Best Moms Polish Sausage Recipes

HOMEMADE SWOJSKA POLISH KIELBASA

Steps:

• Grind pork, beef and pork belly/back fat on a medium size plate, 4.5mm (3/16") - 6mm (1/4").
• Add the ice water, all of the spices and mix well.
• Stuff into small size hog casings (28-32mm), tie into rings and hang to dry at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
• Preheat smoker to 140F, or 150F-160F max if your smoker can't get that low.
• Hang sausages in the smoker and dry for 30-60 minutes, until the skin is dry to touch. Then apply smoke for 3-4 hours.
• Remove sausages once the internal temperature has reached 154F. If the internal temperature is not rising too well after 3-4 hours of smoking, raise the temperature to 170F-175F. You may have to go to 195F if necessary. Alternatively, poach the sausages in 167F water for 25 - 30 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 154F. Poaching is a much quicker and more effective method.
• Cool the sausage down and store in a refrigerator or a freezer.Cooling can be achieved by placing sausage in an ice bath to cool it down quickly. It with result in a fuller, more plump product.Alternatively, you may let the sausage cool down at room temperature and then refrigerate. This will result in the sausage less plump and slightly wrinkled, but this this is my preferred method. Ice water bath removes smoke residue from surface making the sausage less smoky in flavor and pale in color.A reader suggested another effective cooling technique - placing the sausage flat on a cool surface, like a counter top.

KIELBASA AND POTATOES RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat skillet on med-high heat.
• Cut the kielbasa sausage into slices, and drop in the heated pan. Stir while frying.
• As kielbasa is browning, chop the onion and potatoes.
• Once the sausage has browned for approximately 6 minutes, scoop it out and put aside. Much of the fat will have rendered. Make sure to leave grease in the pan.
• Dump the chopped potatoes into the hot skillet with the kielbasa grease. Add the paprika, salt and oregano. Stir to coat in the fat and reduce the burner to medium to medium-low. Cover.
• Brown the potatoes for 13 minutes, stirring regularly.
• Add the onions and garlic. Cook for about 12 minutes. Covered, but stirring regularly.
• Once the potatoes have softened and onions are cooked add the kielbasa back into the pan mix in and all cook for 4 minutes.

AUTHENTIC HOMEMADE POLISH SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Have the pork butts ground coarse and place in a large pan.
• Crush the kernals of garlic with the salt, by using the blade of a knife to mash the garlic fine.
• Add the finely mashed garlic and the other above ingredients to the pork butts.
• Mix it well.
• If possible, allow the mixtures to remain overnight in the refrigerator.
• Fill the casings with the meat mixture after washing the casings out with water.
• To cook, place sausage in pot with water, bring to boil.
• Skim, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes.
• Remove form water.
• Place in oven for additional browning at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes.
• The uncooked sausage can also be placed in plastic bags and frozen for later use.

KIELBASA, HOMEMADE KIELBASA, FRESH POLISH SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Put the garlic through a garlic press or mince really fine. Put the seasonings into a small pot with a pint of water. Boil and then cool. Here's where my Mom always said taste it and I wouldn't. That could account for the variance in taste from year to year!
• Meanwhile, cut the pork off the bone. Cut into strips maybe 1" by 3". Doesn't have to be exact size, we get pretty sloppy with it. Strips go through the grinder better than chunks. Don't trim anything off, unless you just can't stand not to. Trust me, if there's not enough fat, the kielbasa will be dry and hard. DO trim off any bloody-type stuff though. We then put the meat into plastic dishpans, pour the cool liquid over, add about 4 cups ice cubes and mix together until your hands freeze. It should be kinda sloppy. If not, add more water or ice. Cover with aluminum foil or such and put in fridge over night to marinate so the meat soaks up the flavor. Stir occasionally. The ice will probably all be melted the next day before you make the sausage. The meat kind of absorbs the flavors. Yes, it will smell up the fridge. In fact, it will smell up the whole house! Open the windows. Make the neighbors crazy!
• Next day, take the casings out and soak in warm water for several hours; it makes them more flexible. Cut in 4 ft. lengths. Shove the meat in the freezer for 1/2 to 1 hour before you start. The meat stiffens up a little and it's easier to put through the grinder. (We forget to do this a lot!) Stick one end of each casing on the faucet and run warm water through the inside of the casing.
• Ready? (Keep everything as cold as you can) This is the fun part. Put a little oil on your hand and run it over the horn where the meat will come out. Run casing through fingers to drain slightly. Put a casing on the horn. One person helps push the meat through the grinder while the other holds the casing while it is filling up. It kinda curls up as you hold it. I find for me that it's better if I hold it up while it's filling, less pressure on the casing. We make each one about 12-16". Or until it splits! Tie it off with string or knot the end if you can get it close to the end of the filled casing. Some people twist it every 6" or so to make smaller sausages. If the darn thing splits, you gotta scrape out the meat, dump it back with the other stuff in the dishpan and start over. Some years you're lucky, but some years the darn things split all the time. That's one reason for soaking the casings for a longer time, they don't split as easily. Sometimes it's just a bad batch of casings. Then all you can do is swear at it.
• We put the coils of sausage back into clean dishpans (on a rack if possible) and put back into fridge to kinda dry overnight. Then we pack them in Saran, aluminum foil, ziplock bags, anything that will keep the smell in, and put the packages in the freezer. We make 2-3 lb. packages. Since I have a vacuum sealer, I use that. It works really great.
• By the way, the sausage is pale because it is not smoked. We don't care for smoked kielbasa. But you can smoke it before freezing. Can't help you with that, though!
• We've been able to keep the sausage frozen for months. Just keep everything cold and clean while you're working. Keep a lot of paper towels handy to dry hands, answer the doggone telephone, etc.
• We have found over the years, that pork has become much leaner now.That is sometimes a problem. We've considered buying more fat and mixing it in but never have. It worked out all right just not cutting off any fat. But insufficient fat makes for dry sausage.
• It takes up about 1-1/2 hours altogether to fill the casings. It's really simple and easy. Of course sometimes we have splashes on the walls when "someone" gets a little rough pushing the meat through the grinder. Hey, that's the fun of it. It's a messy job, but someone has to do it.
• Oh yeah, the house smells for 3-4 days. But it smells good. If you like garlic. All the seasonings are to your personal taste. You really need a lot of salt though. The pepper -- eh, how much do you like? We like a lot. Same with the garlic.
• We keep a little of the ground meat and cook a couple of small patties of the sausage. That's when you can taste it and find out what you did wrong in the seasoning, too late, of course.
• Use the plate in the grinder which grinds the meat coarse. It's better if the meat is a little chunky. You don't want a mealy texture.
• If you run a search on google, you can find other information under kielbasa.
• One recipe I found says to knead meat and seasonings. Supposedly the more you knead, the more tender the sausage. We've never tried that.
• In recent years, we've set aside 3-4 lbs. of the ground sausage meat and made it into small patties like breakfast sausage, and larger patties like hamburgers. The grandkids really like that. We do, too. But for Easter and Christmas, it has to be the links.

SWEET POLISH SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Place sausage in a large saucepan. Add water to cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Drain, remove sausage and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In the same saucepan combine the Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, onion, sugar, hot pepper sauce and water. Bring all to a boil, stirring. Place reserved sausage in a 9x13-inch baking dish and cover it with the sauce mixture.
• Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour.