Author Topic: Hot smoked Polish kielbasa  (Read 2374 times)

poppypig

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  • Pete, central Virginia
Hot smoked Polish kielbasa
« on: February 15, 2020, 11:52:58 AM »
My first polish sausage, recipe a compilation of several recipes I read.  64% pork, 36% beef, 1.8% salt, .25% cure #1, .2% BP, .25% sugar, .35% garlic powder, .4 % Blk mustard seed, .05% marjoram (all I had) so also added .05% oregano, 10% ice water, grind all thru 6mm plate, mixed throughly by hand with spices and water until good bind. All meat and equipment was very cold during. stuffed into 32mm hog casings into 8 in links (link lengths were not consistent), then overnight in fridge, next morning hung in smoker at 130 with no smoke for 1 hr to dry casing then upped temp to 150 with 4 oz cherry for 1 hr, upped temp to 160 w/2 more oz cherry, want to hit 155 I.T., stayed in smoker for 2 1/2 more hours and never got over 145 IT even after reprobing several links, then pulled all from smoker and chilled quickly. Pic 1 first in smoker, pic 2&3 when I pulled from smoker, some parts of links were drier and darker than others, tasting was very good except the drier darker casing was very tough vs the not so dark. Didn't use water pan
I guess my question is why after that amount of time the casings were not even and why never got to 155 IT?
SI2
weber converted to cold smoker
La Caja china roaster box
Orion cooker
Lem #5 grinder
Lem 5lb sausage stuffer
Hobart slicer
Anova
Brinkman 5 burner gas grill
Freezer not full for long of mostly pig meat

PhilH

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Re: Hot smoked Polish kielbasa
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2020, 12:11:20 PM »
Can’t answer your question, but it looks good.  How do they taste?

I have seen some ppl say that they had a similar long cooking time when making summer sausage, so maybe 32 mm hot casings need to be bumped up to a higher temp after a couple hours
Phillip   Ramsey MN

poppypig

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Re: Hot smoked Polish kielbasa
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2020, 12:46:54 PM »
they tasted very good, except that the casing that was darker and drier was very tough and hard to bite thru, I was afraid if I left them longer or bumped the temp up they would all be dry and tough, I was just wondering why they didn't cook more evenly, even tho I did move them around some.
SI2
weber converted to cold smoker
La Caja china roaster box
Orion cooker
Lem #5 grinder
Lem 5lb sausage stuffer
Hobart slicer
Anova
Brinkman 5 burner gas grill
Freezer not full for long of mostly pig meat

NDKoze

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  • Gregg - Fargo, ND
Re: Hot smoked Polish kielbasa
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2020, 01:58:20 AM »
Did you use a dryer?

A dryer (either DIY or the SI James Jerky Dryer) is pretty much a necessity when smoking sausage to get the moisture out of the smoker. Otherwise, you end up steaming the sausage more than smoking them and I think all that moisture makes it harder to get it up to temp.

When I smoke sausage, I am not really worried about getting it up to a specific internal temp as it will be packaged and then cooked to the final temp when we eat it. I am just looking to get the smoke on it and get the casings to the right color (nice dark red).

If you are smoking to eat them right out of the smoker, then I think you need to up your top temperature. I would definitely stick to the ramped temperatures, but I would eventually ramp up to 190-200 degrees.

The casing bite is kind of a subjective thing. I like a little bit of snap on my sausage and snack sticks. if you don't like that, you may want to look more to cold smoking or lower temp smoking to just apply the smoke. A good 2-4 hours of low temp smoke should be enough. Then package and either sous vide, cook in a pan with a little bit of water, or my new favorite way is to use my air fryer.
Gregg - Fargo, ND
Smokin-It #3 (purchased in 2014) that replaced a Masterbuilt XL (ugh) and a 10+ Year-Old Big Chief (still used for fish), and few others over the years, along with variety of Weber Gas/Charcoal Grills, Anova Sous Vide, etc. devices.

poppypig

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Re: Hot smoked Polish kielbasa
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2020, 10:21:40 AM »
Thanks, I didn't use my homemade air dryer even tho I did notice quite a bit of humidity in the smoker. I will be sure to use it next batch. Do I use it thru the whole cook?
I also like a bit of snap on my sausages but on the dark places there was no 'snap', it was almost impossible to bite thru, especially if I cook the whole sausage, it's not so bad when I slice them up for like spaghetti. the lighter places did have a good snap, I make enuf to vac-pack and eat when I want.
How long do you smoke to get that red color? and how much wood? Thanks for your help, like my profile says....newbie
SI2
weber converted to cold smoker
La Caja china roaster box
Orion cooker
Lem #5 grinder
Lem 5lb sausage stuffer
Hobart slicer
Anova
Brinkman 5 burner gas grill
Freezer not full for long of mostly pig meat

NDKoze

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  • Gregg - Fargo, ND
Re: Hot smoked Polish kielbasa
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2020, 02:23:22 PM »
The amount of time can really vary by smoker and how much you are smoking at a time. Also, how much moisture is in your sausage as well as whether you hung your sausage overnight to dry. But, for the most part I leave the dryer on the whole time after the smoking phase is over. But, I am usually dealing with a packed smoker with tons of moisture. You may find that you have to pull your dryer off a little earlier to fit your liking.

Another example is from a couple of weeks ago. I made 4 batches of sausage with two batches that fit in the smoker at the same time (this was in a homemade fridge smoker). One of the four batches was my Krautwurst which was just regular ring sausage with sauerkraut added.

The first smoke was the two regular batches and they both finished at the same time, which was probably 4-6 hours or so.

The second batch was comprised of one regular and then the one Krautwurst. The Krautwurst was so much more moist that it took double the time of the regular. I learned from this that in the future, I am not going to combine my batches like this.

I did not have time to hang any of these sausages overnight, so a good 1/3 to 1/2 of the smoke time was at low temp trying to dry them out a bit before beginning the actual smoke phase.

In my Smokin-It #3, I usually use about 3-4 ounces of wood, and have to rotate my sausages several times during the smoke to maintain even heat. If you did not rotate your sausages, this could explain why you had tougher parts.

I probably do a full rotate front to back and top to bottom at least 3 times per smoke and then as some sausages get done, I am pulling them out and do some manual rotation on any that remain. My #3 definitely runs hotter in the rear, so the rotation is really necessary to keep even heat.

For the most part I only bother with rotation when I have full racks of sausage, snack sticks, or jerky. But, for larger cuts of meat like pork butts, briskets, and ribs, I don't bother rotating.

But, knowing that the rear of my smoker runs hotter, I do always place the thicker part of meats that vary in size such as ribs and brisket toward the back of the smoker. So, the the thicker/fattier point of my briskets are always facing the back leaving the thinner/less fatty flat pointing toward the front of the smoker. The same goes with ribs. Depending on the cut of ribs that you are using, there is usually a thicker end that I place in the rear of my smoker.

Hopefully this helps.
Gregg - Fargo, ND
Smokin-It #3 (purchased in 2014) that replaced a Masterbuilt XL (ugh) and a 10+ Year-Old Big Chief (still used for fish), and few others over the years, along with variety of Weber Gas/Charcoal Grills, Anova Sous Vide, etc. devices.