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Polska kielbasa is one of the baseline sausages that everyone learns when you are developing your skills as a sausage maker. It’s is such an icon, done in so many ways, that I am sure someone somewhere will criticize my recipe.
Let them. I like my kielbasa recipe, and it is reasonably close to the Official Recipe. You heard right: There is actually an “official,” Polska kielbasa recipe endorsed by the Polish government. Kinda hilarious, if you think about it. Not sure that’s an area where the government needs to get itself involved, but that’s just me.
You should know that “kielbasa” simply means “sausage” in Polish. So if you were to find yourself in a real-deal Polish butcher shop and ask for some kielbasa, they’ll ask what kind.
What we generally call kielbasa here in the United States is Polska kielbasa wedzona in Poland. Incidentally, I am prone to pronouncing it “keel-BAH-see” because I am from New Jersey — you’ll hear this pronunciation all over the Mid-Atlantic region.
Everyone has his or her own kielbasa recipe. Let me restate that one more time. But there are a few things that distinguish real(ish) Polska kielbasa from the overly weird variants. I owe much of this information to the Marianski brothers, whose book Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages is indispensable for any serious home sausage maker.
- First, kielbasa in America is almost always smoked, unless you are in a real-deal Polish deli, in which case there are all sorts of variants on the smoked kind. Fresh, unsmoked kielbasa is usually only found in a Polish meat market.
- Second, it is normally pork-based, often with a little beef tossed in. (My versions often use wild boar or black bear.)
- For the typical American version, it always includes Cure No. 1 (sodium nitrite), which gives it the pretty pink color — any “uncured” kielbasa you see that’s pink is a lie: They are using celery juice, which has as much sodium nitrite as the powder.
- Garlic is the main player. Marjoram is often there, but not always.
- No paprika! Adding paprika to a kielbasa turns it into a Hungarian sausage, which is awesome, but not kielbasa. You get the red color from the nitrite and the slow smoke.
If this seems overly controlling, it’s only meant to get you in the right ballpark. Similarly, a sweet Italian sausage would be weird without fennel seeds — or with chile flakes — and a bratwurst just wouldn’t be right without the nutmeg.
Making this sausage isn’t difficult if you have made smoked sausages before. If you haven’t, I highly recommend you review my tutorial on basic sausage-making.
There is one wrinkle to my version of kielbasa, though. I sorta-kinda age it by letting the smoked links hang in my curing chamber (55°F at 70 percent humidity) for 2 to 4 days before I eat them. This dries them out just a little, and I think it improves the flavor a lot.
How to eat Polska kielbasa? Well, in any old way. On a hot dog bun, braised with sauerkraut and onions, put in stews, or the way I prefer, as a breakfast sausage. It was my late stepfather, Frank Kilpatrick, who turned me on to this. Frank loved to eat “keel-BAH-si” and always had it in the house.
We would eat it instead of bacon with eggs and toast in the morning; hell, Frank would often just lop off a couple inches right from the fridge and eat it as a snack — it is fully cooked, after all.
Frank is long gone. He died in 2001. But every time I eat a link of kielbasa for breakfast, I think of him.
Polska Kielbasa
Ingredients
- 4 pounds pork, wild pig, bear, venison, etc
- 1 pound pork fat (fatback or shoulder fat)
- 36 grams kosher salt, about 2 tablespoons
- 5 grams Instacure No. 1, about 1 teaspoon
- 5 grams ground black pepper, about 2 teaspoons
- 1 gram dried marjoram, about 2 teaspoons
- 10 grams sugar, about 2 teaspoons
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup ice water
- Hog casings
Instructions
- Chill the meat and fat until they is almost frozen by putting it in the freezer for an hour or so. Take out some hog casings — you’ll need about 3 to 4 standard lengths, about 10 feet — and set in a bowl of very warm water to rehydrate.
- Chop meat and fat into 1-inch pieces. Combine the salt, instacure, sugar, garlic, marjoram and pepper and mix it into the meat and fat with your hands. Let this rest in the fridge for about an hour.
- Grind through your meat grinder (you can use a food processor in a pinch, but you will not get a fine texture) using the fine die. If your room is warmer than 65°F, set the bowl for the ground meat into another bowl of ice to keep it cold. Put the meat mixture back in the freezer while you clean up.
- Add the ice water to the meat mix, then mix thoroughly either using a Kitchenaid on low for 90 seconds or with your (very clean) hands. This is important to get the sausage to bind properly. Once it is mixed well, put it back in the fridge while you clean up again.
- Stuff the sausage into the casings. Kielbasa is normally made into long links tied at both ends to form a loop. Stuff about 2 feet of sausage, then pinch off the trailing end and pull off at least 6 inches of casing from the stuffing tube. Cut the casing with a knife and immediately pull out another 6 inches or so of casing to form the loose end for the next long loop of sausage. This ensures that you will have enough casing to tie off the links. Leave the links untied for now.
- Check each long link of kielbasa for air pockets. You will probably have some. Use a sterilized needle (get the point glowing in the stove burner for a second or so to do this) and pierce the casing all around any air pockets. Gently compress the meat in the link from either end. Don't force it or the casing will burst. When you see no more air pockets, tie off the casings at either end.
- Hang the sausages in a cool place. If it is warm out, hang for one hour. If you have a place where the temperature will not go higher than 38°F, you can hang them as long as overnight.
- Get your smoker going. Smoke the links for at least 4 hours, and as many as 8. I prefer a lighter smoke, so you can still taste the meat and spices. You are looking to get the internal temperature of the links to 155°F. When the kielbasa is smoked, shock the links in ice water to cool quickly.
