Smoked Polish Sausage, aka Kielbasa

[Stickbowcrafter]

I set out to find a better sausage smoker at the beginning of this year and I settled on the Original Bradley. I tell you what, I couldn't be more happy with all the great sausage I've turned out this year. Well, the Bradley outdid itself again...

Started out with some fresh pork shoulder, right around 5 pounds boneless. Cubed it up and ran it through the 3/8" grinding plate.



-Brian

[Stickbowcrafter]

Pretty standard Polish style seasonings here. The recipe for 5 pounds (from Great Sausage Recipes And Meat Curing):

1 Cup ice water
1 Cup non-fat dry milk or soy protein concentrate
2.5 Tbs salt
.5 Tbs sugar
1 tsp pink salt (Instacure #1, Prague Powder #1 or DQ curing salt #1)
.5 Tbs coarse black pepper
1 large clove fresh garlic
.5 heaping tsp marjoram



-Brian

[Stickbowcrafter]

Be sure to mix all the ingredients extremely well and keep your meat in the fridge if you take a break and keep your bowl set in another bowl of ice while working it to prevent breaking your mixture.

I used natural hog casings in the 38-42mm range. Stuff the casings and hang in a 130 degree smoker with the vent wide open until the casings are dry. I like to use hickory dowels to hang the sausage in the smoker.





-Brian

[Stickbowcrafter]

Once the casings are dry, gradually increase the temperature of the smoker to 160-165 degrees and leave the vent 1/4 open. Add your bisquettes to the smoke generator and apply smoke. There's a lot of discussion on how long to smoke. Most whole muscle meats will only soak up 2 hours worth of smoke with seemingly little benefit beyond that. Others believe sausage benefits from longer smoke. I applied 4 hours worth of hickory smoke and smoked the sausage until it reached an internal temperature of around 152 degrees.



-Brian

[Mr Walleye]

Hi Brian

"The Bradley out did itself!"

I would have to add to that, Brian out did himself as well!  ;)

I have never done much in the line of sausage but I certianly want to. You do a fantastic job of documenting your posts and I will certianly look back to them when I do get around to making sausage.

Excellent job Brian!  8)

Mike

[Stickbowcrafter]

Remove from the smoker and shower with cold tap water until the internal temperature drops to 110 degrees. Let the sausage hang at room temperature for 30 minutes or so until the desired bloom is obtained. Eat right away on a crusty bun with a good mustard or store in your fridge or freezer. This is some darn good stuff, you'll never eat store bought again  ;D



-Brian

[Stickbowcrafter]

Thanks Mike. Glad to hear my posts make a little bit of sense ;D But really, anyone can do this. Believe me, I'm not a whiz in the kitchen but if you invest a little time and effort, anyone can turn out great stuff. I learned everything about sausage making from two books. I follow the recipes and the stuff turns out great. Pretty straightforward. Give it a try, you'll be glad you did!

-Brian

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

Brian,

Very nice.

Arcs_n_Sparks

[smokin stu]

I LOVE a good Keilbasa and a butcher up the road named Vic's makes one excellent Keilbasa so I never thought of doing it myself.  SBC, the way you spell it out with yummy photos to boot, I think I may try this recipe myself!!

[West Coast Kansan]

brian, well done, there will be some people doing sausage after this post.  ;D

[HCT]

Looks beautiful Brian and I do mean beautiful. Ya make it sound so easy, will have to give it a try.
Mike

[iceman]

Very well done Brian. The post was excellent to. Thank you very much for all the time and effort you put into this for us. It will certainly come in handy for a referance to the members when they get on to trying sausage.
Pat.

[Buck36]

THANK YOU! Being Polish I always wanted to try Kielbasa. You make it look so easy this will definitely be my next project.