Kiełbasa Taty - Dad's Sausage
Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 20:40
Kiełbasa Taty - Dad's Sausage
My Easter sausage this year is a Polish kielbasa with the integral ingredients and made in the traditional way. The meats and proportions are what my father made for decades and it's the sausage that became very well known in his community. My father was only 15 when he began working in a sausage plant in Poland. Following immigration to Canada in 1960 he worked in the meat industry for eleven years before opening his own slaughter house and processing plant. While the main business was to serve the farming community with custom slaughter and meat cutting, as well as sale of pork and beef carcasses, he also made and sold this sausage. After he sold the business he continued to make and smoke sausage at home and usually could not keep up with the demand. Even at the age of 95, he would crank out 300lbs in a couple of days. My Dad passed away a year ago, but memories of his hard work and sausage making will always be with me.
Recipe for 1kg of meat
Pork, Class I, (butt and/or picnic) no connective tissue, very little fat, 400g
Pork, Class II, (butt and/or picnic) 35-40% fat, 500g
Pork Class III, (butt and/or picnic) rich with connective tissue, some fat, 100g
Ingredients
Salt, 16g
Cure #1, 2g
Pepper, medium grind, 3g
Fresh garlic, 6g
Marjoram, 1.5g
Nutmeg, 1g
All spice 1g
100ml. ice cold water
Processing Instructions
1. Cube and classify the meat, keeping the different classes of meats separate. Add the salt and Cure#1 to the cubed meat, mix well, pack into a container, cover, and refrigerate for 48-72 hours.
2. Grind Class I pork through 12mm plate, the Class II pork through 8mm plate and class III pork twice through the 3mm plate. Make sure the meat stays very cold. Placing in the meat in the freezer between the grinding may be necessary.
3. After the grinding Class III pork add all the spices and approximately 30% of the water. Mix and mix until you achieve a sticky but still loose paste. This meat will be binder for the sausage. Add this to the other ground meats and mix well. Add the rest of the water gradually. I mixed everything for 10 minutes in my 33lb. electric mixer.
5. Stuff into 36 hog casings. Twist into neat and uniform links.
6. Set the sausage overnight in fridge or for two hours at room temperature.
7. Preheat your smoker to 160F, let it cool, and load your sausage into it. Open top and bottom dampers wide and warm sausage at 110F for one hour. Smoke at 130-145F (55-65C) until the sausage takes on good colour. Rearrange the sticks mid way through the smoke.
8. Finish by poaching with water at a temp of170F (76C) until the internal temperature of the sausage reaches 152F (71C). Cool gently with water and hang at room temp. Don't over chill. The sausage should still be slightly warm inside when hanging to bloom.
9. Allow sausage to bloom at room temperature for two to three hours before moving to a cooler environment. Don't package the sausage for 24 hours.
Sausage is excellent when eaten cold. If heating, bring up to temp only, don't cook again.
Dad in his shop, 1972