Kabanos, the World’s Greatest Slim Jim

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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.

Links of kabanos hanging
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

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 stÃ¥ngkorv, 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.

Links of kabanos hanging
4.74 from 19 votes

Kabanos, Polish Smoked Meat Stick

To make a proper kabanosy, you will need sheep casings. Many butcher shops have them, but they are harder to find than the regular hog casings. You can also buy sheep casings online. In addition, you will need to smoke these links, preferably over cherry, apple or beech wood. If you don't have any of these, oak, maple or hickory would be fine.
Course: Cured Meat
Cuisine: Polish
Servings: 10 long links
Author: Hank Shaw
Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours
Total Time: 4 hours 30 minutes

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

Calories: 559kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 53g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Cholesterol: 109mg | Sodium: 956mg | Potassium: 331mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 10IU | Vitamin C: 0.8mg | Calcium: 21mg | Iron: 1.1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @huntgathercook or tag #hankshaw!

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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106 Comments

  1. I made this recipe last year and one comment that I got from everyone who tried it was too much salt. Is all the salt needed since there is instacure in the recipe?

    Thanks,

  2. Oh wow. Apart from “Biltong” and the ever present “Droë wors”, dried sausage, this is probably one of South Africa’s favourite treats. Almost available in any butcher and each with their own recipe. Thanks for the recipe. I will most definitely be giving it a go…

  3. Do I need to go higher than 150 if I use bear meat? Can this be done with bear meat is maybe a better question ..

  4. Great recipe mate i made a batch they taste mint allthough i think.you meant 3 teaspoons of salt not tablespoons ima make a few more batches then try one of your full cure recipes thanks for the recipes

  5. Gotta tell ya, made a batch of this last weekend out of Canadian goose. It is a mighty fine way to eat them greasy birds. I upped the recipe to do five pounds ( 4 goose and 1 of fat) and used hog casings instead and they came out perfect.

    Will be keeping this recipe on hand because it is easy to make. I think i am going to play with the recipe a bit and try to get a bit less salt and maybe add some spice to it. Have some extra venison in the freeze and a bear hunting coming up. Thanks alot

    This was my first attempt at any kind of smoked sausage and my first time running the new smoker.

  6. I am thinking about make a batch this weekend with some goose and pork fat. Was just wondering if it would be alright to hang them in a fridge to dry over night before smoking. Play on making a batch Saturday then smoking Sunday.

    1. Don: I mention garlic but don’t always put it into my kabanosy. If you want some, put in a couple minced cloves.

  7. I made this sausage it is really good. I hot smoked. had a little trouble with the teaspoons to grams ( may be my scales)

  8. Fantastic. I made a 5lb batch the other day and the taste is better then I can buy at the grocery store at over 4* the cost. Because I had them on the shelf, I used Fennel Seeds rather then the Celery. Awesome!

  9. Hank, a question. Iv been doing this recipe of yours alot with venison and pork belly, because its insanely good. However ive also been doing a fair bit from the mariankis polish sausage book as well. I noticed the only significant difference between the polish government recipe and yours, is your addition of celery seed. I did a batch to the marianksi recipe over the weekend and to be honest couldn’t see a great difference.. but im an idiot because I should have done a split batch for comparison and didnt.

    Anyway im just wondering about the celery seed. Is this just an addition you came up with on your own? or subbed in from another part of Europe.. or found in a family recipe from some obscure region..?

    Just curious.

    Na zdrowi

  10. Weigh your salt! We didn’t and the batch was extremely salty. So sad! The recipe was great. Texture, snap and seasoning perfect. We used the pork ratios. Also we used our smokehouse and it took the 4 hours on a windy day to achieve perfect temp and smoke. We used cherry wood.

  11. Hi hank,greetings from Australia.
    My partner and I (shes polish) just knocked up a batch of these bad boys this afternoon,using sambar venison and pork belly. Pretty dam good id have to say!

    We are also having a go at your basic salami recipe with the venison.. shed style. All seems to be going fantastic with current temps reasonably cool and good humidity.
    Thanks for all the amazing work,your commitment is outstanding! I only recently discovered honest-food and will be working my way through many delicious projects in the future.
    Cheers!