Smoked Meats Part 1: Kielbasa

Someone recently left a smoker in our community garden, so our meat projects have taken a new turn.  It takes a couple hours, but is a pretty easy set up, and everything has turned out great.

The trial run was kielbasa, Polish smoked sausage.  We've done sausages before, but this was our first try at an emulsified sausage (extra mixing and crushed ice to make a smoother textured sausage).  It was much trickier to stuff, but turned out great.  Recipe (again) from Ruhlman/Polcyn's Charcuterie.

Not very pretty when they're uncooked.

The smoking takes a couple hours.  The basic set up is in layers: hot charcoal, wet wood chips, water, and the sausage on top like a regular barbecue.  The internal temperature stays below 200F so the meat cooks slowly and takes in the smoke.

The finished product!

The sauerkraut is store bought, but we'll try that again soon.

Pickling Spice

You can buy pickling spice from the store, but making it is easy if you have all the spices.  It's good to have around and is an ingredient in other projects such as corned beef and pastrami (and pickles).

From Ruhlman/Polcyn's Charcuterie:

2 tablespoons each peppercorns, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, hot red pepper flakes, allspice berries

1 tablespoon ground mace

2 cinnamon sticks, crushed

24 bay leaves, crushed

2 tablespoons whole cloves

1 tablespoon ground ginger

Toast the peppercorns, mustard seeds, and coriander and crack lightly.  Combine with other spices and store in a jar.