Kabanos, the World’s Greatest Slim Jim
February 04, 2013 | Updated June 06, 2022
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I must confess I’d never heard of kabanos until about eight years ago, I started looking for a superior sausage recipe that used sheep casings. I’d never really used sheep casings before, but I like the idea of narrow, easy-to-eat sausages and salami.
Think Slim Jim, but several orders of magnitude better.
My first impulse was to make cantimpalitos, the skinny little chorizo sticks from Spain that are to canned Vienna sausages what God is to a lump of mud. I will make these, by the way, but later.
I’d been making a lot of paprika-heavy sausages lately, so I decided to go with something less aggressively spiced. That’s when I read about this Polish kabanos recipe in one of the finest charcuterie books ever written, Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages by the Marianski Brothers.
Kabanos, pronounced Kah-bah-NOSS so far as I can tell, is what a Slim Jim dreams about becoming when it grows up. It is fairly lightly spiced with garlic, nutmeg, black pepper and a hint of caraway, smoked over cherry, apple or beech wood, then hung for a few days to dry. Kabanosy is the plural of the word.
It is an unusual sausage because even though it’s air dried, you don’t use starter cultures or Instacure No. 2. The drying process is too short for that. (Two other great recipes with short drying time are stångkorv, a Swedish breakfast sausage, and landjaeger, a German dry-cured sausage perfect for taking on a hunt.)
Traditionally, kabanos is a pork sausage, but really any meat works: Pork, beef, wild hogs, bear, venison, duck or goose, whatever. Kosher versions use chicken or turkey. I used venison, cut with pork fat.
Make LOTS of these, as you will find yourself eating them uncontrollably. Once made, kabanos will keep in the fridge for a couple weeks or so, and after you vacuum-seal them or wrap them tightly, they will freeze for up to a year without loss of quality.
If you can’t find sheep casings where you live, you can buy sheep casings online from The Sausage Maker.
Kabanos, Polish Smoked Meat Stick
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds pork venison, wild boar, bear or other meat
- 10 ounces pork fat
- 23 grams kosher salt, about 2 tablespoons plus a teaspoon
- 3 grams Instacure No. 1, about 1/4 teaspoon
- 4 grams sugar, about a heaping teaspoon
- 4 grams crushed black pepper, about 2 teaspoons
- 2 grams nutmeg, about 1 heaping teaspoon
- 2 grams caraway seed, 2 teaspoons
- 1 gram celery seed, about 1/4 teaspoon
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/3 cup ice water
Instructions
- Cut the meat and fat into pieces that will fit in your grinder. Mix all the salts and spices with the meat and fat. Put everything in the freezer for 1 hour to chill. Meanwhile, take out about 20 feet of sheep casings and soak them in tepid water.
- Grind the mixture in the fine die of your grinder, making sure everything stays cold. If the meat warms beyond 35°F, stop and freeze everything for 30 minutes to cool it down. Put the ground meat in the fridge while you clean up.
- Using a Kitchenaid or other stand mixer, or your (very clean) hands, add the ice water and garlic. Mix the meat and fat -- use the lowest setting on a stand mixer -- until it binds, about 1 to 2 minutes. Again, put the meat in the fridge while you clean up.
- Flush the sheep casings with warm water and set aside.
- Put the meat mixture in your sausage stuffer and stuff into the sheep casings. Remember that sheep casings are weaker than hog casings, so you do not want to overstuff them. As you are stuffing, fill up a link between 12 inches and 24 inches, leaving plenty of extra casing on either end. Cut the casing and continue to make these large links until you've used all the meat.
- Use a sterilized needle to pierce the casings wherever there are air pockets. Gently squeeze the meat in the casings to tighten. You may break some until you get the hang of it. If you do, put the meat back into the stuffer and make another link. Once all the links are firm in their casings, tie the ends together in a double or triple knot. Trim any excess casing.
- Hang the links to dry in a cool place for several hours, depending on how warm it is. If the temperature is 70°F or above, hang for only an hour.
- Move the links to a smoker and smoke until the interior of the meat hits 150° -- keep your smoker cool enough so that this takes about 4 hours. You want the links to get lots of smoke time.
