Smoked Polish with some Heat

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reinhard

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Feb 6, 2013
1,192
288
Andover Minnesota
Got busy making 25 pounds of polish sausage.  Most of this is going up north to deer camp for some meals and give away's.  Made this many times but this time I added some heat.  It was not planned but I added the crushed red pepper right before I mixed everything.  Turned out good and had just the right amount of heat that I liked.  The heat factor can be changed of course and some may just want to add one tablespoon instead of the two that I added for a milder heat.  Two tablespoons really doesn't make it to spicy in my opinion.  Here is what I used:

 20 pounds of pork butt

5 pounds of 80/20 ground beef

4 T mustard seeds

2 T crushed red pepper

5 tsp. of cure#1 [one ounce]

5 1/2 cups of cold water

5 cups of powdered milk

Curley's smoked Polish seasoning [enough for 25 pounds]

4 T diced garlic [I use the stuff in jars]

Ground the meat just once through a medium plate.  Sprinkle the powdered milk, mustard seeds, and crushed pepper of the mix.  Put the cure and seasonings in the water and mixed it up.  Poured that over the mix and mixed everything up good.  Set the sausage mix in the fridge for a overnight stay for the seasonings and the cure to meld.  Got the casings ready also and put them in the fridge for a overnight stay also.

Next day I stuffed and linked.  Cold smoked the links for about 5 hours.  Cranked the heat up to around 200 deg.  Pulled the links when the internal reached 155.  Gave them a cold bath, and then let them cool further on the racks.  Put the links back in the fridge overnight and vac packed them the next day.  They were very tasty!!! Reinhard


Ground the meat just once through a medium plate.


Everything was all mixed up good!!.


Everything is ready to go for stuffing.


Linked up and ready for cold smoking.


You can see the red color due to the cure used.


Had to smoke them in my barrel smoker/grill due to the amount I made, with the AMPS tube smoker.  Used Cherry pellets.


Starting to come out of the smoker.


Closer look.


One pile out of the cold bath to dry and cool.


Had to sample some of course.


The old vac packer stills works great.  These went into quart size bags, 6 per pack.
 
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Oh man, those look good!  To color is great and they look to be spot on for moisture content!

Thanks for sharing the recipe as well, may have to clone some of these!
 
Dang it man them look good, Your hunting buddies will be proud, I just did some smoked salmon for my camp..... Always great when you bring stuff to camp and you get all the "atta boys"!!!! And the memories of Camp 

Good luck hunting and have a extra cold one for a job well done!! 

Great Job Reinhard!!! 

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A full smoker is a happy smoker 

DS
 
 
They look great I don't know what is in Curlies mix. I like my seasoning mix

Richie

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Makes me anxious to try making sausages. My Mom surprised me yesterday passing to me her and Dad's electric grinder. I remember we ate lots of venison: breakfast sausage & ground meat. Mom's venison spaghetti sauce was very good.
 
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Wow, awesome looking Kielbasa and in such a huge quantity.  I have a question about your process.  You said you cranked he heat up to 200.  I am always nervous about the fat rendering out at higher temps.  Is there a specific ceiling temp that you have?  Thanks
 
Fantastic job Reinhard!

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For how dang nice and uniform the links are!

Ours never look that nice.
 
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Thanks everyone!!!!  Worktogthr,  I hear about this fat out also, but I never had that happen to me.  I have had the heat up to 250, I guess was the most with no fat out.  However I normally go 200-225 for the most part.  That's the temp to finish them off, not the whole time.  I do what most folks here do. Start off low like 130 and gradually work my way up when I do not cold smoke it first.  When I cold smoke I go right to 200 or so to finish them off after smoking.  I think it's the formula you use as far as lean/fat, water/beer/ and I always use a binder like powdered milk to retain the moisture.  So that has worked for me.  Reinhard
 
Thanks everyone!!!!  Worktogthr,  I hear about this fat out also, but I never had that happen to me.  I have had the heat up to 250, I guess was the most with no fat out.  However I normally go 200-225 for the most part.  That's the temp to finish them off, not the whole time.  I do what most folks here do. Start off low like 130 and gradually work my way up when I do not cold smoke it first.  When I cold smoke I go right to 200 or so to finish them off after smoking.  I think it's the formula you use as far as lean/fat, water/beer/ and I always use a binder like powdered milk to retain the moisture.  So that has worked for me.  Reinhard

Thanks so much for that info. I always thought that when you're done smoking you have to continue at a temp no greater than 170 to avoid them fatting out. This can save me a lot of time and I won't have to fiddle around with a big pot of water. The appearance of your sausage is awesome.
 
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