kiolbassa sausage


 
Bob Correll said:
I grilled some of the roasted garlic links Saturday and it was a big hit with family.
Nice inside of meatloaf too. :)

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I hate you...............
 
SteveCK said:
So how does their beef sausage compare to central texas sausage? I lived in centex for some time and really miss the sausage. Also, mind sharing a centex style sausage recipe? ;)
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I have some sketchy notes about making Texas sausage, but it's pretty simple. I used chuck and some brisket trimmings along with a small percentage (10-20%) of pork rib trimmings. The key is keeping the meat REALLY cold during the process, starting with "almost frozen" cubes going into the grinder. I believe I seasoned the cubes before grinding with about 2 Tbsp each of salt and coarse black (for a 5lb. batch). I ground it twice through a Kitchen Aid grinder -- once on coarse and once on fine. You need to add liquid and I just used water, with maybe some hot sauce in the water. You mix all that by hand, then cool it in the fridge. Stuffing is a pain with the Kitchen Aid, but it's what I have. You can buy hog casings online and you just follow the package instructions to prep them.

The main idea for Central Texas sausage is to keep it as simple as possible. A slightly coarse texture is preferable to a "hot dog" texture. The big difference between barbecue restaurant sausage and Kiolbassa is that restaurant sausage is usually "fresh" -- not initially cured and cool smoked before packaging. If you make up a batch, you need to freeze what you won't cook right away. Cooking is low and slow at around 225 for 1-2 hours until the internal is about 150.

I mentioned before that each restaurant down here seems to have it's own signature sausage -- so the definition is pretty broad but sticks close to the beef and pepper philosophy of Central Texas. And you're right -- you can't find anything close to it up north.
 
Forgot to report back on my experience with the sausage last night. It's good, certainly not a good as the real thing but it is the closest I've come to it. They definitely use a finer grind than all centex places do. The diameter of the sausage is small, I think they probably use 28mm casing, whereas I'm used to seeing something closer to 40mm when getting the real stuff. After smoking it for about an hour or so they shrink even further. Even cutting the sausage on a bias I feel like it is just too small.

edit: also the use of hickory smoke was a bit disappoint. But double smoking it with oak sure does help.
 
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Southside Market in Elgin is selling their sausage online. I'd love to try it. I've been working on making a central tx style sausage recipe myself. I made a post in the charcuterie section on it. It will probably take a few more tries to dial it in.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
Southside Market in Elgin is selling their sausage online. I'd love to try it.
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I've noticed this. I've only had their sausage maybe twice and honestly I don't remember it. I'm sure it's good since central texas sausage is generically labeled Elgin Sausage. Southside makes excellent mutton, so that's what I used to get anytime I would swing past. I'm going to be catering my own huge party in a couple months and have been on the fence of whether I should order their fresh sausage or just make my own.
 
Bob Correll said:
I grilled some of the roasted garlic links Saturday and it was a big hit with family.
Nice inside of meatloaf too. :)

IMGP4154.JPG
Click to expand...

Bob this looks great the wife and i bought the pork and put it on the WSM for some slow smoke and while that was going she baked some tomatoes in a corning dish and made white rice so we had sausage, rice, with the tomatoes as the gravy over everything it is lite packed with flavor and good anytime time,also great with steak and roasted chicken.
 
Bought 30 packs of assorted Hillshire brand for $1.49 a pack, I'm set for awhile :) we ate 3 packs and the rest are in the freezers waiting for some jambalaya ect.
 
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