Precuring Meats for Polska Kielbasa Wedzona

Post Reply
oneills
User
User
Posts: 93
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 09:58
Location: Sth Gippsland, Vic

Precuring Meats for Polska Kielbasa Wedzona

Post by oneills » Tue Aug 25, 2020 05:15

Intend to make some Polska Kielbasa Wedzona this weekend using recipe from this site as below. I would like to know if there is an advantage when hot smoking the sausages whether it is worth the effort to pre cure the meats, and if so, do you dispose of the liquid that comes out of the meat, or mix it in with herbs and spices ? As i would assume it contains a fair amount of the salt and cure.

Polish Sausage-Hot Smoked (Polska kiełbasa wędzona)
Polish Hot Smoked Sausage consists of pork, salt, pepper, garlic and optional marjoram. This is the hot smoked version known all over the world which is much easier and faster to make than the cold smoked version that was more popular in the past. Unfortunately, for marketing purposes, most producers call any sausage stuffed in 36 mm casings Polish Smoked Sausage with a total disregard for the materials and ingredients that go inside. The meat should be cured, mixed with spices, stuffed into ring shaped casing, smoked and cooked in water. The same ingredients are used for Polish Cold Smoked Sausage; what is different is the manufacturing process.

Meats Metric US
pork 1000 g 2.20 lb.
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
salt 18 g 3 tsp.
Cure #1 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
cold water 100 ml ⅜ cup
Instructions
Grind the lean meat with a 3/8” grinder plate and the fat meat through 3/16” plate.
Mix everything together adding cold water.
Stuff mixture into 32 - 36 mm hog casings and form links 12 - 13” 30 - 35 cm.
Hang on smoke sticks for 1-2 hours at room temperature
OR place sausages in a preheated smoker at 130º F (54º C) with draft dampers fully open.
When casings are fully dry apply heavy smoke and keep draft dampers 1/4 open. Smoke for 60-90 minutes. Keep on increasing the smoking temperature until you reach 160 - 170º F (71-76º C) range. Sausage is done when the internal temperature reaches 154º F (68º C).
Remove from smoker and shower with water or immerse sausages in water.
Store in refrigerator.
Misty Springs Free Range Pigs
User avatar
redzed
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3852
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 06:29
Location: Vancouver Island

Re: Precuring Meats for Polska Kielbasa Wedzona

Post by redzed » Tue Aug 25, 2020 17:33

Polish sausage makers swear that the flavour of sausage is better when you cure the meat for 48-72 hours before grinding and making the sausage. I also am a believer. There are a number of chemical changes that occur in the meat proteins when salt and nitrite are added. Giving them time to work results in different product. Once you cook the sausage all that activity stops. You will also have better myosin extraction, a better bind and a more uniform grind with less chance of fat smearing. Cube the meat in approx. 2 inch chunks, mix the salt and curing salt well into the meat, pack tightly into a food grade plastic container, cover with a lid of plastic film place in your fridge. There will absolutely be no exudate in the container after the curing period. Quite the opposite, all the moisture will have been absorbed by the meat pieces and they will be a lot dryer looking than what you put in there.
User avatar
StefanS
Passionate
Passionate
Posts: 436
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2015 00:12
Location: Mass

Re: Precuring Meats for Polska Kielbasa Wedzona

Post by StefanS » Tue Aug 25, 2020 18:06

oneills wrote:
Tue Aug 25, 2020 05:15
Hang on smoke sticks for 1-2 hours at room temperature
OR place sausages in a preheated smoker at 130º F (54º C) with draft dampers fully open.(for about 30-40 min.)
there should be also some change - word " OR" should be changed with word "THEN".
[/quote]Remove from smoker and shower with water or immerse sausages in water.[/quote] it should be very cold water.
oneills
User
User
Posts: 93
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 09:58
Location: Sth Gippsland, Vic

Re: Precuring Meats for Polska Kielbasa Wedzona

Post by oneills » Wed Aug 26, 2020 00:30

Thanks Red
That was the answer i was looking for. Have always mixed salt and cure into ground meat then stuffed into casings. Will give this process a go and see if i get a better end result. Am also going to poach half of them to finished temp after smoking to compare the result.
Misty Springs Free Range Pigs
User avatar
redzed
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3852
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 06:29
Location: Vancouver Island

Re: Precuring Meats for Polska Kielbasa Wedzona

Post by redzed » Wed Aug 26, 2020 16:31

oneills wrote:
Wed Aug 26, 2020 00:30
Am also going to poach half of them to finished temp after smoking to compare the result
Poaching allows for better control over the internal temperature and an even finish to the sausage. You can also give it a couple of hours of warm smoke the next day to give it a stronger smoke flavour and a dryer texture.
User avatar
Scogar
Passionate
Passionate
Posts: 218
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2019 23:28
Location: Atlanta GA

Re: Precuring Meats for Polska Kielbasa Wedzona

Post by Scogar » Tue Oct 20, 2020 16:49

Oneills - any updates on how these turned out? Did you like/appreciate the cure? Pics? Now that the weather is cooling down I'm getting ready to kick back into sausage making
Post Reply