Homemade Sausage Making

Thanks Ross, CW,

The job title Smokehouse Master was, in the days before automation, earned by years of experience and a general sense of how things were progressing. Eyes, nose, hands all came into play to evaluate the conditions in and around the smokehouse and There was no way that he could quantitatively tell some else how he knew. Someone had to measure temperature, humidity, smoke density, smokehouse load and write it all down and then compare the product with the observations. The master could make the needed adjustments and someone else could measure them. Gradually they were able to convert an art into a science that still has some art involved

Hoping I can get some quick help on this. I want to make them this weekend, but I have an issue with the recipe. I will be using the wiener recipe from Stan and Adam's 'Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages' on page 276 of said book. My issue is the quantity of meat(s). It would seem that the recipes in this book are for 1000g (1kg) of meat. The wiener recipe only calls for 900g of meat(s) but gives the ingredients for 1000g of meat(s) Does anybody know if I should scale back the seasonings, or add some more meat? Am I over thinking this and it will not matter?

The quantities of meats are as follows:

Lean Beef-400g
Veal-300g
Back Fat, Pork Jowl, or Pork Trimmings-200g

Thank you in advance
Joe

Got her figured out When looking for answers, seek out the source. I PM'ed Seminole last night with the same question. Who better to ask, right? He was quick to respond and solved the problem. The meats should add up to 1000g, so I was told to add an additional 100g of pork trimmings. Thanks Seminole for helping this greenhorn out on his way to sausage enlightenment

The problem and expense of measuring the humidity in the smokehouse can be solved with just a little science. When we have determined temperature and dew point then humidity can be derived. Smokehouse temperature is easy. Dew point will require a shiny metal canister, a thermometer, some water and some ice. Place the canister with the water and thermometer in the smoke stream as it leaves the house add ice slowly and monitor the temperature of the water and watch for condensate on the canister. As soon as you get condensate, the water temperature is at the dew point. There are tables published to resolve the answers.

Hey Rosco, So.... you are not just a pretty face

Your knowledge continues to surprise, enlighten and delight me. What a wonderful solution. I have already figured out how to add humidity to the fridge. Fortunately I have an old beer fridge which is not a frost free model. A bowl of warm water, replaced from time to time should give an approximation of required humidity. Thanks a bunch for the info. I'm sure that it will serve many members, very well!

And the winner for the month of March is....
You`ll have to check it out for yourself along with the recipe! It`s in the "Announcements" forum below, under the topic, "Recipe Of The Month". Here`s a quick link:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... 9&start=15

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Thanks Dad!

Hi Sausage Makers And Smoke Sniffers & Snorters !

Just a reminder to enter the "Sausage Recipe Of The Month" contest. You just may win an autographed copy of one of Stan, Robert, and Adam Marianski`s and Miroslaw Gebarowski`s books!
Goodness, you`ll also have the prestige of knowing that your recipe has been placed in the highly esteemed "Winning, Proven & Reliable... Endorsed, Confirmed & Validated... Accredited, Recommended & Guaranteed... Solidly Supported, Superior, and Sanctioned Sausage Recipes" sticky topic in the Sausages Forum!
To enter, simply find the "Announcements" forum and post your intention to enter with your own original recipe along with a few photos of the process and a couple of comments.

Also, I still have some WedlinyDomowe Polish calendars left. I`ll send you one if you give me your request by private message and be sure to include your name, address and zip code. (This information will remain confidential of course).

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

For my first try I decided to use one (recipe) from this site. Polish Smoked Keilbasa (Sausage) hot smoked version since this is what started me on the quest to make my own. Just a little background - My Souce for purchasing my favorite Polish Kielbasa closed down in the fall of last year, they were located in Hamtramck, MI. (Kopytko's Meat Market) My dad purchased all his sausage from them for as long as I remember and I continued the tradition after he passed and I used to make special trips to Detroit just to purchase some and bring back home. Since they closed I have not been able to find anything close to what I got from them and that satrted me to explore making my own. They sold a version of Kielbasa called Chucky Smoked Kielbasa which I have yet to find a recipe for and I even emailed the owner after they closed asking if he would be willing to share the recipe but never received a reply back. My goal is to try and recreate it as closely as I can from memory. So any ideas, recipes etc. I am very interested in.