- Hang them to dry for at least 1 hour before eating, and if you have a cool place (55°F or cooler) you can hang for up to 4 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hank,
I just made the Kielbasa recipe for the third time. I love it. This time though I forgot to add the ice water to the mix. I read where this is necessary to assist with proper binding. My sausage is hanging now and will go in the smoker soon. My question is, is it worth pursuing or should I just start over?
Thanks,
Bud
Bud: You should be OK. They might not be your best batch, but they should be edible.
Hey Hank! Longtime reader, bought your book, been happy with most all of your recipes, especially your mild Italian and Portuguese linguica sausages. They are truly the best on the internet, and I’ve tried a bunch.
Got a question about this one, though. You say, “”Smoke the links for at least 4 hours, and as many as 8. I prefer a lighter smoke, so you can still taste the meat and spices.” How does four hours in the smoker not completely bludgeon the links with smoke flavor? I smoked mine for a mere hour at 170 over cherry wood in my electric smoker, the links easily got to 155 internal, but they were waaaaaay smoky! Maybe the electric smoker gives off more smoke than if you do it by hand? Anyway, still a pretty good recipe, but I don’t know how you could possibly smoke a pork-based link for that long and not totally overpower the thing.
** P.S. my girlfriend is barking in my ear to say she LOVED your duck confit recipe . I concur!
Will: It’s all in how much smoke is being released over time. If it’s constant, then yeah, even an hour might be too much.
Just my preference but I prefer making sausage with a coarse grind and cracked pepper. And of course, plenty of garlic.
Hank, Hank Hank. I made this recipe as advertised including using 80% pork 20% beef combo in a 70:30 meat/pork fat ratio. Smoked at 165 degrees for 3 hours with light cherry smoke then upped the temp to 180 for one hour to get the sausage temp up to 150-155. This is an amazing recipe!!!! So simple but so delicious. I’m going to use this recipe as a guide for other smoked sausage recipes. Next on my list is jalapeño cheddar smoked sausage. Thanks for sharing!!!!!
Hi just wondering if you could do this with lamb/mutton as well? Would you recommend mixing with pork? At what ratio? Thanks
Richard: Sure, you can do that. And yes, add pork fat in the same ratio. Lamb fat gets waxy.
Made this with 50 % Canada goose breast and 50 % pork belly. Made 10 lbs of it, just fantastic. Has a real authentic flavor, will be trying with just goose and pure fat next time. Great job Hank.
Followed the recipe exactly and it turned out extremely well. Will make again! Thank you!
I want to thank you for making me a hero among my friends and family. I made this for the first time yesterday and it turned out better than I even could have expected! My local grocery store had whole pork loins on sale, so I used the smaller, more marbled end plus the fat trimmings from the upper leaner end. Added in a pound of beef chuck, too. I upped the black pepper because I’m a black pepper junkie. And instead of the sugar, I used coriander. I went with cherry wood for the smoke on my gas grill. This recipe now will force me to replace our propane smoker. Thanks a lot…:)
Using some fresh wild boar for this. I couldn’t get fatback from my local grocery so substituted pork belly, using the fattest parts in the grind. The recipe turned out great. My wife loved it and sis it was the best kielbasa she has had since we moved from Detroit to Texas! Thanks for another winner recipe!
Made 10 lbs of this recipe this weekend on the smoker, turned out excellent. However, when I cut into one longer link of sausage it seemed undercooked toward the middle of the link. I did use the cure, but I was wondering if I could just finish cooking any undercooked pieces by boiling or frying and it would be safe to eat?
Jamie: Absolutely you can.
Where I was young, we used to buy fresh and smoked kielbasi from Rapacki and sons on Long island.the fresh my mom would cook in boiling water. Ever hear of this. Tanks Rich
I have a batch made from moose and pork that is going into the smoker in about an hour. I’ve found that I really like cherry for smoking sausages.
Bruce Aidell calls for a 1/2 teaspoon of coriander, so I toasted and ground some for the sausage. It added a nice subtle note that still leaves the garlic in charge.
Just made these again I added some cheese from quebec (Canada) they turned out amazing just finished 15 lbs of it thanks again for sharing. My family enjoys this
Thanks for that. We have eaten some already – they are great. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Hi Hank. We are just taking a batch of these (made with your recipe) out of the smoker. We can’t wait to eat them, but there are a lot of sausages here! How do you store them? Do you freeze them?
Vignette: I eat some from the fridge; they’ll last a week or so. Then I freeze them.
Made these today double smoked awesome thanks for the recipe
How do you feel about using soy protein as a binder for the keilbasa? I’ve seen some recipes use it and others not use it. Still new to sausage making. Love your website. Thanks for your hard work.
Chris: Not a fan of it.
I’ve made this recipe several times now. It’s a great recipe. I substituted granulated garlic for the fresh garlic. My batch size is for 10 lbs. I use 1tbl and 1tsp of granulated garlic.
I had a 2lb bag of mixed breed duck breasts in the freezer. I added a pound of ground pork from a Berkshire hog I purchased last winter along with some ground beef from a steer raised by a friend of mine and a pound of pork fat. It’s currently resting with the seasonings on the patio table(18 degrees outside). It will be ground and stuffed today and smoked tomorrow.
Given the quality of the other recipes of Hanks that I’ve used, I’m really looking forward to tasting the results!
Thanks Hank! I’ve got some Instacure on order… Can’t wait to try this recipe!