The dominant flavor in this sausage is garlic, hence the name, garlic sausage. This is another great official Polish government recipe published in 1959, similar to Krakow sausage I posted about earlier.
This sausage has a very good ratio of lean meat and fat, and the grind favors chunky texture, which I like a lot. The seasonings are subtle, even the garlic is not as noticeable as you would assume, given that this is garlic sausage after all.
Overall, this sausage comes very close to my all time favorite (swojska) Polish kielbasa, making it a close second.
I used pork butt, beef chuck and pork back fat to make the sausage. You don’t need to use these specific cuts but I find that pork shoulder works really well in this recipe. After butchering a boneless shoulder I picked up at Costco, I ended up with about 42% class II (up to 30% fat) and 58% class I (up to 10% fat) pork, about the ratios required in this recipe. The official recipe allows for some variance, so you can use a little less class I and a little more class II pork and vice versa.
The smoking wood I used in this recipe is hickory and cherry. This combination provides a nice color, and a sweet, smoky flavor. I made a double batch, and decided to dry half of the sausage for a week in an unheated room, which is right now about 50F – 60F, 75% RH. The smell there is so good that I can hardly resist not breaking a piece of sausage off and devouring it.
I finished cooking the sausage by poaching, as per the official recipe. Regardless, poaching is now my preferred finishing method as it’s easy, predictable and quick. Sure, some color is lost but the skin doesn’t harden, and that’s a big plus too.
Garlic Sausage
Ingredients
- 800 g lean pork 1 3/4 lbs (no more than 10% fat)
- 500 g pork 1 lb (no more than 30% fat)
- 600 g beef 1 1/4 lbs (no more than 10%-30% fat)
- 500 g back fat 1 lb (you also use pork belly)
- 30 g kosher salt about 1 2/3 Tbsp
- 5 g Cure #1 one level teaspoon
- 5 g black pepper coarsely ground
- 5 g garlic 2 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1.25 g coriander about 3/4 tsp
- 2.5 g paprika about 1 heaping tsp
- 4 g marjoram about 2 Tbsp
Instructions
- Cut the meat, and the back fat, into 2" (5-6 cm) pieces, mix with the salt and Cure #1. Place in a container, cover and refrigerate for 48 hours.
- Grind the lean pork (class I) through a stuffing plate, pork class II and back fat through a 3/8" (10 mm), and beef through a 1/8" (3 mm) grinder plate. Ground beef can be emulsified, but it's not necessary. If emulsifying, add the seasonings at this stage.
- Mix the ground meats, with the seasonings, adding a cup of ice water.
- Stuff into beef rounds 1 1/2" (40 mm) or more, and tie with a butcher's twine. 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 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 161F - 165F 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.
- Store in a refrigerator.
Nutrition
FRANK WOLOSZYN
GOOD MORNING VICTOR
I’VE BEEN MAKING SAUSAGE FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW. A VERY OLD ITALIAN GENTLEMAN TAUGHT ME HOW YEARS AGO. I HAVE SMOKED BRISKETS, RIBS, WHOLE CHICKENS, ETC. SO…… WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE AS I WAS READING YOUR RECIPE FOR GARLIC SAUSAGE WAS YOUR STATEMENT THAT AFTER SMOKING THE SAUSAGE YOU
” finished cooking the sausage by poaching, as per the official recipe”. WHAT DO YOU MEAN? I AM ONLY FAMILIAR WITH POACHING EGGS. CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN ABOUT POACHING SMOKED SAUSAGE AND HOW TO DO IT?
THANK YOU
FRANK WOLOSZYN
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Frank,
After smoking kielbasa at low temp 130F-140F you need to ramp up the temperature in the smoker to bring the internal temperature of the sausage to the minimum of 154F or so, depending on the type of sausage. You can do it in the smoker, it takes a bit longer and I find that with low humidity it can take very long and I suspect in commercial smokers they also increase humidity which expedites the process. Another way is to take the sausage out of the smoker once it has reached the desired color and poach in hot water (about 167F – 175F) until the internal temp gets to 154F. Takes about 20-30 minutes depending on the thickness of the sausage. I’ve described this process in several of my kielbasa recipes, it works very well, is very predictable and takes a relatively short time.
