Homemade Sausage Making

Hi everyone,

I am trying to make a polish style sausage with dry cured chunks of ham mixed with a small amount of emulsion to glue it together as suggested by Marianski. I stuff it into a 2" fibrous casing, let it rest overnight in the cooler, then smoke cold for two days on and off, then wrap in plastic wrap and poach in 160 degree water until I reach an internal temp. of 160. I then air cool it.

The first time it worked well, I got a nice pink sausage with an adherent casing, not too adherent but no fat rendering or voids to speak of. The second and third time now, I have about 1/8" of fluid under the casing. I can't tell if the meat is shrinking and exuding moisture, which it shouldn't be, or if the water is entering from the poaching bath, and if so, why it didn't do that the first time. Should I heat the bath to 170 first before putting the chubs in or should I put them in and then raise the temp to the target point? I can't think of anything else that I did differently.

I'd love to nail this process, any suggestions would be appreciated.

wurstlover wrote:any suggestions would be appreciated.

Every time You had a little bit different meat.
The szynkowa sausage is the very challenging and difficult product.
The chunks of ham should be mixed so long as they goes of own glue and then add emulsion and mix ones more together.
J suggest to reduce water temperature to 150. (F) and keep sausage not longer than necessary.

Every time You had a little bit different meat.

Thank you EAnna. You are correct, my emulsion mix was different each time. The first time was pure connective tissue and fat, no meat at all. The second time contained more meat. The ham chunks were the same each time cut from one leg of our own pig. Mixing more and cooking less are good ideas, I am always concerned about how low I can go with the cooking temperature and still be safe. I know it is well documented but there is a bit of variation in the recommendations.

I notice that during the dry curing process of the ham chunks, no moisture is released and they do not turn grey like ground meat tends to do, probably has to do with the myoglobin content of the pork and the fact that it has no moisture pumped into it. It is difficult to develop a "gluey" consistency with it though.

I have fond memories of the polish sausage I used to buy so now I have to learn to make it myself!

Hi Wurstlover.
By your description of process and used meat we cannot precisely find a problem. My few thoughts -
it is nothing wrong with temperature of poaching.
it is nothing wrong with casings.
IMO - main problem is with your emulsion mix and process. (during emulsifying of binder (III class of meat without fat/or very little (fat isn't binder) should be kept very strict temperature regime).
In traditional polish Ham Sausage is not cold smoking just normal regular hot smoke (~50*C) for desired color (~3-4 hours), poaching is done right away after that without any over wraps.
Because in that recipe traditionally aren't used many spices and highest quality pieces of lean meat mostly from ham and practically without fat so that recipe should be processed very exactly. Somewhere on forum is traditional polish recipe or if you interested we can work on it again.

wurstlover wrote:The second and third time now, I have about 1/8" of fluid under the casing.

This is a typical outflow from chunks of ham, independent of emulsion.
That hinges on temperature.
We recommend max 68 C.gr = 154 (F)
That's why I suggested 150.
The outflow problem is the biggest on summertime.
A winter meat is the best for ham sousages.

Three days ago i have made some Ham Kielbasa - here are some pictures of my process ;
chubs of lean meat (class I) mainly ham +pork loin and lean meat from butt. As binder i have used class III meat from shank, class III pork trims - like connecting tissue ham, butt/shoulder, "silver skin" of pork loin. This meat was grinned thru plate 3mm (some of it - twice (lean meat from shank))

First - chubs of lean meat is mix until chubs are sticky

Class III - spices and water added and mixed separetly until paste consistency is obtained


Then both parts mixed together .

I used collagen casings - 88 mm diameter. Before smoking:

Smoking - 4 hours in temp. 120-140 F. after smoking

Poaching done in temp. 160-165 F. until internat temp. reach 150F.

Next day - outstanding taste, chubs bonded together.

Also bonus -

Looks outstanding Stefan. Definitely something we'd eat around the house.

Beautiful looking Ham Sausage Stefan. And Thanks for sharing your process.

Thanks for the photos Stefan, they look perfect! I may need to get a mixer in order to get it sticky enough.

Its hard with words to describe the real "sticky" but the picture leaves no doubt.

The latest batch I mixed in the KitchenAid mixer, almost stripped the gears but I got it sticky, and no more moisture under the casing issues, it worked great.