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I've pretty much given up on ever having a nice kielbasa again let alone polish, or bologna. But after enough times seeing chefs make sausage on the food channel I thought I'd give it a shot. First time around was pretty good. I took a basic kielbasa recipe and switched around ingredients, deleted like the sodium nitrite and MSG (another nasty migraine trigger) and added in more flavorful spices, smoked garlic and liquid smoke to give it that fresh smoked flavor without the risk.
Please NOTE This is a fresh sausage and needs to be treated like one. Different than cured meats you will need to cook it and use it with 2-3 days of manufacture. You can safely freeze 2 months after stuffing. IF you don't promptly refrigerate or freeze you could get botulism.
I got my smoked granulated garlic at Surfas in Santa Ana, but their Culver City store carries it as well. It really adds a deep smoked through flavor as well as intense garlic flavor. A total win on all counts. Search it out through them or online.
I was warned up front by a friend that this really is a two man job when it comes to stuffing. One to feed the meat mixture into the hopper of the stuffer and another to hold the casings and control the rate of stuffing at the end of the extruder. It really is, I can't imagine trying this my first time by myself without my son to do the stuffing.
On the topic of the sausage stuffer I got the one for the Kitchenaid that attaches to the meat grinder for $8 online at Amazon. About a quarter the cost even the culinary outlets charged for it.
Uncured Kielbasa
- 2 1/4 pounds pork shoulder
- 3/4 pound uncured pork back fat
- 2 T smoked granulated garlic
- 1 t liquid smoke
- 1/2 c ice water
- 2 T fresh coarse cracked black pepper
- 2T dried marjoram
- 1 T ground mustard
- 1 T Kosher salt
Cut pork shoulder and pork back fat into chunks big enough to fit into your meat grinder feed tube. Place cut meat in freezer for 20-30 minutes to get it well chilled but not frozen.
Fit grinder with coarse grinder blade. At medium speed alternate pork shoulder and pork back fat and run through grinder. Add spices, water, salt and liquid smoke to meat mixture. Quickly knead with your hands until well mixed. Be careful not to let the mixture get too warm from your hands and the fat starts melting.
Chill sausage mixture overnight in a sealed container in the refrigerator. This allows the fat to firm up as well as the flavors to develop and blend.
30 minutes prior to stuffing soak the sausage skins in warm water to make them pliable and easy to load onto the feed tube. Assemble and use the large feed tube for extruder. Spritz the end of the feed tube with cooking spray to lubricate the extruder. Slip on a sausage skin and load up the extruder. Tie off the end in a not. With one person putting in the sausage mixture and another holding the sausage as extruded fill up a casing. Every foot or so slow speed and twist the sausage a full turn or two to create a link, then resume speed and stuffing. Tie off the end of the casing with a knot when done. Repeat until all meat is used.
Prick sausage every couple of inches with a needle to allow steam to escape and prevent casing ruptures when cooking.
Lay sausage onto a baking sheet and cool a few hours uncovered to let excess moisture evaporate if using fresh that day. If not coil, place in freezer bags and freeze up to 2 months.
To cook. Place sausage in large skillet. Cover about 3/4 up the sides with water. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer. Cook about 30 minutes at slow simmer until sausage is cooked through and reaches 165F with instant read thermometer. Remove from poaching liquid and brown on each side in a lightly oiled skilled until brown, about 5-8 minutes per side. Or...grill until browned with good grill marks.
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