Kielbasa diary, 2nd attempt

[col klink]

Kielbasa Diary, Second Attempt 12/16/02

On my birthday I received a wonderful care package from my Grandparents containing fantastic Grandma cookies and a package of authentic Polish kielbasa from a Polish deli outside of Detroit. Although my Grandpa professes not to know anything about cooking, he says that this sausage is at least as good as the old family kielbasa. I’m sure as a child that I had some of the old kielbasa but I was in diapers so when I tried some of the authentic stuff, I was truly tasting real kielbasa for the first time and I have to say that not only was absolutely fantastic and it changed how I perceive sausage.

First and foremost, like I mentioned in my earlier diaries, the real stuff is chewy with large chunks of beef. It’s not a texture that you have to work against per se, but it certainly holds its own. As for taste, it’s nothing but pork fat, garlic, pepper and salt. When eaten cold (it is fully cooked by the way) there is little smokiness but when you heat them up in a skillet like I did, the smoke flavors really come out. What really had me enamored with the authentic sausage though was its texture; it found a middle ground between bologna that is omnipresent in American sausages and beef jerky, which no one wants in a sausage. A picture of it is below

As you can see there are veins of pork fat between the chunks of meat, along with specks of pepper. If I had to guess, it isn’t freshly ground pepper. Also notice that the skin of the sausage is slightly wrinkled. All in all, it’s a good looking and a wonderfully tasting sausage that I hope to best eventually.

So that brings us to my next attempt at making authentic kielbasa. Obviously I only used the coarse grinding plates on the Kitchen Aid grinder attachment as I was looking for the chewiest sausage I can make and that includes when I ground the back fat:

In the first recipe I used a ratio of 4 to 1 of pork to beef, this time I doubled the amount of beef however, for some odd reason I bought ground beef. Next time I’ll buy cuts of beef and grind them myself for complete control. In this recipe I used three heads of garlic for a little under 10 lbs of sausage and a lot more pepper that I ground in my coffee grinder. You can see the garlic and the pepper in the turquoise bowl above next to the grinder. After I ground the pork, I mixed everything in my tub below:

That was the final step before stuffing the meat into links. At this point I fried up a sample on the skillet where I realized that I over salted. This is because I forgot to pick up Kosher salt when I was picking up supplies and all I had left was sea salt with a finer grain. Since I didn’t feel like going out again for more meat, I lived with it since they weren’t as over-salted as the previous batch.

If you recall the first diary, the links before they were smoked were orange from the paprika, this time the links have a more natural look to them. In the picture below they have a more natural look to them. You can also see a distinct difference from the ones on top from the ones on the bottom. Unfortunately, the large stuffing nozzle broke so I decided to display adaptability and use the small stuffing nozzle. The problem though is it’s more difficult to push all that meat through the smaller opening and the result is meat that has already been through the grinder (and not yet out the nozzle) is held against the grinder and is ground even more and you end up with a finely ground sausage. It tasted just the same but it wasn’t as chewy as the first sausages. In the picture below you can the texture difference:

Here are the finely ground links on the smoker:

Here is the coarsely ground kielbasa after it left the smoker:

It really isn't fair to just show the centerfold sausages because the first batch that went on the smoker (the finely ground ones) came off looking horrible. Most of the fat had rendered out and was swimming between the meat and the casing, almost comical it was! Anyway, depending on when and which sausages were eaten, the flavor varied. Fresh off the smoker, they were a little salty but very flavorful. They were smokier and in general more intense than the authentic links. Texture wise I still have a long way to go, obviously the finely ground links weren’t even close, but even the coarse links were more like a bratwurst. Most importantly though, they smelled like kielbasa. After I flew out to my folks in Upper Michigan and opened up one of my packages my Mom said: “I feel like a little girl! This is exactly how my grandmother’s house smelled!”

That was all well and good for her, but not for my father. He is very sensitive to garlic and when we got in the car at the airport, the first thing he wished for was some mints because I “had just awful breath. Have you been chewing on cloves of garlic the whole plane ride?” Even the next morning he complained that he could still smell it. Of course I found this to be quite funny because I couldn’t smell a trace of garlic.

The way kielbasa was prepared around my mother most of her life was just to boil it and that’s what we did the first time. This leeched most of the flavor out (except for the garlic) as well as drying out the sausage. Later on we made omelets with the coarsely ground kielbasas and I just fried the slices in a pan. These were much better but even the coarsely ground links weren’t coarse enough to match the authentic kielbasa. All of the sausage was well received and what surprised me was some people asked for more garlic!

Now that I have a basic recipe for kielbasa, it’s time to work on making it authentic and for that I’m going to need some equipment changes. That’s why I’m buying this:

This way I won’t have any problems stuffing and I can do it by myself whereas the Kitchen Aid requires two people and if everything isn’t sharp will pose a myriad of hassles. After I get the stuffer, I’m going to buy my own electric meat grinder. I’m not sure which one to get right now, but I do know I want large grind plates to give me very coarse meat. Having dedicated equipment will also make it easier to make larger batches that I’m sure will make eGulleters happy since I can ship more of them across the country.

To get back to my birthday care package, my Grandmother wrote a beautiful letter reminiscing about the old days and including a story about the tradition Polish Easter soup:

“One of our traditional dishes with Easter soup, baked ham, hard boiled eggs and horse radish. Polish rye bread and butter in the shape of a lamb. These items comprised the Easter basket that was blessed at church on Easter Saturday. I remember taking you and your basket of Easter candy – mainly chocolate – to the service in East Lansing (Michigan) when you were three. When the priest finished his brief service – of course we all walked up to the altar for the blessing and on returning to our seats you spoke out ‘can we eat now!’”

