Serbian Sausage

Post Reply
User avatar
Scogar
Passionate
Passionate
Posts: 218
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2019 23:28
Location: Atlanta GA

Serbian Sausage

Post by Scogar » Mon Mar 08, 2021 14:36

I decided to make a Serbian sausage for three reasons. First, because I had a lot of fat that was steadily getting longer in the tooth. Second, I earlier bought two tubs of beef rounds, and third, I wanted something a bit more difficult than I had thus far done. Kiełbasa serbska parzona lined up well. There is not a lot of info on this sausage that I could find - an internet picture, Marianski's recipe, and some "official" pdfs from the Polish side of this site. But I decided to forge ahead anyway. The recipe was:

Beef Bottom Round 40.00%
Pork Back Fat 60.00%
Salt for Fat 2.80%
Salt for Beef 1.80%
Cure #1 0.15%
Cracked Black Pepper 0.20%
Paprika 0.20%

About 12 days prior to making the sausage I cut the back fat into 1/2 inch strips and added 28 grams/kilo of kosher salt to the fat and put it all into the refrigerator. The night before making the sausage, I ground the beef through the 1/4 inch plate and placed it into the freezer. I also cut the fat strips into 1/2 inch cubes, rinsed the now cubed fat of excess salt and then placed them all in water to soak. I didn't know how long, so every once in a while I pulled one and fried it up until I was ok with the salt content. I would say that was about 3 hours in the end.

The next morning I ground the meat through my 1/8 in (3mm) plate and added kosher salt to it. This puzzled me for a bit but in the end was quite simple. I used 1.8% kosher salt based upon the mass of beef alone. To have based the percentage on the total meat and fat would have resulted in a much higher salt level than I wanted as the fat had already been salted.

Once I developed a bit of myosin in the beef, I added the cure and black pepper. Since the fat portion is 60% of the weight and fat doesn't take up salt Marianski's recipe accounted for that by reducing the cure to 1.5% of the total mass of fat and meat. I mixed these in dry and I'll tell you that took a bit of doing since the beef really thickens up with the myosin. I will never be confused again at what makes a great meat batter consistency. The fat was seasoned with the paprika separately. To be clear, all percentages are based upon the total mass of beef and fat with the sole exception of the kosher salt
Image Image

The meat and fat were combined and mixed by hand as best I could. It was hard to do because the fat was basically 1/2 by 1/2 inch cubes and the meat was like glue, but I did the best I could. I cut the beef rounds into what I thought looked like a good lengths and after watching a few Polish Meat Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65-aIuXRzUcI chucked em on the sausage tube and got er done. I used the method where I tied both ends at the same time after stuffing the length. It can be seen starting at about min 11:31 in the video. They were hung to dry for three hours at room temperature and then subjected to three hours of warm mostly oak smoke. Once this was done they were poached in 170F (77C) water for 40 min. Then cooled in a water bath and refrigerated overnight.

Image Image

Overall I'm happy with how everything turned out. I think the size of the fat cubes are a bit too large for me to enjoy and the fat consistency is not as soft as I would like. Next time I would consider a 50/50 mixture and reducing the fat to 1/4 inch cubes...or perhaps even grinding the fat through the 1/2 or 3/8 inch plate. I would have to see. For me, on this batch, I think I will be slicing and panfrying it more than enjoying it cold on rye. But maybe with some pickle and a good sharp mustard I'll grow to appreciate the "chew" of the fat more.
User avatar
redzed
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3852
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 06:29
Location: Vancouver Island

Re: Serbian Sausage

Post by redzed » Tue Mar 09, 2021 17:52

That is an interesting sausage with a different preparation technique. I'm not sure I would make something with that much fat. I think 60/40 meat to fat would suit me better. But it's fun to try making and tasting some of the more unique and old recipe sausages. Marianski's picture of the sausage looks like the meat had a coarser grind than 3mm. Yours certainly reflects that.
User avatar
Scogar
Passionate
Passionate
Posts: 218
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2019 23:28
Location: Atlanta GA

Re: Serbian Sausage

Post by Scogar » Tue Mar 09, 2021 18:57

I couldn't agree with you more redzed. I panfried a bunch yesterday and it is pretty good that way. I had hoped maybe I could use it on a pizza say with gouda or swiss, but as I found, a fast cooked pizza wouldn't give the time for it to crisp up and render out enough. So it's more likely that I will use it with greens as the fat is of course quite tasty and will replace my bacon grease for a while. But I agree, even though I might drop to 50/50 I would personally prefer 60/40 meat to fat with smaller particles...5-7mm would seem just about right to keep the general concept in place. And I would probably kick the black pepper up as well.
Post Reply