Long time lurker, first time poster. Thought I should pay back all the good information and advice I've gotten here over the years.
So, here's how my first try at smoked Polish sausage went...
Used 9.5 lb. pork shoulder and 1 lb. flank steak.
Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and cure in the traditional way of the Polish sausage.
Cut all meat into 1 in. cubes. Used grinder attachment on stand mixer to grind pork shoulder once through the fine plate and flank steak twice through the fine plate (since I was only using flank steak to help bind). Both meats were extremely cold, bordering on freezing. Used metal bowl set in another bigger bowl holding ice to catch ground up meat.
Mixed in all seasoning, covered and put in fridge overnight.
Soaked and rinsed natural casings. Chilled all stuffer equipment before beginning to stuff.
Stuffed all meat:
Used the smoker box on my offset cooker along with charred hardwood and oak chunks to smoke for about 4 hours at 150 degrees.
Since I did not bring to temp in smoker I poached the links in water until they reached a temp of 155 degrees.
Removed from hot water and quickly cooled them off with tap water from the sink then hung to bloom.
After blooming for about 2 hours I removed and sorted into like sized groups for packaging.
I busted the casing on two, so I used these as the test links for cooking.
Turned out great. Very similar taste and texture to Kiolbassa Polish sausage.
And then this...in the never ending effort to help make sure the wifey continues to like my sausage.
What I learned:
1) My twisting needs work. I had several links unravel while on the chain.
2) This is a lot of work for one person. Especially using a stand mixer. Will consider better equipment before next effort.
All in all, good experience, good product and a great way to spend a day off. I hope this is helpful to others and thank all the posters that helped me along in the past.
Techsan
So, here's how my first try at smoked Polish sausage went...
Used 9.5 lb. pork shoulder and 1 lb. flank steak.
Seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and cure in the traditional way of the Polish sausage.
Cut all meat into 1 in. cubes. Used grinder attachment on stand mixer to grind pork shoulder once through the fine plate and flank steak twice through the fine plate (since I was only using flank steak to help bind). Both meats were extremely cold, bordering on freezing. Used metal bowl set in another bigger bowl holding ice to catch ground up meat.
Mixed in all seasoning, covered and put in fridge overnight.
Soaked and rinsed natural casings. Chilled all stuffer equipment before beginning to stuff.
Stuffed all meat:
Used the smoker box on my offset cooker along with charred hardwood and oak chunks to smoke for about 4 hours at 150 degrees.
Since I did not bring to temp in smoker I poached the links in water until they reached a temp of 155 degrees.
Removed from hot water and quickly cooled them off with tap water from the sink then hung to bloom.
After blooming for about 2 hours I removed and sorted into like sized groups for packaging.
I busted the casing on two, so I used these as the test links for cooking.
Turned out great. Very similar taste and texture to Kiolbassa Polish sausage.
And then this...in the never ending effort to help make sure the wifey continues to like my sausage.
What I learned:
1) My twisting needs work. I had several links unravel while on the chain.
2) This is a lot of work for one person. Especially using a stand mixer. Will consider better equipment before next effort.
All in all, good experience, good product and a great way to spend a day off. I hope this is helpful to others and thank all the posters that helped me along in the past.
Techsan