[USA] Krainerwurst

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Chuckwagon
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[USA] Krainerwurst

Post by Chuckwagon » Wed Jan 19, 2011 01:10

Krainerwurst

One of the finest gentlemen I`ve ever encountered is Miroslaw "Mac" Stanuszek, the director of Research And Development at The Sausagemaker™. A few years ago, Mac and I came up with an authentic Slovenian Sausage when we researched the recipe for one of his customers on the Sausagemaker`s recipe forum. The original recipe is just too tasty not to pass along. Unfortunately, over the years, some slippery, sausage-switchin`, sidewinder has altered, defiled, and otherwise debauched, the basic formula. Or, as only a cowboy would say, "they`ve `exfluntiacated` the dad-gummed thing! " Yup, pards, only a horse-faced, bellowin`, bovine brand bender, would actually put cheese into good krainerwurst! Someone... get a rope!

Krainerwurst
(Cured, Smoked, Cooked Slovenian Sausage)

Genuine Slovenian Krainerwurst has pretty specific traditional instructions. It must contain a minimum of 68% pork, 12% beef, and 20% fresh pork belly (bacon) with a little added water and only salt, garlic, and black pepper added for seasoning. The meat must be cut into 10 to 13 mm. pieces, and the bacon into 8 to 10 mm. pieces. Only 32-36 mm. hog casings are used, and links are formed in pairs of 12 to 16 cm lengths having the weight of 180 to 220 grams. Wooden skewers are used to hold the pairs together. The sausages are cured and then hot-smoked at relatively low temperatures. It`s interesting to note that the recipe has been widely misrepresented over time, especially in America where various spices and cheeses have been added.

Garlic added to sausage is pungent and it may be a little bitter. Par-cooked or `barely browned`, it becomes sweetened with roasted garlic flavor. The addition of oil and salt are the best kept secret ingredients in protecting garlic`s flavor. It`s because oil protects and stabilizes allicin, the compound in garlic that`s responsible for its characteristic flavor. Allicin is produced when garlic is cut or crushed, and it quickly degrades into less flavorful compounds when exposed to air. When oil is added to comminuted meat, it coats the meat particles. However, once in oil, the allicin dissolves and is protected from the air. With this defense, it freely moves into meat particles delivering full flavor. Salt has its own trick also as it speeds up the process when it draws water containing allicin out of the garlic much quicker than it would on its own. So, what is the secret of using garlic in sausage? Don`t add all raw garlic to your recipe... cook most of it by poaching it just a few minutes in a little oil and salted water. When the liquid is reduced and cooled, put it into a food processor and pulverize the cooked garlic. Add the liquefied garlic mixture to the primary bind and blend it thoroughly with the meat. Here is an original Krainerwurst recipe:

7 lbs. pork butt with fat
1-1/2 lbs. lean beef chuck
1-1/2 lbs. fresh pork bacon
2 level tspns. Cure #1 (if making "cured-cooked-smoked" sausage or "semi-dry cured" sausage).
1 gram Bactoferm™ LHP culture (if making "semi-dry cured sausage).
4 tblspns. salt
3 garlic cloves (crushed and minced)
1 tblspn. granulated garlic
2 tblspns. coarse black pepper (freshly ground)
32-36 mm. hog casings

To make "fresh" sausage:
Place the grinder knife and plate into the freezer while you separate the fat from the lean meat using a sharp knife. Cut the meat into 1-1/2 " cubes to keep sinew from wrapping around the auger behind the plate as the meat is ground. Grind the meat using the 3/8" plate and the pork fat using a 3/16" plate. Mix the Cure #1 with a little water for uniform distribution and add it to the meat. Work with small batches, refrigerating the meat and fat at every opportunity. Next, mix the meat into a sticky meat paste by adding the remaining ingredients and kneading the mixture to develop the primary bind. Stuff the sausage into 32-36 mm. hog casings, allowing them to hang and dry at room temperature for an hour. "Fresh" sausage must be refrigerated and consumed within three days, or frozen for future use.

To make "cured-cooked-smoked" sausage:
Grind the meat using the 3/8" plate and the pork fat using a 3/16" plate. Remember to add Cure #1. For ten pounds of meat, use 2 level teaspoons of cure mixed with a little water for uniform distribution and add it to the meat. Mix the cure and ingredients thoroughly throughout the primary bind. Work with small batches, kneading the meat into a sticky meat paste, refrigerating the meat and fat at every opportunity. Stuff the sausage into 32-36 mm. hog casings, allowing them to hang and dry at room temperature for an hour. Place the sausages into a preheated 130°F. (54°C.) smokehouse for an hour (with the damper open) before introducing hickory smoke and adjusting the damper to only 1/4 open. Gradually, only a couple of degrees every twenty minutes, raise the smokehouse temperature until the internal meat temperature (IMT) registers 150°F. This procedure must be done slowly to avoid breaking the fat. Remove the sausages, showering them with cold water until the IMT drops to less than 90°F. (32°C.). This sausage remains perishable and must be refrigerated until it is grilled on a smoky BBQ grill.

