Fresh keilbasa

stevesails

Here in Detroit area, we can get some great keilbasa, Fresh and smoked, Has anyone ever smoked their Keilbasa? or just do the normal grilling, Probably Direct on a not so hot fire.

thanks.

fishlessman

heres one way with the fresh stuff, skinned and rolled and pressed as a burger. i like thick onion slice and mustard on a bun with these or a runny egg and kielbasa sandwich made this way

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

if i could smoke my own kielbasa, i'd never leave the house. ba-dump-bump!

yeah. we make our own. great stuff.

after stuffing, you smoke it low, to about 150-160 internal, then cool it in an ice bath. that leaves it barely cooked, not truly fresh

is then generally always later roasted or grilled before serving.

you could always skip the smoke and just cook it too.

gdenby

Have you done a side by side tasting of our pre-smoked, and then fully heated, compared to fresh cooked straight to finish?

Also, I recall you once said that where you are, most fresh has some pink cure. Do you use that?

I checked with 2 of my local fresh polish makers, and they said that they did not add any cure. (Surprisingly, none of the local shops make smoked Polish, that's only available from factory operations)

FWIW, the shop that makes what is generally considered the best retail fresh polish has a variety that is without garlic, just has the marjoram. Any thing more than just the slightest touch of smoke overwhelms the flavor. Guess that recipe was meant for boiling.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

there's a lot of different types of kielbasa from what i understand.

some recipes (usually those being smoked) include pink alts, as a slightly overkill guard against bacteria entrained in the ground meat.

the marjoram version, a traditional kielbasa in "Charcuterie", didn't have any nitrite from what i remember.

i'm sure that the kielbasa we are used to out here is different than what others see. i only thought "kielbasa" meant one kind of polish sausage. didn't learn til recently that "kielbasa" is merely "sausage" in polish, and that there are many types. just as hot dogs and breakfast sausage are both "sausages".

i have only done a couple, and dunno much beyond ruhlman's explanation/recipes

Mark0525

Very interesting...so for me to say I love kielbasa but don't care for sausage wouldn't make sense

gdenby

There was a very large Polish population where I live. When I was a kid, there were at least 6 places that sold "polish sausage." Almost all of it was similar to what I believe is just called "White sausage." More or less garlic, coarser or finer grind.

Likewise, I learned not long ago that kielbasa is just Polish for sausage, and that the varieties of polish sausage was huge.

Take a look at

http://bookmagicpublishing.com/static/images/books/polish-sausages/preview/chapter-5/ch5-88.jpg

for a small portion of the defined types.

After seeing some of what thirdeye was making, and reading the Ruhlman book, I tried some simple sausage, but the cheap grinder I had made the job a huge mess. May try again sometime. For now, am making some patés to get the hang of flavoring, and mixture proportions.