Meats and Sausages
Krakowska Dry Sausage (Kiełbasa krakowska trwała)
This sausage has been always one of the top sellers in Poland. The name relates to the city of Krakow, one of the oldest cities in Europe. If you follow the recipe you will see that the sliced sausage contains visible chunks of meat. This is a dry sausage recipe, you can see the instructions require three smoking sessions and extensive drying. The final yield is only 65% and that means that sausage has lost a lot of moisture.
| Meats | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Pork, lean | 650 g | 1.43 lb |
| Pork, semi-fat | 150 g | 0.33 lb |
| Pork, with connective tissue | 50 g | 0.11 lb |
| Beef, semi-fat | 50 g | 0.11 lb |
| Pork back fat or hard fat trimmings | 100 g | 0.22 lb |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
| Salt | 21 g | 3-1/2 tsp |
| Cure # 1 | 2.5 g | 1/2 tsp |
| White pepper | 2.0 g | 1 tsp |
| Nutmeg | 0.5 g | 1/4 tsp |
| Garlic | 1.5 g | 1/2 clove |
Instructions
- Cut lean pork into 1” (25 mm pieces). Grind semi-fat pork through 1/2” (12 mm) plate. Grind pork with connective tissue through 1/8” (3 mm) plate. Grind beef through 1/8” (3 mm) plate. Cut fat into 1/2” (12 mm pieces).
- Using food processor emulsify ground beef and pork with connective tissue adding 20-25% (30 ml, 1 oz fl) ice or cold water. Add cure #1 and spices at this stage.
- Mix lean and semi-fat pork adding salt until sticky, then add back fat and emulsified mixture. Mix everything well together.
- Stuff into 50-60 mm beef middles or 65 mm synthetic fibrous casings. Form 40-45 cm (16-18”). links. Tie up ends with a twine, make a hanging loop.
- Hang for 12 hours at 2-6° C (35-43° F) OR at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
- Apply smoke at 45-55° C (113-131° F) for 120 minutes until casings develop brown color.
- Cook in water at 72-75° C (161-167° F) until meat reaches 68-70°C (154-158°F) internal temperature OR Bake sausages in the last stage of smoking for 30-40 min at 75-90° C (167-194° F) until meat reaches 68-70°C (154-158° F) internal temperature.
- Cool in air to 18°C (64 °F) or lower. The sausage is safe to consume and should be refrigerated.
- The following steps will produce dry sausage which can be stored at room temperature:
- Cooked in water sausages are submitted to a secondary smoking: with cold smoke for 24 hours OR with warm smoke 24-32° C (75-90° F) for 12 hours until casings develop dark brown color.
- Dry sausages for 10-16 days at 12-18° C (53-64° F), 75-80% humidity until sample sausages achieve 67% yield. If a mold appears on the sausages, it should be wiped off with a cloth. Smoke sausages with warm smoke at 24-32° C (75-90° F) for 2-3 hours.
Notes
Nowadays, Krakowska Sausage is usually not baked, but cooked in water 80° C (176° F) after smoking. The baking step is eliminated. After cooking, the sausage is cooled in cold water, briefly dried and placed in a refrigerator.