Werner Schaarschmidt
Hi Victor Cant wait for chicken recipe just to mention that a friend of mine is a german smallgoods butcher by trade and also helps me . We poach our sausages hams and bacon in a 2% brine solution that prevents loss of flavour that is 2Tbl spoons salt 2 litres water if this is a help to anyone thanks Werner
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Hi Werner, I didn’t do any objective measurements/comparisons but my perception has been that there is no flavor loss when poaching encased sausage in plain water. But it would be interesting to compare the two side by side, which I will do the next time I smoke sausage. I am curious. I may very well start salting my water. Solid muscles without casings – those I poach in salted and seasoned water, you can even call it a ‘broth’, unless I vacuum seal them. Thanks for the tips.
Werner
Hi I have been making sausages for 2 years i have a restaurant i have tried your polish sausage my customers think they are amazing as so do i we live in a farming community in rural Australia i have subscribed and i am hooked on your recipes thakns so much Werner
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Hi Werner, sorry for the late response. Your comment put a smile on my face and made me very happy – it’s comments like yours that motivate me to continue posting more content on my blog. More recipes are coming, I am especially excited about posting my smoked chicken sausage recipe that I’ve made maybe 6 times in the last few months, my family keeps asking for more… It started as a quick experiment but turned out to be one of my most successful recipes after a few tweaks. Enjoy!
Daniel
How long will the sausage store in fridge after poaching
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Quite a while – weeks even months. I’ve had a few sit in the fridge for months, they dried up and became hard but tasted great nevertheless.
Dennis Atkinson
My first time making garlic sausage and have a few questions.
What casing works best. Have not heard of beef rounds
I have not used marjoram or coriander
Would you please explain the poaching process.
I live in Alberta (Canada) and use a Bradley smoker and will probably take longer to get to temperature. When doing jerky or smoking salmon i have had to finish in oven. I appreciate your comments.
Thanks
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Hi Dennis, my apologies for the late response. I hope I can still be helpful. Beef rounds or hog rounds or just plan hog casings will work for this recipe. Beef rounds are good for making larger diameter sausage/kielbasa but if you use regular hog casings the sausage will be just as good. It may not follow the ‘style’ of that sausage but for a home sausage-maker it will not be of huge detriment.
Poaching, in my fairly extensive experience, is the quickest and the most predictable way of bringing the sausage to the target temp. Say, you smoke your sausage at 135F for three hours to give it a nice smoky flavor and color. To bring it to say 158F, you will need to gradually raise the temp inside the smoker to 150, 1675, 175, 180, 190F… depending on the efficiency of your smoker, the insulation, the airflow, the humidity, the ability to control temperature, it may take anywhere from 20 minutes to over 3 hours. Again, this is my experience. I see Polish recipes that specify 20 minutes of ‘baking’ time to bring the temp up but I could never do that no matter what. I suspect those recipes designed for large-scale production fail to mention that they also increase humidity to maybe 100%. We can’t do that at home.
Anyway, at home, you poach. Even many commercial production recipes and traditional Polish recipes employ this technique. It’s very effective and predictable. All it takes is 20-40 minutes depending on the diameter of the sausage. You can poach as is or vac sealed. As is results in some color/smokiness loss but softer skin. Vac sealed preserves the smokiness/color but the skin doesn’t soften up. No big deal. I prefer vac sealed if I want flavor and color. A lot of time I don’t care. Either way the sausage is very, very good. I don’t know what you want to know about the poaching process, perhaps ask specific questions, but you heat the water to 175F or so and poach until the internal reaches the target, usually 154F – 158F, or 160F for wild game or chicken… You can use sous vide machine for this too.
Angela Bridges
What kind of casing do you use ?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
1 1/2″ (40mm) beef rounds.
Patricia Stevenson
what is the poaching liquid made of /
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Plain water will do just fine in this recipe.
Lindsay Enzminger
A great recipe! Added a little more pepper and garlic to the recipe. That’s just the German in me. Hickory and cherry is a good smoke. Poached to finish it.
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Glad you liked the recipe, Lindsay. One of my favorite. Poaching can’t be beaten. Do it most of the time now.
Ma Bear
Need this recipe measurement converted from metric to cups and spoons please.
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Done. Enjoy!
Spurwing Plover
My Grandpa made Garlic sausage never used sage when it was tried ina pan it would poke pout and each end
Jerry
That sausage makes my mouth water.
Jean
Could I replace the pork with duck breast and fat? (Health reasons I had to eliminate a few things from my diet)
Victor @ Taste of Artisan
Duck meat and fat have a different texture so you will need to adjust the ratios and the grind. Target 10% fat to 90% meat. I grind the meat through a 3/16” plate (5 mm), grind partially frozen fat through a 1/8” (3 mm) plate. Rest can be the same.