When you have an excellent harvest of beautiful garlic you gotta make garlic sausage! This weekend I cranked out 8 kilos of aromatic heaven: Kiebasa Czosnkowa. There were a few deviations in the ingredient amounts and process, but I based my recipe for this sausage on the 1959 recipe compendium prepared for Polish sausage plants by the government. Today, this particular publication is considered by many kielbasa aficionados as the Polish sausage making bible. The biggest change that I made was to use 12g/kg of fresh garlic. I thought, if this is called a Garlic Sausage, it should not be mistaken for anything else. It turned out great. The garlic immediately comes to the forefront in the smell and taste, but it does not dominate. The new garlic is mellow and almost sweet after being cooked in the sausage. The pork belly makes the sausage soft and smooth on the palate. Once you sample a piece, it's hard to stop yourself from having more. It also makes a great sandwich, especially with a homegrown tomato.
Kiełbasa Czosnkowa (Garlic Sausage)
Meats
Pork, Class I, no connective tissue, no fat, 3kg
Pork, Class II, approx. 20% fat, 3.2kg
Side pork (pork belly) 1kg
Beef, very lean, unclassified, 1kg
Ingredients for 1kg
Salt, 17g
Cure #1, 2g
Black pepper, medium grind, 3g
Coriander, 1g
Sweet Hungarian paprika, 1g
Fresh garlic, 12g
Marjoram, 1.5g
Water, ice cold, 100ml
Instructions
1. Cube all the meats. The Class II pork and side pork can be combined, but keep the rest separate.
2. Add the salt and #1 Cure to the cubed meat, mix well, pack into a container, cover, and refrigerate for 48 hours.
3. Grind Class I pork through the 20mm plate and the Class II with the 7mm plate. Grind the beef twice with the 3mm plate.
4. Thoroughly mix the beef adding as much ice cold water as it will hold. I do this by hand. This will be the glue that binds everything together.
5. Combine the meats and mix well, adding the rest of the water. I mixed the sausage for about 10 minutes in the electric mixer.
6. Stuff into 40+ hog casings and tie into 50-70cm rings. For half the sausage I used 40mm 18 inch collagen rounds from the Sausagemaker.
7. Hang for 12 hours at 2-8°C (35-46°F) or for 2-3 hours at room temperature.
8. Smoke for about 2.5 hours at 57-60C (135-145F), or until the sausage takes on good colour
9. Poach sausages in 75C (168F) water until IT of 68C (155F)
10. Cool sausages with water, hang in room temp for a couple of hours to dry and bloom and refrigerate. Sausage will taste best after two days.
Smacznego!