To make "semi-dry cured" sausage:
Grind the meat using the 3/8" plate and the pork fat using a 3/16" plate. Remember to add Cure #1, a tablespoon of sugar, and one gram of LHP culture to the recipe. For ten pounds of meat, use 2 level teaspoons of cure mixed with a little water for uniform distribution and add it to the meat. Next, prepare the culture by following the mixing directions on the packet. Use non-chlorinated water and mix the cure and ingredients thoroughly throughout the primary bind. Work with small batches, kneading the meat into a sticky meat paste, refrigerating the meat and fat at every opportunity. Stuff the sausage into 32-36 mm. hog casings.

If you have a "curing chamber", place the sausages in it and ferment at 100°F for 24 hours in 90% humidity. If a drier sausage is desired, ferment it for 48 hours.

If you do not have a "curing chamber", place one pound of regular table salt onto a cookie sheet with a lip around it. Spread the salt out evenly and add just enough water to barely cover the salt. Place the cookie sheet and salt in the bottom of an old fridge (unplugged) or your home kitchen oven. Keep the oven warm by using the pilot light in a gas model, or a hundred-watt light bulb covered with a large coffee can with several holes drilled in it. This will produce a warm area for a 2-day fermentation period at about 70% humidity.

When the fermentation has finished, place the links into your pre-heated 120°F smoker and introduce warm smoke. Use a hygrometer and try to maintain a 70% humidity during the process. Gradually, raise the temperature of the smokehouse by merely 2 degrees every 20 minutes. Do NOT attempt to boost the heat to shorten the duration. This procedure may take several hours. Monitor the IMT (internal meat temperature) and when it reaches 140°F, discontinue the cooking-smoking.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon
Last edited by Chuckwagon on Sun Nov 11, 2012 08:40, edited 5 times in total.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by CrankyBuzzard » Wed Jan 19, 2011 19:15

That recipe sounds great, but I have a question... As usual! :lol:

For the garlic mentioned I see crushed/minced, but also granulated as well.

Would granulated be garlic powder?

Charlie
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Post by Chuckwagon » Thu Jan 20, 2011 02:42

Hi CrankyBuzzard,
Granulated garlic is actually shredded garlic that has been dried and processed. It is pretty strong and just like my banjo pickin', a little goes a long way. Rytek Kutas used to throw whole cloves of garlic in with the skins still on them. He said peeling the things was a waste of time. Fresh garlic's strength will diminish after a period of time in a sausage, especially if it has been frozen. Garlic powder is a nice product but garlic salt will raise your blood pressure. Granulated garlic seems to keep its flavor for some time. I use it quite often in cooking. For use in sausage, its really convenient and I like the idea of purchasing it in dehydrated "sterilized" form to guard against any dreaded clostridium botulinae. Its Aw water activity is below 0.60 - well below the point where the USDA says, "A potentially hazardous food does not include that with a water activity value of 0.85 or less."

Best wishes, Chuckwagon
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by steelchef » Thu Jan 20, 2011 06:50

Thank you for sharing this recipe. I am however confused by the following ingedient;

1-1/2 lbs. fresh pork bacon

Does this imply fresh, cured bacon or raw pork belly?

I have been mislead in the past by the interchange of this term, although the results were amazingly sucessful.

Cheers! :?:
Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.
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Post by Chuckwagon » Thu Jan 20, 2011 09:55

Great question Steelchef!
In butcher`s circles, the term "fresh" applied to meat is a bit confusing. It is not meant to imply the animal in question was butchered merely twenty minutes before you purchased it. Fresh simply designates meat products that have not been cured using sodium nitrite or nitrate curing agents. There is no such thing as "cured" meat without actual treatment of a product containing sodium nitrate or nitrite cures or other specific curing salts as potassium nitrate, no longer used in the United States (other than in a few specific applications).

Almost immediately upon the application of Cure #2, bacteria in meat begins to reduce nitrate to nitrite, and finally into nitrate oxide, protecting the consumer from the toxic spores of colstridium botulinum. Modern science simply has not found an acceptable alternative for the age old fundamental concentrates of sodium chloride and sodium nitrite.

The bottom line? Your local supermarket`s "fresh" is simply a raw meat product that may have or may have not been frozen by your grocer before being placed inside his refrigerated display case for immediate sale. Fresh meat (not cured) must be refrigerated, frozen, cooked, or cured by the consumer relatively quickly. Never attempt to smoke fresh meat of any type without actually curing it with nitrate or nitrite cures. To avoid the possible development of botulism, it simply must be cured before any smoking process takes place.

The answer to your question is absolutely raw pork belly. It would make no sense whatsoever to include previously cured bacon in another product. Hope you enjoy Krainerwurst! Its pretty tasty! :grin:

Best Wishes, Chuckwagon
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably needs more time on the grill! :D
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Post by Webpoppy8 » Sat Mar 25, 2017 03:31

If you're still monitoring this after six years... I'm intrigued about the beef. I was assembling a recipe and found that some heritage designation for Kranjska Klobase forbade everything other than pork, pepper, garlic, salt (including saltpeter), and water. Thoughts?
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Post by redzed » Sat Mar 25, 2017 06:41

You are correct in that the original Slovenian version was made with pork only, and after a lot of debate the EU recently granted Kranjska Klobasa the heritage designation. It was the Austrians that added the beef and called it Krainerwurst. So there is a distinction, and the author of the above recipe erred in calling it a "Slovenian" sausage.
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Post by Webpoppy8 » Mon Mar 27, 2017 15:44

Ah, interesting! Thank you for the additional information!
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