up nice color during the long smoke...


All went into the fridge overnight to firm up.

NEXT DAY: Sample time!

The Kielbasa— I was very pleased with this batch. It's only 5 pounds (about a dozen big links), so they'll go quickly around here.
Moist, juicy with good smokey, garlicky taste. Maybe a bit more garlic could've been added, but overall, a nicely-balanced Polish dog...


The Krakowska — Here's the one I was anxious to try. I thinly sliced the smaller chub to reveal this...


I was pleased to see a nice even texture with very few pockets of air. The solid chunks of loin are apparent. It slices beautifully.
I may need to break out the slicer when attacking the larger chubs.


Taste? I'd call this an 'Upper Class" cold-cut. It has that spicy, meaty taste of a real good bologna, but with an herbal note. Subtle, not overpowering.
Sort of a cross between canadian bacon and garlic bologna. Very tasty! Fries up great, too—although my Polish relatives would shudder at the concept of frying the stuff.
I'll slice & pack this chub up for sandwiches, snacks, etc.

If folks are interested, I'll post the recipe I used in a bit.

Kevin

[Tenpoint5]

What a great finish!  They both turned out great.

[GusRobin]

looks great - waiting for the recipes ::) ::) ::)

[OU812]

Awesome!!

[viper125]

Love the looks bet they taste great.Would appreciate both recipes to try.

[Kevin A]

The kielbasa recipe can be found here. easy to make & quite good.
http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-recipes/polish-hot-smoked

Here's the recipe I used for the Krakowska. It's a compilation of my wife's Aunt's recipe, plus some info gathered from various 'Polish' sources.
Enjoy!

Kiełbasa Krakowska Wędzona
Makes 11 pounds

Lean pork   6.16lbs
Fatty pork   3.74lbs
Lean Beef   1.1lbs

Cure#1    12g
Salt      90g
Garlic   5 cloves, finely-chopped
Allspice   1 tsp
White Pepper   1 tsp
Nutmeg   1 tsp
Coriander   1 tsp
Marjoram   1 Tbl
(not ground)
Water      14 ounces

• Cube lean pork into .75" cubes. Mix pork with salt (50.4g), Cure (6.7g), and sugar (7g) and store in fridge to cure for several days.
• Finely-grind the fatty pork & beef (3mm plate). Regrind twice more —or use a processor to emulsify into a fine paste. To paste, add cubed pork, spices and water.
• Mix very thoroughly until a sticky, cohesive paste is formed (about 7-10 minutes of hand-mixing).
• Stuff meat mixture into large synthetic casing (2.75-3.25"), forming lengths of 12-14". Tightly tie-off and prick chub to eliminate any air bubbles that form.
• Hang in warm (120°F) smoker for hour or so until dry. Apply smoke and gradually raise temps up to 170.° Sausage is finished when internal temperature of 154° is reached.
• Plunge into ice water; let sausage air-dry & bloom for an hour or so.
• Refrigerate overnight before slicing. Serve chilled or room-temp with cheese, pickles, etc.

[GusRobin]

Thanks Kevin.  My side of the family is also Polish. While Kielbasa has been made in our family for years, never had (to my knowledge) the Krakowska Wędzona. Anxious to try.

[BAM1]

Kevin, that's some awesome looking kielbasa all the way around