Commercial Polish Sausage blend?

[airedale]

I am dipping a toe in the sausage pool but not ready to inventory a bunch of spices and trying to whip up my own recipes. We don't eat enough sausage to support much of an experimental program.

Anyway, I have been very happy with the A.C.Legg Hot Italian and bratwurst seasonings but not so happy with their #108 "Fresh Polish Kielbasa." My first batch, seasoning per their recommendation, had very little flavor. My second batch, with a little extra seasoning and some garlic powder was better but not nearly as flavorful as I am used to getting in store-bought sausage. From the ever-reliable internet I find that Kielbasa is a very general term and that authentic Polish is often quite mild. Amazon review: "If you asked my dad or aunts, they'd tell you that Polish sausage is rather bland, especially if you compare to Italian." So maybe the Legg recipe is authentic, but I don't like it!

Does anyone have a recommendation for a more flavorful packaged seasoning? Butcher & Packer lists one, but its stock number is the same as Legg's, leading me to suspect it is just a private label bought from Legg. LEM lists one where the recipe looks a little different, as do Sausagemaker and Walton's. Other alternatives? (Note at this stage I am not smoking it. That will come.)

TIA

 

[IamMadMan]

I am dipping a toe in the sausage pool but not ready to inventory a bunch of spices and trying to whip up my own recipes. We don't eat enough sausage to support much of an experimental program.

Anyway, I have been very happy with the A.C.Legg Hot Italian and bratwurst seasonings but not so happy with their #108 "Fresh Polish Kielbasa." My first batch, seasoning per their recommendation, had very little flavor. My second batch, with a little extra seasoning and some garlic powder was better but not nearly as flavorful as I am used to getting in store-bought sausage. From the ever-reliable internet I find that Kielbasa is a very general term and that authentic Polish is often quite mild. Amazon review: "If you asked my dad or aunts, they'd tell you that Polish sausage is rather bland, especially if you compare to Italian." So maybe the Legg recipe is authentic, but I don't like it!

Does anyone have a recommendation for a more flavorful packaged seasoning? Butcher & Packer lists one, but its stock number is the same as Legg's, leading me to suspect it is just a private label bought from Legg. LEM lists one where the recipe looks a little different, as do Sausagemaker and Walton's. Other alternatives? (Note at this stage I am not smoking it. That will come.)

TIA

Yes Kielbasa is a general term which translate to sausage. Just as we have 100's of products that fall under that catagory (IE: breakfast, italian, polish, cajun, texas reds, and even hot dogs). The Polish also have 100's of recipes that fall into that category as well.



Also keep in mind that the seasoning for fresh sausage that is baked / roasted is far different that the seasonings for the smoked varieties. In many of the fresh varieties, marjoram is the primary dominant flavor, but still mild and not overpowering.


Here is an American Version From Len Poli's site
http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Kielbasa-dave.pdf

Also:
http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Polish-Babba.pdf


http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Polish-Mysliwska.pdf

 

[bluetang]

Like Madman said, fresh is a totally different product than smoked. I don’t like it either. You might like this one, but you’ll want to smoke it:
https://www.amazon.com/C-Legg-Smoke...prefix=leggs+smoked+polish,grocery,145&sr=1-1

 

[ehk49]

There are some folks on YouTube sharing pretty simple recipes with very common spices. I've used a couple of them and won't go back to pre-packaged kits. But, my favorite pre-packaged kit is the Kielbasa kit from Con Yeager spice Co.

 

[creek bottom]

But, my favorite pre-packaged kit is the Kielbasa kit from Con Yeager spice Co.

I'll second this... Con Yeager is relatively close to my place and we use their spices for a lot of things. We use their pre-packaged kits for most of our venison processing. I've never made kielbasa from beef or pork, but we've done plenty of venison and Con Yeager's mix is very good. Good strong flavor IMO...

 

[LYU370]

(Note at this stage I am not smoking it. That will come.)

TIA

If you're not smoking it, then the recipes you're looking for is White Polish Sausage (Biała Kielbasa). If I remember right, my mom's recipe was just garlic, salt, pepper & marjoram. Then either boil it or roast in the oven.

 

[Swine Spectator]

To the OP:
While I can't vouch for the Polish Sausage mix specifically, I have had very good experiences with the blends from SausageMaker.com.

https://www.sausagemaker.com/Country-Polish-Sausage-Seasoning-2-lbs-14-oz-p/12-1076.htm

https://www.sausagemaker.com/polish-sausage-seasoning-1lb-8oz-p/12-1014.htm

https://www.sausagemaker.com/polska-kielbasa-seasoning-1lb-4oz-p/12-1090.htm

 

[thirdeye]

I am dipping a toe in the sausage pool but not ready to inventory a bunch of spices and trying to whip up my own recipes. We don't eat enough sausage to support much of an experimental program.