Hi John,
I admire your tenacity for sticking to good sausage. I just can`t even look at some of the junky stuff in the market. It doesn`t even come close to the sausage of twenty or thirty years ago. The big producers are putting chemicals and substitute ingredients in a product that is not even questioned anymore by most consumers. And as long as they can get away with it, the sausage we see in a grocery store, will always be inferior to the "real" stuff. What is the real stuff? Let`s face it. The best sausages in the world come out of Poland. The craft is steeped in the experience of centuries of sausage making. Until the Iron Curtain was dropped, the traditional recipes were not given out and remained unchanged. However, when the Poles finally became independent and free, capitalist companies stepped in and began changing the very good, time-tested, and traditional recipes by adding preservatives, cost-reducing inferior coloring and flavoring agents, and short-cut techniques.

The Polish men and women who started Wedliny Domowe should be regarded in the highest esteem, as it is these folks who have worked so hard to preserve the original recipes and techniques, so that hobbyists like you and I could enjoy good sausage. These men include Vtec, Maxell (Miroslaw Gebarowski) Siara, Bon Air, Ligawa, and Seminole (Stan Marianski). Indeed, there are many other pioneers of Wedliny Domowe. They met in Poland a few years back, to establish the site and organization today. In just a few short years, the Polish-speaking "parent" site of this one has grown to be the largest sausage-making internet site in the world. Our little English-speaking subsidiary is only one year old, but growing continually.

The best Polish Sausage (Kielbasa) that I know of comes from our own Seminole in Florida. Shucks pard, this man has forgotten more about making sausages than I`ll every hope to know! This is Stan Marianski`s recipe:

http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-re ... hot-smoked

I certainly hope you give it a try. It`s not loaded up with too many "perfumes and spices" like some of the others you may find. The signature spice is marjoram of course, and put together with black pepper and salt, it just doesn`t get any better. Get the grinder and stuffer out John... Easter is just around the corner!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Chuck,
We happened to be at Wal Mart last evening picking up a few things. As I passed a cooler with "make believe" Kielbasa, I couldn't help but pick up a ring and read the ingredients. My son and I had a good laugh. The only things I recognized on the label were, meat - beef / pork, and sodium nitrite. between those two items were a list of ingrediants that I could not identify (outside of water). The real kicker was on the label. It was listed as "Hillshire Farms Polish Kielbasa Lite". What an insult to the true kielbasa makers of the world. And they had the gall to call it lite!
My son chuckled and said, " we're never going back to that stuff, are we"? I shook my head, and said 'Never"! He smiled and said, "GOOD!
I can't express enough my greatfullness for all I've learned from this site.
Thanks to all and keep up the great work.

P.S. New stuffer will be here Thursday; ready for this weekend's project.

Chuckwagon,
The recipe that you mentioned above from Wedliny Domowe recipe site is the exact one that I referred in my post that I am going to try and make my first batch of Polish Kielbasa with.
So far in all my research this site is the only one that I have found that is dedicated to preserving the traditional sausage making techniques and people that are willing to pass that information along to people like myself trying to learn how to make a quality sausage.
Brands like Hillshire and Jimmy Dean among many others that claim to make Polish Kielbasa need to be banned (My Opinion) from using or claiming what they make is Polish Sausage/Kielbasa. It is a disgrace!
I also want to thank everyone for putting up with a rookie like me trying to learn!
Best Regards,
John

I was poking around in my lumber pile today and found that I have enough western red cedar to make a smoker box two feet square and 30 inches tall with a floor and roof. I am working on a smoke maker heated with the rods from a toaster oven. They are usually wired in series-parallel so that they heat to a bright orange but if I connect them all in series they will run cooler but still hot enough to smoke wood. With some clever use of switches I will be able to adjust the heat output. With a prudent use of a ground fault circuit interrupter I can avoid killing my self.
More follows with the progress.

Ross ol` Pal,

I sure hope you intend to generate the smoke from "outside the box."

Cedar is only slightly less volatile than Av Gas. One stray spark and you will be rebuilding.

And; even though the wood may be very well cured, it will likely still impart a flavour to the contents. Anyway, good luck and keep an extinguisher handy bud.