The soup is a favorite of mine and very easy to make. The day before, boil a couple of pounds of kielbasa for an hour. Remove and put the kielbasa water in the refrigerator to let the fat harden. The next day remove the fat and reheat. Slowly add a 16oz package of sour cream, an egg mixed with a tablespoon of flour, a teaspoon of horseradish and a ¼ cup of white wine vinegar. At the table add back sliced kielbasa, hard boiled eggs (one or two per person) and slices of baked ham. I remember one year when I was young I thought I wasn’t going to get enough soup and crying my eyes out. Everyone was very nice and gave me enough and since the soup is so heavy, I couldn’t even finish it.

Before I finish I’d like to point out that the coolest and best grocery store that ever existed is in Seattle and its name is Uwajimaya. They have great produce with a heavy bent on standard Asian staples like bok choy, shiso and durian (to name but a handful), a fantastic seafood department where I buy everything I need for making sushi, the biggest ramen aisle I’ve ever seen, a food court with Chinese, Korean and Japanese staples, a book store, and an area for kitchen items like the really cool rice cookers that cost a fortune but tuck in you at night, guard the house and file your taxes. This is all well and good, and there are other great grocery stores in Seattle that have most or all of the above and then some. So what makes Uwajimaya the best? On a Monday when all of the butcher shops that I know of are closed, Uwajimaya is open and they have sausage casings. I am forever in love and in debt to them.

<< Previous Installment

Edited January 5, 2003 by col klink (log)

[Kim WB]

klink, while the kielbasa threads you have posted get downright POETIC sometimes. nothing beats the memories from your grandmother. I am going ot be 40 soon, and I visit my grandmother 2x a year in Chicago...and thel ast time I brought a tape recorder. I don't know how old you are, but I commend you for recognizing how special this correspondence is...and, um...PUT ME ON THE LIST, too, Please!!! Would you like a "pre-order" deposit to help with the costs of all the machinery? Also, if you get updated machinery, I will gladly buy your grinding atachement.

[col klink]

Thanks for all of the support guys! I've just ordered my sausage stuffer from Northern Tools and it should arrive within 10 to 14 business days. Similar ones on eBay were selling for $40 to $50 but it's only $24.99 there. I've been participating at a bbq chat site where the folks really know their grinders and stuffers. They mentioned that this stuffer (pictured above and listed for a much higher price at Allied Kenco) probably won't suit my needs if I'm regularly making 30 lb batches, but if it really stinks, I can just turn around and sell it on eBay for more than I paid for it.

I still need to get a real meat grinder but I think I can live with a Kitchen Aid until I can save up the $250 to $350 for a decent grinder to get the truly authentic Polish kielbasa. Until then, I'll be getting my cold smoker up and running. Now that I'm moved in and the Holidays are over, I can concentrate more time on my smoking! I'm really excited about being able to smoke 10 to 20 pounds of sausage at the same time and even making my own bacon!

Just to let everyone know, my mother recently told me it was her mother's father that was so famous for his sausage, not what I said in earlier entries.

[Varmint]

I don't know, but you really have to respect a man who is excited about ordering a sausage stuffer!!

[col klink]

Howdy folks, just today I finally had my dsl line setup after being in the new place for a month and a half (Qwest is the most incompetent company still in business. It took them 4 weeks, 4 weeks! to get our address right!). So now I've been able to upload the final picture of cross sections of the centerfold sausages. Here it is:

If you click on this link, you'll be sent to my album where you can see the full size. That's a link to the full album, this image is the 7th; if you click on View : index you can get there faster. Then just click on the image itself.

As I mentioned above (or maybe not), the centerfold links weren't quite cooked enough, I'd say 75%. They were smokey enough, but just not cooked enough. Better luck next time I guess!

But since I've finally been able to load up a bunch of pictures, I'll take this opportunity to post some of them from my Christmas vacation.

First the Christmas Prime Rib:

The Menominie river where last year a body without a head or hands was found a la Sopranos (the head was found later, but not the hands):

And for Big Bear (when are you coming back!?!?!):

[Varmint]

I'm trying to understand the juxtaposition of the very bloody beef with the river story of the dismembered body. And then to add the sausage, I say, "Bravo, Klink, Bravo!"

[col klink]

Check it out folks!

It finally came!!! Yeah!

So here's the deal, I'm going to make some sausage but I don't know how much to make. I know Jason, Awbrig, Dave, Varmint and Kim would like some, would anyone else like some too? Let me know how much you'd like via PM along with your shipping address. When the allotment of 30 lbs have been spoken for, I'll let everyone know here and start on a list for the next batch.

It's going to cost me somewhere around $3/lb to make it and around $4 to $6 to ship priority via USPS and will arrive between 2 and 3 days later. There are no preservatives except for salt. I will vacuum seal and then freeze them before shipping. This time of year it will be cold during shipping and should arrive safely.

Here are the ingredients:

pork shoulder

beef (not sure which cut, but I'm leaning towards brisket, suggestions are welcome)

pork back fat

garlic

salt

ground pepper

I should mention that if anyone has professional experience shipping smoked meat products and knows of a safer or more cost effective way to ship, please let me know!

I can already tell that there is going to be some issues with the stuffer as the tolerances of cast iron aren't very precise. I'm currently devising a ring to go around the plunger but haven't come up with anything. I'm not worried because the new stuffer should be much easier to use. Yeah! New toys!

Edited January 21, 2003 by col klink (log)

[col klink]

D'oh! I accidently erased that last image. Here it is again:

Later on tonight (or tomorrow morning), I will post the next installment! All of the next batch is smoked and I'm quite happy with them! They aren't fully authentic, but I'd say they're 90% there.