Lithuanian Sausage (Kiełbasa litewska)

Polish version of Lithuanian sausage.

Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat

Instructions

1. Grind pork with 3/8” (8 mm) plate. Grind fat trimmings with 3/8” (8 mm) plate. Grind beef with 1/8” (3 mm) plate. Grind meat trimmings with 1/8” (3 mm) plate.
2. Using food processor emulsify ground beef and meat trimmings adding 20% (120 ml, 4 oz fl) crushed ice or cold water. Add salt, cure and spices during this step.
3. Mix ground pork, ground fat and emulsified meats together.
4. Stuff into 32 mm hog casings. Form 25-28 cm (10-11”) links and divide into pairs.
5. Hang for 12 hours at 2-6° C (35-43° F) OR for 1-2 hours at room temperature.
6. Apply hot smoke at 55-60° C (130-140° F) for 80-100 min until light brown color is obtained.
7. Cook sausages: in water at 72-75° C (161-167° F) for 25-35 min until meat reaches 68-70° C (154-158° F) internal temperature.
8. Cool in water. Refrigerate.
9. OR: bake in smokehouse. In the last stage of smoking increase temperature to 75-90° C (167-194° F) for about 30 minutes until sausages reach 68-70° C (154-158° F) internal temperature. Cool in air to 18°C (64°F) or lower. Refrigerate.
10. To make a semi-dry sausages add the following steps: sausages cooked in water are submitted to a secondary smoking: with cold smoke (18° C, 64° F) for 12 hours OR with warm smoke (24-32°C, 75-90° F) for 6 hours.
11. Dry sausages (baked or cooked) at 12-18°C (53-64°F), 75-80% humidity for 2-3 days until sample sausages achieve 86% yield. If mold appears wipe it off.

Notes