Homemade Polish Sausage (Wiejska)

Here is a wiejska style homemade Polish sausage recipe, and it's a very good representation of what most people in the U.S. picture when they think of Polish sausage.

This is a tried and true kielbasa, and doesn't stint on the fresh garlic. If I'm not mistaken, this particular recipe has roots the Great Lakes region of the country, and likely came over with the Polish immigrants to that area.

I use granulated or powdered garlic in a lot of my sausage recipes, and in almost every case there is no reason not to. In this wiejska kielbasa though, I really think that fresh garlic is the way to go.

5 lbs pork shoulder, 15% to 20% fat content

2 tablespoons whole mustard seed

1 tablespoon salt (4 teaspoons if using kosher salt)

1 tablespoon marjoram

1 tablespoon black pepper (fresh ground is always best)

12-15 cloves of crushed fresh garlic

1 level teaspoon of either Prague Powder or Instacure #1 or the equivilant

1 cup ice water

Cut the pork into cubes and then pass it and the crushed garlic through the medium plate on your sausage grinder.
Add the remaining spices to the ice water and mix it all very well into the ground pork. The ice water will keep the fat in the pork firm, so it is easiest to mix the spices in with your hands to ensure good distribution.
Once you are sure everything is well mixed, stuff the sausage into casings and proceed with smoking.

Make sure to give your sausage a cold water bath after you take it out of the smoker, and you will have a better appearing product.

As is almost always the case when using fresh garlic in sausage, the garlic flavor will diminish after a time in the freezer. You can refrigerate your sausage for up to 3 days with no problems but, for best flavor, you shouldn't freeze it for more than 3 months.

For instructions on smoking your wiejska Click Here.