I love Sremska sausage. It's a spicy sausage with a great burst of flavor. It makes a perfect snack, accompaniment to your charcuterie platter, or a meal. A slice of crusty homemade sourdough bread, a piece of this sausage, a fresh cucumber or tomato, and I am all set. This is my version of the famous Sremska sausage that they sell at my local Eastern European deli store. They call it Sremska From Neck, suggesting the sausage is made from pork neck. It's smoked and cooked to doneness, then dried to give it a firm texture.
Sremska sausage (in Serbian Sremska Kobasica) is a type of sausage from Serbia. It originated in the Serbian area of Srem. Traditionally, Sremska sausage is made by mixing ground pork, or a combination of pork and beef, with spices and stuffed in natural casings. The sausage is then cold-smoked for several days and air-dried in a cool, well-ventilated space.
This version of Sremska is different. It's smoked and cooked to doneness, similar to the one they sell at my local Euro deli store. What I liked the most about it was the grind, the firmness, the perfect heat, and the bold, pleasant flavor. So, in this recipe, I did my best to replicate it. After a few tries, I think I pretty much nailed it. Using just pork neck for sausage is a bit extravagant, so I use a whole pork shoulder. It works well. I like this sausage a lot. It's pretty outstanding.
Meat grind
I use three different grinds for this sausage—large, medium, and small. I like the resulting texture and how the crosscut looks. There is a nice continuity from finely ground meat to larger lean pieces. The larger pieces come from lean meat. Semi-lean pieces are ground through a medium plate, while fatty meat is ground through a small plate. I did not grind fatty pork through the smallest plate or emulsify it this time. I am going to use this approach with my other favorite sausages.
Drying
Drying this sausage is essential. I am not a huge fan of wet/juicy sausages and often dry my smoked sausages for about a week before enjoying them. The store sells their Sremska sausage nicely dried. What a nice surprise! I don't normally see that. Usually, it's quite the opposite. They'd load them with phosphates to bind water molecules to meat. It's good for business but not so much for taste. Don't we all like aged steak? Hard salami? Beef jerky? Less water means more flavor. I like the texture of slightly dried smoked sausage, too.
So, after smoking this sausage, take one link and enjoy it while it's hot. I like smoked sausage when it's hot. The dry the rest. It will be worth it. Hang it in your curing chamber or a cold room, or a garage during cold months, and let it get dry. This will take a week or two. If you aren't able to, loosely wrap the sausage in unglazed butcher paper and refrigerate for a couple of weeks. Keep flipping and shuffling the sausages to ensure even drying.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1000 g pork butt
- 12 g kosher salt
- 2.5 g Cure #1 level
- 3 g black pepper
- 10 g sweet paprika
- 10 g hot paprika
- 10 g garlic pressed
- 60 ml ice water
Instructions
- Cut the meat into 2" (5-6 cm) pieces, mix with salt and Cure #1. Place it in a container, cover, and refrigerate for 24 hours.
- Remove the meat from the fridge and sort it into three piles: lean, semi-lean (30% fat), and fatty (over 50% fat). You will have to do some additional cutting along the way. Try to end up with about 50% lean, 30% semi-lean, and 20% fatty pork.
- Grind the lean pork through the stuffing plate (large kidney-shaped holes), semi-lean through the 3/8" (10mm) plate, and the fatty pork through the 3/16th (4.5mm) plate.
- Mix the ground meat with the seasonings, adding ice water. Mix well until the meat becomes sticky.
- Stuff into hog casings (28-32 mm) and tie into 1-foot lengths. Prick any visible air pockets with a needle.
- Dry for about 60 minutes in the smoker at about 110F - 130F without smoke.
- Smoke at around 130F - 140F for 2-4 hours, until the casings develop brown color with a red tint. You may have to re-arrange smoke sticks during smoking to achieve even color.
- Poach at 167F - 176F for 25 - 35 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 154F -158F.
- Shower with cold water for about 5 min, then let cool down and dry.
- Hang the sausage in a cool room or a curing chamber for 5-7 days to dry at about 55F and 75% relative humidity. This will prolong the shelf life and intensify the flavor of the sausage. If you don't have a cold room or a curing chamber, loosely wrap the sausage in unglazed butcher paper and place it in the fridge. Flip and shuffle once every day for about 1-2 weeks.
- Store in a refrigerator or vacuum seal and freeze for long-term storage.
wayne tomaszewski says
I really like the finished look of this grind. Might have to make a small batch (10lbs.) of swojska along with this to try this grind on it????? Swojska and Sremska, how could it go wrong. Thanks again for the time you put into this.
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
That sounds like a good idea, Wayne. I like this grind too and use it more frequently in other recipes as well. Works great with Swojska. Enjoy!