| Without a doubt the word Kielbasa has worldwide | | | | you like to your sausage, but it will no longer be the |
| recognition, yet it is also often misunderstood. | | | | original Polish Smoked Sausage (Polska Kielbasa |
| Kielbasa is the general Polish name for sausage. You | | | | Wedzona) or any other brand named sausage. Once |
| cannot walk into a Polish store and say: please give | | | | you start changing ingredients, you create your own |
| me a pound of kielbasa. The sales lady, surrounded | | | | recipe and you may as well come up with your own |
| by 50 different kinds of kielbasa, will inevitably reply: | | | | name. |
| yes, but which one? There are well over 100 types | | | | 1. For centuries Polish Smoked Sausage was made of |
| of kielbasa, and the word itself is meaningless unless | | | | pork, salt, pepper, garlic and marjoram (optional). |
| followed up with the proper name: Kielbasa | | | | Then in 1964 the Polish Government introduced a |
| Rzeszowska, Kielbasa Krakowska, Kielbasa | | | | second version of the sausage that was made of |
| Tuchowska, Kielbasa Mysliwska, etc. It is like going | | | | 80% pork and 20% beef. All other ingredients: salt, |
| into a deli and asking for some cheese. Sure, but | | | | pepper, sugar, garlic, and marjoram remain the same |
| which one: American, Provolone, Swiss, Gorgonzola, | | | | in both recipes. The marjoram is optional but the |
| Gouda, Muenster - you have to provide some details. | | | | garlic is a must. |
| There is no specific sausage called kielbasa but there | | | | 2. The meat is cured before it is mixed with spices. In |
| are many sausages that carry the word kielbasa as | | | | the US Cure #1 (sodium nitrite plus salt) is used, in |
| part of the name. | | | | Europe Peklosol (sodium nitrite plus salt) is common. |
| We know of only one sausage that carries the word | | | | 3. The sausage is stuffed into a large hog casing: 36 - |
| "Polish" in its name and that is the Polish Smoked | | | | 38 mm and formed into 12" (35 cm) links. |
| Sausage (Polska Kielbasa Wedzona). This is probably | | | | 4. The traditional way was to cold smoke it for 1 to |
| what the first immigrants brought with them to | | | | 1.5 days (it had to last for long time). |
| America. The problem we face here is that you can | | | | 5. In most cases it is hot smoked today |
| find Polish Smoked Sausage in almost every | | | | A little test was performed to see how large |
| supermarket in the US, and no two are made the | | | | American manufacturers make Polish Sausage. Four |
| same way. Yet Polish Smoked Sausage has been well | | | | sausages called Polish Kielbasa or Polish Sausage were |
| defined for centuries and everybody in Poland knows | | | | bought at the local supermarket in Florida and each |
| what goes inside. We do not intend to become | | | | of them was produced by a large and well known |
| judges in this matter, but instead rely on Polish | | | | meat plant. The number of ingredients and chemicals |
| Government Standards for Polish Smoked Sausage. | | | | used varied from 10 to 20 and different combinations |
| These rules have remained unchanged for the last 60 | | | | of meats were used: pork-beef-turkey, beef only, |
| years. | | | | pork-beef. Except the name, none of the sausages |
| Before we anger many people who have been | | | | had anything to do with the original. |
| making Polish Smoked Sausage in their own way for | | | | It seems that for the manufacturers any sausage |
| years, let's clarify something further. It's perfectly | | | | that is smoked (or have liquid smoke added) and |
| fine to add an ingredient that you or your children like | | | | stuffed into a 36 mm one foot long casing can be |
| into your sausage. You still have the full right to say | | | | called Polish Smoked Sausage or Polish Kielbasa. It |
| that you made a better sausage than the famous | | | | becomes quite clear that manufacturers put any |
| Polish Smoked Sausage. You may say that your | | | | ingredients they like inside of the casing and the |
| grandfather who came from Poland made the best | | | | name Polish Kielbasa is used just for credibility and to |
| Polish sausage in the world and we honor that. Maybe | | | | gain the trust of the consumer. |
| he used chicken stock instead of water or maybe he | | | | The problem is futher magnified by various sites on |
| added something else. What we are trying to say is | | | | the Internet that provide countless recipes for |
| that he was making his own version of the known | | | | making Polish sausages. Yet the mysterious Polish |
| classic or some other Polish sausage and it could have | | | | Smoked Sausage is embarrassingly simple to make |
| tasted better for you and your family. We do not | | | | and all it needs is pork, salt, pepper and garlic. |
| dispute that fact. You can of course add anything | | | | |