I decided to make some fresh and smoked kielbasi with some of the hog I shot last week. I actually took the time to measure the spices and weigh the meet to make sure I did not under or worst case over spice it.

The samples I eat are the best I have ever made. And my wife agrees. Can't wait till the smoked stuff is done. I also tried to spoke my first Pastrami that I corned myself for 2 weeks.

Wow.

The Pastrami come out fantastic as did the smoked kielbasi.



Only about half made it to the freezer. It was so good that the minute I brought it in the house everyone came in the kitchen and started grabbing it. And one bite let to 3 or 4 helpings. Could not believe my son eat so much. Maybe I can get him into hunting so he can help get the meat!

Got any recipes you can share.

That looks really good!

Have made pastrami with a top round out of a deer hind 1/4 that came out really great.

Sure wouldn't mind hearing any recipes for the sausage. Love trying new stuff!

When I get home I will get the recipe for the sausage and the pastrami.

The pastrami was first corned for 10 days. I have to say that turned out amazing.

My next hog I will try to make into pork pastrami. I'm told that is called something else(Italian) but I will make it the same way and see how it turns out. Wish I had some left to try now.

heard pork referred to as pickled pork using a corning process but there might be some fancy Italian name

Here is my recipe for fresh kielbasi:

Grind your meat with a course grind (7mm). I add 25% ham to whatever fresh pork I have b weight. Don't trim any fat off. I usually get a cheap whole ham but or shank and cut it up to grind it with the fresh pork. Make sure all the meat is as cold as you can get it so it grinds well with the fat.

Now weigh all the ground meat. The following spices are for 5 pounds of meat. You will have to multiply or divide accordingly to you total weight.

For each 5 lbs of ground meat:
8 teaspoons of granulate garlic or 8 crushed fresh garlic cloves
2 tablespoons of Kosher salt
1 tablespoon of fine ground black pepper
1 tabelspoon of dried marjoram
1 cup of ice water (can use red wine too)

Put all that in a bowl and mix till all is wet. the Marjoram is hard to get in the water you will see it is a very fine powder.

Now pour that in with your ground meat. I use a meat mixer to mix it all up. But you can use your hands it is messy.

Now let that sit overnight in the fridge. I put it in large ziploc bags and put in cooler with block of ice.

Optional-- If you like very tender sausage run the meat though the grinder one more time with a smaller plate 4.5 mm

Next day stuff it in the casings. I use the natural pork casings from my local butcher. But you can get them from Cabelas too.

I'll post the Pastrami process later.

Great info Steve. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for sharing will have to give it a try.

Thank you sir!

How did you cook the fresh kielbasa? Simmer in water?

...and at what temperature and for how long??

Don't cook it past 155 deg internal. It will dry out too much. Smoke it, grill it, poach it. Its all good.