Making Biały Kiełbasa for Easter

[piwo]

My buddy Zdzisław and I are going to make some traditional polish sausage (Kiełbasa) for Easter. We're only using pork and venison in this batch, though lamb is often used as well. Traditionally, sausage was made from "scrap" meat, but we'll be using better. And the venison of course, will be the product of a cast roundball: dental lead and 3f BP! Hand meat grinder, real intestine casings, and just the right amount of salt peter...LOL

My mouth is watering............

[sundog]

Anyone who has not had REAL Kielbasa, and I mean the real stuff, has no idea what they are missing. The stuff in the shrink pack at the supermarket..., well, that ain't the real stuff. My maternal grandparents came from Poland before WWI, and we got real stuff in 'Polish Town' (Riverhead, NY) from a real Polish butcher. From the immigrants who WANTED to become Americans. And they did. They learned English but kept many ethnic ways. Another day, another place.... But, they became Americans!

btw, when my sister was here for Christmas, after a year in Iraq, we made (sp?) Guwumpki - don't have a clue how to spell it, but we made it the way my Mom and her Mom made it - Polish. Yea, we ate good! Cabbage rolls.

[45 2.1]

Anyone who has not had REAL Kielbasa, and I mean the real stuff, has no idea what they are missing. The stuff in the shrink pack at the supermarket..., well, that ain't the real stuff. My maternal grandparents came from Poland before WWI, and we got real stuff in 'Polish Town' (Riverhead, NY) from a real Polish butcher. From the immigrants who WANTED to become Americans. And they did. They learned English but kept many ethnic ways. Another day, another place.... But, they became Americans!

btw, when my sister was here for Christmas, after a year in Iraq, we made (sp?) Guwumpki - don't have a clue how to spell it, but we made it the way my Mom and her Mom made it - Polish. Yea, we ate good! Cabbage rolls.

Wouldn't consider putting the recipe up on Castpics would you?

[piwo]

Wouldn't consider putting the recipe up on Castpics would you?

This will be my first time making sausage with my buddy, so I'm not sure on his exact recipe, YET. I’ve made it with my mom, who couldn't recall the EXACT recipe her mom used when we were growing up.

He worked as a meat processor in Poland before immigrating here in the1970's, worked at the Krey packing plant in East St. Louis when he got here and like my grandparents who emigrated from Poland, keeps many traditions and recipes. My buddy served a few years with our army in Germany as an "LI" I believe he said it was. During the Vietnam War he loaded bombs onto aircraft. But I digress..

If he has no objection, I'll post it. If he does, I’ll send it to you via email.

Sundog, the Polish spelling is Gołąpki (plural of a single Gołąmbek). The "ł" character is the only way to make the sound of "w" in English. When you see a "w" in any polish word, it makes the sound of the English "V". My screen name is "PIWO", pronounced pee-voh... and of course, is BEER in polish!

I smile as I remember having Gołąpki several times a month growing up. My mom as first generation in this country cooked lots of Polish dishes for us. And you are right about the sausage: done in the old style, it is superb. I cook some Polish dishes myself and make a pretty good Czerwony Barszcz (red beet soup), but mostly pastries and breads. I go broke making the barszcz because no one keeps all the leftover stuff to make a decent stock, which is critical. Buying it all at the grocery store for a batch of soup costs 25 bucks! And the "box o stock" is usually so salty and bland so as to ruin the soup.

I'll let you know how it turns out, and post a few pics of the process perhaps... Man I wish we had an electric grinder and stuffer...LOL

[45 2.1]

I'll let you know how it turns out, and post a few pics of the process perhaps... Man I wish we had an electric grinder and stuffer...LOL

Ha, i've got that. Maybe we could work something out.

[fatnhappy]

I love to dabble in sausage making. LOVE IT!

This is Rytek Kutas' recipe for fresh Polish sausage and it's darn good. If i smoke it (and why wouldn't I?) i add 5tsp of prague powder #1 (mortons tender quick will do) and 2 cups of milk to the sausage before I stuff it, at the 25# recipe. Use 2 tsp if you're making 10#. I use venison and add pork fat to it. Some guys I hunt with grind it 50/50 with boston butts or panchetta. I prefer to grind and mix straight pork fat, by weight so fat content is 30%.


I love to take freshly smoked Kielbasa and stick it in the crock pot with sauerkraut and apples till the casings start to burst. then serve it with spicy brown mustard and the best dark PIWO I can get my hands on. My handle isn't a random name.


Dean


INGREDIENTS FOR 25 LBS
2/3 cup salt
2-1/2 Tb. sugar
5 lg. cloves fresh garlic
2-1/2 Tb. coarse black pepper
2 Tb. marjoram
5 cups ice water
25 lbs. boneless pork butts


INGREDIENTS FOR 10 LBS.
5 Tb. salt
1 Tb. sugar
2 large cloves fresh garlic
1 Tb. coarse black pepper
1 heaping tsp. marjoram
2 cups ice water
10 lbs. boneless pork butts



GRINDING & MIXING
grind all the pork butts through a 1/4" or 3/8" grinder plate and place in the mixing tub. Add the ingredients and mix well, until spices are evenly distributed. Deliver to the stuffer using 35-38 mm hog casing. Let sausage age overnight in refrigerator for better flavor. Use fresh as soon as possible. Freeze remainder of sausage, after 2 or 3 days for future use.
NOTE:
Be sure that meat has been chilled between 32-34° F. before starting. All blood clots, bones, cords, etc. must be removed and thrown out. Do not keep sausage at room temperature any longer than necessary.

[BigSlick]

If any of you might be so lucky to find yourself in the Detroit, MI area, outstanding, authentic Polish food is available for lunch.