I apologize for sounding like a broken record when talking about sausage formulations.... but the dominate seasonings for Polish sausage are salt, pepper, and garlic. This is a starting point for many sausages because hundreds of years ago, people didn't have a huge cabinet of spices either.

Signature seasonings in Polish sausage for specific varieties could include marjoram, nutmeg, coriander, paprika, etc., but Polish sausage is one of those things where 'less is more better', so it's rare to find a formulation that has a long list of ingredients (like a frankfurter for example :laugh. Rather... the same ingredients are presented in various amounts to make different varieties. The reason I like to mix my seasonings at home is control and flavor. I can change amounts by fractions of a gram to dial in exactly what I like. Especially the salt percentage.

Check out "The Greatest Sausage Recipes" by Adam and Stanley Marianski. Of the 565 recipes in that book there must be 100 Polish recipes to choose from. Many are traditionally cured/smoked, but you can make them fresh too, some have ingredients like blood, liver which may or may not be be appealing, and some are fermented. I like Marianski formulations because they present authentic Polish techniques, like curing cubes of different types of pork before grinding, but you can skip that and just add Cure #1 to your ground meat. What I really like about this book is the fact ingredients are measured in grams as well as pounds and teaspoons. You can easily convert a recipe and make 1 pound of bulk sausage for a trial batch of sausage burgers or meatballs.

All that said, I reverse engineered a French Basque farm style sausage over a few years gathering bits of information here and there..., and when it was all said and done I'll be darned if it didn't resemble a fresh Polish sausage. :thumb: Here is the recipe, you likely have all of these things.

Lukainka
1000g - ground pork butt
15g - salt - (1.5%) (use 18g of salt if like)
2g - black pepper - (0.2%)
1g - white pepper - (0.1%)
3.5g - Minced garlic - (0.35%) - Note: use 5g if you really like garlic (.5%) as much as I do.
0.7g - crushed red pepper (0.07%) -
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley (or just eyeball the amount)
Icy water added for proper texture.
If you want to cure and smoke this sausage, use 2.5g of Cure #1 mixed into your icy water.

Grind the meat, mix in the seasonings and water until well blended. Let rest overnight for seasonings to blend. Can be made in bulk or stuffed.

 

[Swine Spectator]

+1 @thirdeye - I view sausagemaking like the old Encyclopedia Brown "Chose your own adventure" books.

Meat + Salt + Pepper (always) & Garlic (usually), then what else do you want?

Also, thanks for the Basque recipe - saved for later.

 

[sudsandswine]

I've settled on using Sausage Maker seasoning blends for when I make anything other than simple fresh sausages (meat, salt, pepper, herbs or other additive), because the ingredient list on certain recipes is quite long, and I dont want to hassle with procuring then keeping fresh 20 different spices just to make one type of sausage. The quality seems good, the blends never off balance with too much of one thing or another, and the price works for me.

 

[thirdeye]

I've settled on using Sausage Maker seasoning blends for when I make anything other than simple fresh sausages (meat, salt, pepper, herbs or other additive), because the ingredient list on certain recipes is quite long, and I dont want to hassle with procuring then keeping fresh 20 different spices just to make one type of sausage. The quality seems good, the blends never off balance with too much of one thing or another, and the price works for me.

... and all good reasons. In support of pre-mixed sausage seasonings I do buy the chorizo seasoning from Walton's because I might only make a 2# batch, so it can be mixed in less than 10 minutes and all I add is some icy water and vinegar.

It's kind of an American chorizo, similar to the Johnsonville chorizo, not a Spanish chorizo. I use it in breakfast burritos that I freeze, chili, and Mexi-meatloaf.

 

[airedale]

... the ingredient list on certain recipes is quite long, and I dont want to hassle with procuring then keeping fresh 20 different spices just to make one type of sausage. The quality seems good, the blends never off balance with too much of one thing or another, and the price works for me.

Thanks. That summarizes my situation better than I explained in the original post. In addition, I may make only a couple of batches a year, so there is really not much opportunity for experimentation and learning. I will try one or two of the packages mentioned here, not that I don't appreciate seeing the recipes posted too.

 

[toys4dlr]

I have had good results with the spice kits from waltons inc and they have some very good instructional YouTube videos to help you out too. Good luck on your search

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[thirdeye]

I have had good results with the spice kits from waltons inc and they have some very good instructional YouTube videos to help you out too. Good luck on your search

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

And the selection of seasonings is quite unique, for instance they have a Supreme Pizza sausage seasoning.