- Let the links cool, then move to a place to hang them. Ideally this place is between 35°F and 60°F and dark. Hang the links for 3 to 5 days to let them dry out a bit. They are now reasonably shelf stable, but I keep them in the fridge. If for some reason you plan on keeping them more than a month or so, wrap tightly (or vacuum seal) and freeze.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Great recipe Hank and thanks for sharing it. I have two questions though. First you mentioned in the description that this sausage “is fairly lightly spiced with garlic” and I see that garlic is not on your ingredient list. Was this an omission?
The second question that I had is in comparing your recipe with the one in the Marianski brothers wonderful book I noticed they don’t add any fat. They describe this as a “meat stick” and use lean pork. I realize you used venison and probably added the pork fat because the venison is so lean but wanted to get your opinion.
I did make the recipe today and it’s wonderful. At least the little patty I fried was wonderful, the rest is sitting happily on my smoker.
Brice: Garlic is optional; if you want to include it, add a couple minced cloves. And yes, the Marianskis are using pork, which has fat.
Looking at trying this with a batch of duck breast from last weekend. I can’t find sheep casings locally. Can you safely substitute pork casings tied in small sticks like the land jaeger recipe?
John D: I’d follow the landjaeger recipe closely, not this one. You can sub in the spices for this one, though.
I know the last comment was quite some time ago, I would like to try this but wanted to know what smoker I can use? I have a wooden cold smoke box…. dont know if that will work…
Casper: Should work fine.
after making my own snack sticks last week this recipe has me intrigued. I noticed the Kabanosy description at the top mentions garlic in it, but the recipe does not include it. My Kielbasa recipe has to have a good amount of Garlic in it. Has anyone made this recipe with some garlic in it? I found a similar recipe on Wikipedia that included garlic. I may have to try it both ways?!?!
I don’t have a scale that weighs in grams and when I measured out 3 tablespoons of Mortons kosher salt my recipe would have been way too salty if I had added all three tablespoons. I only added about half of the amount called for in the recipe. Luckily I measured the seasonings in a separate bowl and slowly added the mixture and cooked a small amount between seasonings… but now I have a bowl of kabanosy seasoning and my sausage doesn’t have enough cure. Careful with the recipe if you don’t have an accurate scale.
These are great. You can finish in the oven if your smoker can’t get to temp in winter (a problem for me in subzero Minnesota winter). However, your house will smell like smoked sausage – maybe not a bad thing. I highly recommend the Marianski’s book. Favorite kielbasa is Krakowska, a combination of cut and emulsified meat, nutmeg, garlic, and pepper. For those who grew up with it the recipe is spot on! Even if you’ve never had it you should try if you enjoy kabanosy. Thanks for the blog.
Couple questions: can’t find Instacure #1, but found some sodium nitrite? Can I use this as a replacement and if so, the same amount as isn’t acute?
All parts of my house are either too warm (70 degrees plus or way below freezing. Any advice?
Thanks Hank, have cure#1 will give it a go.
Peter: Honestly I don’t know, but I might bake first really gently, i.e., slowly at about 225 degrees, just to get the interior of the sausage to 160 or so, then cold smoke for a few hours. If you have pink salt, however, you could smoke then bake.
Hank, I don’t have a hot smoker, could I cold smoke and then bake do you think?
Jon: I think it will be OK. It’s just for a couple days. If the humidity is too high and the kabanosy starts to sweat, take them out and hang in the garage or someplace cool.
Hank, I am going to be making these and wanted to know if it OK to hang them after smoking in my curing chamber with some other items. The curing chamber is at the right temperature but has the humidifier going. Your instructions don’t mention anything about humidity for the drying period.
Hank,They came out great.Will go with you suggestion of sheep casing next time,(probably 22mm.) can’t wait to try them with venison.Thanks again. Karl
Karl: I did not dunk these in ice water, which is what I think you mean by showering. I let them cool in the smoker. I do chill thicker smoked sausages, though.
Hank,sheep casings will run from about 22 to 28 mm. Just made up your recipe,(pork)used 18mm. collagen.(Thats what I had on hand)They get smoked up tomorrow. Do you shower them or just let them cool in the smoker? Looking foward to trying them. Thanks Again.
Karl: I have no idea. Sheep casings, though, which are narrow.
What Diam. casings did you use? Recipe sounds great.
Thanks. I can’t wait to try it. I just need a few more runs with the sausage stuffer to get the hang of it, and then I’ll give it a go.
Raven: I don’t see why not!
Would it be okay to use lamb or goat for this? Any adjustments needed for using these meats for the recipe?