Polish Food - sausages

25 th March Tuesday 2014


Sausages in Poland you will find several varietes made primarily of pork, but sometimes using turkey, horse, lamb, and even bison. Few varieties to watch for including Krakowska, a Cracow speciality which uses pepper and garlic.

Biała kiełbasa (BEEYAH-wah keeyehw-BAH-sah) is fresh, uncooked and unsmoked sausage, made usually from pork shoulder and sometimes a little beef and veal, and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and marjoram, although this varies from family to family. It is boiled and browned or baked or even sautéed with onions. It is served hot or cold  with sauerkraut or noodles, and as a sandwich on rye bread. While eaten year-round, it is indispensable for Easter and Christmas, and in soup on Easter morning.

Kabanosy (kah-bah-NOH-sih) is the generic term for any thin stick sausage. They are usually made of pork, salt, pepper, garlic, allspice and sometimes caraway or crushed pepper for a spicy note

. But they are also made with chicken  or other meats according to the village's custom.

Kiełbaski myśliwska (keeyehw-BAH-skee mish-LEEF-skah) is a smoked and dried sausage made of pork with a touch of crushed juniper berries. 

Krupniok (KRROOP-nyee-ohk) is a Silesian blood sausage that is dark and has more blood than barley (or variously, buckwheat groats - kasza). Its cousin, kiszka (KEESH-kah), also known as kaszanka (kah-SHAHN-kah), is lighter in color and has more barley or buckwheat. It was originally made to use up the scraps -- ears, snouts, organ meats -- after slaughtering a pig and was fleshed out with spices and barley or kasza. Today better cuts of meat are used. The mixture is cooked and then stuffed into the sterilized large intestine of a pig. It can be served at room temperature without further cooking or either grilled or panfried with onions. 

The white sausage

Kabanosy

The hunter's sausage

Kaszanka

Polish Kaszanka - recipe

Polish kiszka (KEESH-kah), also known as kaszankaor krupniok, is sausage made with fresh pig's blood. It was originally made to use up the scraps -- ears, snouts, organ meats -- after slaughtering a pig and was fleshed out with spices and some type of grain, usually barley or buckwheat groats. Today, as is true with Pennsylvania Dutch scrapple, it can be made with choicer cuts of pork, as I have done here.

Here's a larger photo of kiszka. It can be eaten cold, heated whole on a grill or nonstick skillet, cut into rounds and fried, or removed from the casing and heated like hash.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Yield: About 4 pounds Polish Kiszka

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds well-marbled pork shoulder
• 1 pork liver
• 3 cups buckwheat groats or barley
• 2 cups strained pork blood mixed with 2 tablespoons vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon marjoram

Preparation:

1. In a large saucepan, place pork and pork liver, and cover with water. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until meat falls off the bones, adding more water as necessary so it is covered at all times.
2. Remove meat from pot and reserve liquid. When meat is cool enough to handle, remove bones, veins and gristle, and grind coarsely.
3. Skim fat off reserved liquid and add enough water to make 7 cups. Add 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Gradually add buckwheat groats or barley, stirring constantly. Bring back to the boil and simmer until water is absorbed. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cover buckwheat or barley and bake 30 minutes.
4. Have large, clean hog intestines ready. Mix hot buckwheat or barley with ground pork and pork liver. Taste and adjust seasonings. Combine with pork blood to which vinegar has been added to keep it from clotting. Add 1 teaspoon pepper and 1 teaspoon or more marjoram, mixing well.
5. Stuff hog casings and tie ends with butcher's twine or wooden skewers. Place kiszka in Dutch oven or large pot with warm water. Gently bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 40 minutes. Remove from water, and hang to let it dry before refrigerating. Can be eaten cold or heated.