Find Hamtramck, about 15 minutes from downtown Detroit.

Close to the intersection of Dequindre and 15 Mile.

The food there is simply outstanding in every respect.

Here's a link :

http://polartcenter.com/

A little cafeteria operates there on days they are open.

You won't find better food in Michigan.
________
Cp300

[floodgate]

Sundog:

"btw, when my sister was here for Christmas, after a year in Iraq, we made (sp?) Guwumpki - don't have a clue how to spell it, but we made it the way my Mom and her Mom made it - Polish. Yea, we ate good! Cabbage rolls."

Mrs Floodgate says she'd love to get your cabbage roll recipe - been looking for a good one for years. (E-mail on its way.)

We have been doing our own sausage from our pigs and sheep and boughten chicken fronts (our egg-layers die of old age,a nd are too tough), with the trusty KitchenAid and "real" skins from a local supplier. For more good sausage recipes, see Bruce Aidell's "Complete Sausage Book". (We used to buy a lot of his sausage, but when he sold out, we went to making our own.)

floodgate

[piwo]

I found a GREAT restaurant in Plano TX to eat Polish food. When there on business, I ALWAYS make my way up Plano Parkway to eat at "For You, European Cafe". The nice lady who owns and runs the restaurant is from Warszawa, and after throwing an "all Polish" plate together for me several times, she finally put one on the menu! They make a few other Slavic country recipes, but only Polska for me!

[piwo]

Well, we've ordered our "green pork" and found out the Saltpeter was expired (3 years ago..). This has been corrected and I found some nice pork casings at a reasonable price. The plan is mixing weekend of 24th, grinding and stuffing next weekend. Easter is the following weekend. Zdzisław is getting the smoker in funcional order, so things are coming together.. If you're Polish, you must have the Kiełbasa and some chrusciki on Easter! Fortunately, I can make both!! I'm getting hungry.. Had Bigos for dinner tonight, and now the polski thing is starting to kick in...

LOL

[sundog]

Piwo, keep talkin'. We need 'range' reports. Kitchen range, that is... Keep us posted.

[fatnhappy]

We need 'range' reports. Kitchen range, that is...

ROFLMAO

[Bigscot]

A friend of mine who is of Cezch desent made the same thing and called in "halupki" or pigs in a blanket.
Here is a link I found on a Google search.

http://www.iarelative.com/recipe/halupki.htm

Bigscot

[piwo]

Yep, same dish... Even the name is almost the same. Many words of differing slavic countries sound more like regional regional pronounciation differences of the same word. Slavic peoples have very similar languages and recipies!

[Steelbanger]

Piwo,

My father was an Irishman but my mother was Polish. And like most Irish, my Dad liked to have a few beers . . BUT many times he called it Piwo! My mother and our neighbors taught him that. When I saw your name here I had flashbacks of those long-ago days.

My mother used to make a baked potato dish she called baba. The recipe was lost but my wife just found a recipe for baba in her mothers old hand written cookbook. A few weeks ago I had baba for the first time in about 40 years. Delicious.

Best regards Piwo

[45 2.1]

My mother used to make a baked potato dish she called baba. The recipe was lost but my wife just found a recipe for baba in her mothers old hand written cookbook. A few weeks ago I had baba for the first time in about 40 years. Delicious.

Perhaps you could post the "baba" recipe?

[scrapcan]

45 2.1,

Are you trying to tell these guys something?

all,

I grew up around my grandmother who was of german descent (1st generation US born). many of the recipes that you listed above sound like stuff I ate as a youngster. But they had different names. Except the sausage.

My mom and I lived with my grandmother and I got to help her make lots of good food. Each Monday night the whole family got together for dinner (mom had 9 brothers and sisters, most had significant others and I had lots of cousins, big todo each week). We had lots of Kiel and kraut as I called it when a little one. I love it.

Grandma made the sausage form wildgame much as discussed above. The only difference was she smoked them in the stove pipe. We had a wood cookstove and a gas range. She made bread and smoked the sausage at the same time. It was fun climbing on the roof and dropping the wire or chain laden with sausage in the stove pipe. Just had a t-bar on the end to keep it centered in the pipe. We made the brown mustard and horseradish to go with it. No beer, but I learned to make good beer about 7 years ago.

I haven't had good food like that in too long. Now you guys have waken and inner being.

The guy in the next office to me makes Kraut every year and gives all of us a couple quarts at christmas. I will see if he has the recipe for me to post. It is typical old style recipe, a handfull of this, a big pinch of this and 2 bushels of cabbage. etc...

[Beerd]

will somebody pass the pierogi, please?

[piwo]

will somebody pass the pierogi, please?

hmmm... the case of the pilfered pierogi... Of all places, Costco sells potato and chese peirogi, and they're pretty darn good! They come in a big box in the frozen section....

manleyjt wrote:

all,

I grew up around my grandmother who was of german descent (1st generation US born). many of the recipes that you listed above sound like stuff I ate as a youngster. But they had different names. Except the sausage.

manleyjt hits a good point. I mentioned Slavic dishes being very similar in a post, but Germany right in the heart of things, well, many of each cultures dishes are adopted to the point no one knows where they came from first! My mother was first generation here as well. I did the family research, found the folks in Poland, and spent a week on "the farm" in 2005. They didn't speak a word of english! Anyway, I'm trying to get a few recipes we had there sent, but they don't have the net, and it's difficult with snail mail....

[piwo]

Well,
Looks like it's going to be smoked Kraków sausage, and not biały kiełbasa. This is a little disappointing, but not too much. I've wanted to know a traditional recipe with each type, so I'll be making this type for the first time. Doesn't sound like much from just the ingredients, but the preparation is different from anything I've ever seen or heard. So, I'll be taking notes, and will post results.