Meats and Sausages
Polish Sausage-Cold Smoked (Polska kiełbasa wędzona)
This is the predecessor of the Polish Smoked Sausage as it came to be known all over the world. When it was originally made food preservation was of the utmost importance and that is why it was cold smoked. The process of making Polish Cold Smoked Sausage resembles making traditional Italian salami, Spanish chorizo or Hungarian salami. It make little difference whether sausage is dried in cool air or with cold smoke; in both instances it is dried to remove moisture. Once enough moisture is removed the sausage becomes bacteriologically stable and will not spoil when kept at room temperatures. Today, hot smoked version of Polish Smoked Sausage is popular as it is faster and cheaper to make. In addition, the texture and the flavor of cold smoked sausages is less popular with modern consumers. Nevertheless, the materials and ingredients used for making Cold Smoked or Hot Smoked Polish sausage are the same, what is different is the manufacturing process.
| Meats | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| pork | 1000 g | 2.20 lb. |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
| salt | 28 g | 5 tsp. |
| Cure #2 | 2.5 g | ½ tsp. |
| sugar | 2.5 g | ½ tsp. |
| pepper | 2.0 g | 1 tsp. |
| marjoram | 1.0 g | ⅔ tsp. |
| garlic | 3.5 g | 1 clove |
Instructions
- Grind the lean meat with a 3/8” grinder plate and the fat meat through 3/16” plate.
- Mix everything together.
- Stuff mixture into 32 - 36 mm hog casings and form links 12 - 13” 30 - 35 cm. Leave links in long coils.
- Hang for 1-2 days at 2-6°C (35-42°F) and 85-90% humidity.
- Apply thin cold smoke for 1-1.5 days until the casings develop yellow-light brown color. Re-arrange smoke sticks or smoke carts during smoking.
- Dry at 10-12°C (50-53°F) and 75-80% humidity until the yield is 87% in relation to the original weight of the meat.
- Divide into pairs.
- Store in refrigerator or continue drying.
