Polish style smoked ribs or wędzonki

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king kabanos
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Polish style smoked ribs or wędzonki

Post by king kabanos » Tue Jun 02, 2015 18:06

? i always wanted to make polish style smoked ribs. how do you make yours? how long did you keep in brine and also do you finish the ribs by poaching them or finished them by making them with sauerkraut for dinner? also i am trying to find a recipe for whole polish style smoked chicken but cant find it anywhere does anyone know a good recipe
Last edited by king kabanos on Mon May 29, 2017 03:17, edited 1 time in total.
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redzed
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Post by redzed » Wed Jun 03, 2015 17:48

I usually throw in a rack or two of ribs along with other brined/smoked wędzonki I make. Recipe and instructions are in this thread:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=6999

I smoke the ribs until they achieve a nice colour and then stew them in sauerkraut. If you want to eat them off the bone, you can poach them until tender.

I flavour my brine with peppercorns, garlic, rosemary and juniper berries. My brine also contains sugar, and that is something not usually found in Polish recipes.

There really is no recipe for "Polish" ribs that I am aware of, but a popular combination of seasonings and method is as follows:

Trim off excess fat and remove silverskin from the bony side.

Prepare brine:

2l water
160g salt
40g Cure #1
10g marjoram
6g whole allspice
6g peepercorns
bay leaf

Bring brine ingredients (except the Cure #1) to boil, turn off heat, cool a bit and add the Cure #1, and chill to fridge temp.
Place ribs in brine for 2-3 days. Rinse ribs in cold water and soak in more cold water for 30-60min. When ribs are completely dry you can smoke them at 130-150F for 2-3 hours, depending on the amount of fat and meat on them. Use a mild wood like apple. Don't over smoke, ribs are not thick pieces of meat and the smoke penetrates them quickly.

As far as chicken, there is a great recipe by Dziadek the resident professional on the Polish forum. It is translated here.
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=4923
The original recipe in Polish is here:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/wedzonki/wedzon ... ka-czesc-i
And a variation is here:
http://wedlinydomowe.pl/wedzonki/wedzon ... a-czesc-ii

I made this recipe and it is very good, since the poaching step before smoking helps to keep the skin moist and soft. You can also stuff the chicken with any other herbs you like. My wife is not too crazy about the "ham-like" flavour of smoked chicken, so I have made it successfully without the nitrite. If you want to do that make sure you start smoking at 150 and crank up the heat to 200 to finish cooking in the smoker. Your IT should be 170F.

Hope this helps. Take pics and let us know how everything turns out. :grin:
king kabanos
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Post by king kabanos » Thu Jun 04, 2015 00:17

thank you so much chris my grandma keeps bugging me to make wendzona kurchak haha
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Post by StefanS » Fri Jun 05, 2015 02:22

Just small suggestion to "kurczak" recipe, and to other polish recipes - keep in mind that these amounts of salt should be added to FRESH meats, poultry only.
From my experience most of meat or chicken or turkey or fish bought in supermarkets - they are processed with solution (for color, freshness, texture). That solution contain a lot of salt and other additives so won't be surprise that it will be on salty side of taste.
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Post by bolepa » Sun May 21, 2017 16:58

Gentlemen, I am just curious: instead of poaching or finishing in the grill your ribs, can you just souse vide them?
Let's say you brine them for a week, then smoked for 3-4 hours and then souse vide them as a last step... If this is possible - which I think it is - how long this suppose to take (hours) and which temperature to set? Until IM reaches 152? Thank you!
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Post by redzed » Mon May 22, 2017 06:32

All I can say is try it! No rules here as long as you cook them. I usually finish mine in sauerkraut which makes them juicy, tender and the soured cabbage imparts that special flavour to them. If you are going to sous vide them make sure that you don't oversalt them. Depending on your brine strength, a week might be too long.
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Post by Bob K » Mon May 22, 2017 11:35

You certainly can! I have not done ribs yet but City ham is done after 3.5 hrs at 145°f, Brisket I smoke at 135 and then sous vide at 145f for 36 hours....perfect every time! Moist and tender.

The times and internal temps used in conventional smoking/ cooking just don't apply to sous vide methods of cooking.

Some time and temp info for ribs here: https://anovaculinary.com/the-food-lab- ... vide-ribs/
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Post by bolepa » Mon May 22, 2017 20:53

redzet and Bob K,

Thank you for your input. My two slabs of baby back ribs are smoked, cooked and currently hanging in my chamber because I want to dry them a little. Will try them tonight and let you know of the result. Thanks!
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Re: Polish style smoked ribs or wędzonki

Post by bolepa » Thu Jun 16, 2022 19:06

Hi everyone,
I know this is pretty old thread but I have a question. I smoked Polish style ribs several times using redzed's brining method and it always was success... This time I would like to use dry cure method and here where I scratch my head: as soon as ribs have almost equal amount of bones and meat on a slab - how much of salt & cure 1 I should use and how long ribs have to be cured? Thank you for your help!
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Re: Polish style smoked ribs or wędzonki

Post by redzed » Fri Jun 17, 2022 15:55

Rib bones and fat are lighter in weight than meat but I would add salt and cure at 50-60% of the total weight. Do an equilibrium cure 1.8 - 2% salt and .2% #1 Cure.
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Re: Polish style smoked ribs or wędzonki

Post by bolepa » Sat Jun 18, 2022 04:25

Thank you, redzed. How long do you think ribs shave to be cured using this method? Two-three days?
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Re: Polish style smoked ribs or wędzonki

Post by redzed » Sat Jun 18, 2022 16:57

Equilibrium curing takes a bit longer than salt box curing, but because you use a determinate amount of salt, you can't over salt the meat if you let it cure for an extended period of time. I would cure the ribs for 7 days minimum.
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Re: Polish style smoked ribs or wędzonki

Post by bolepa » Sat Jun 18, 2022 19:11

I got it. Thank you a lot, Sir!
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