Canned Sausage

Without doubt the word Kielbasa has worldwide recognition, but it is also often misunderstood. Kielbasa is the general name for the Polish sausage. You can not walk into a store and say Polish: please give me a pound of kielbasa. The sales lady, surrounded by 50 different types of kielbasa, inevitably answer: yes, but which one? There are over 100 types of kielbasa, and the word itself meaningless unless followed up with the proper name: Kielbasa Rzeszowski, Krakowska Kielbasa, Kielbasa Tuchowska, Kielbasa Mysliwska, etc. It's like going into a grocery store and asking a little cheese. Yes, but where is America, Provolone, Swiss, Gorgonzola, Gouda, Muenster - you must provide details. There is no specific sausage called kielbasa but there are many bearing the word sausage kielbasa under this name.

We know that one sausage that bears the word "Polish" in its name and is Poland's Smoked Sausage (Polska Kielbasa Wedzona). This is probably what the early immigrants brought with them to the United States. The problem we face here is that you can find Polish Smoked Sausage in almost all supermarkets in the United States, and no two are the same way. However, Polish smoked sausage was well defined for centuries and everyone in Poland know what is happening inside. We do not intend to become judges in this case, but rather rely on government standards Polish Polish smoked sausage. These rules have remained unchanged over the past 60 years.

Before we anger many people who have made Polish sausage smoke in their own way for years, we will specify something more. It is to add an ingredient that you or your children, like your sausage. You still have the right to say that you have made a better sausage the famous Polish sausage smoked. You can say that your grandfather came from Poland made the best Polish sausage in the world and we honor that. Maybe he used chicken broth instead of water or maybe he said something else. What we are trying to say is he was doing his own version of the classic Polish sausage or known and others that might have tasted better for you and your family. We do not dispute this fact. Of course you can add what you want your sausage, but it will not be the original Polish Smoked Sausage (Polska Kielbasa Wedzona) or any other name brand sausage. Once you start changing the ingredients, you create your own recipe and you may as well come with your own name.

1. For centuries, Polish smoked sausage was made of pork, salt, pepper, garlic and marjoram (optional). Then in 1964 the Polish government introduced a second version of the sausage that was made of pork 80% and 20% of beef. All other ingredients: salt, pepper, sugar, garlic, marjoram and remain the same in both recipes. Marjoram is optional, but garlic is a must.

2. The meat is cured before being mixed with spices. In the treatment of U.S. # 1 (sodium nitrite plus salt) is used in Europe Peklosol (sodium nitrite plus salt) is common.

3. The sausage is stuffed into casings large: 36-38 mm and formed into 12 "(35 cm) links.

4. The traditional way is to cold smoke for 1 to 1.5 days (it lasted a long time).

5. In most cases, it is hot smoked today

A small test was conducted to see how major U.S. producers make Polish sausage. Four sausages called Polish Kielbasa or Polish Sausage were bought at the local supermarket in Florida and each has been produced by a meat plant large and well known. The number of ingredients and chemicals used vary from 10 to 20 and different combinations of meats were used: the pork-beef-Turkey, beef only, pork-beef. Except the name, none of the sausages had nothing to do with the original.

It seems that for the manufacturer.