In this article I will show you how you can make Krakauer at home.
Krakauer is a Polish sausage and originates from the city of Kraków in Poland.
There are many variations. This one is a slightly smoked one which you can fry or grill afterwards.
It is coarsely ground and has a thickness of 4 to 5 cm. Typical spices are paprika and garlic. Due to the intense garlic flavor, it is sometimes also called garlic sausage.
Krakauer sausage is perfect for a barbecue, used in stews or thinly sliced on freshly baked bread.
Enough talking, you can find the complete Krakauer recipe either as video or in written format.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Table of Contents
Making your own Krakauer – What do you need?
Ingredients for your Krakauer
Variant 1: This is how they were made traditionally
- 60 % fatty pork belly (600 g)
- 40 % lean beef (400 g)
Spices per 1000 g of meat:
- 18 g salt
- 2.5 g Cure #1
- 4 g yellow mustard seeds
- 2 g pepper
- 1,5 g garlic powder
- 0,5 g ginger
- 0,5 g mace
- 3 g Cutter Phosphate (e.g BRIFISOL 414, PhosThis!, Ames Phos)
In addition, you will need 10 – 15 % crushed ice or ice water for the chopping process later on. And pork casings caliber 36/38 to stuff the sausage meat into.
Equipment for making Krakauer
You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks with it.
Spice grinder / mortar
To grind your spices, it is best to use a spice mill. Alternatively, a mortar is also suitable.
Food processor / Thermomix
In a food processor, the minced meat and ingredients are mixed into a very fine mass. If you have a Thermomix, you can also use it for this process.
Smoker
The Krakauer must be smoked before they are cooked. For this reason you need a smoker.
Sausage stuffer / attachment for the meat grinder
You need this to get your meat mass into the casing. For the beginning you can also use a filling attachment for your meat grinder.
Casings
To fill your sausage you need a natural pork casing caliber 36/38.
Making Krakauer – Step-By-Step Instructions
1. Cut your meat into strips. The size varies depending on how big your meat grinder is. The bigger the grinder, the bigger your pieces of meat can be. Divide the meat into 2 bowls. The ratio should be ⅓ and ⅔.
2. Grind your spices except for the mustard seeds and cutter phosphate into a fine powder.
3. Roughly divide the spice mix in equal proportions between the two bowls and massage it into the meat.
4. Put the meat in the freezer for 1-2 hours. This will help later on with the grinding process and the temperature.
5. Now it’s time to grind the meat. Grind ⅓ of the meat through the coarsest perforated disc. Grind the remaining ⅔ twice through the finest perforated disc.
6. Put ⅔ of the meat mixture into a sausage cutter or your food processor. Add the cutter phosphate to the mixture.
7. Mix the meat and add some crushed ice from time to time. The crushed ice is used to cool down your mixture. Let it run until it forms a nice cohesive mass. Measure the temperature in between. The meat should not be warmer than 12 C° (53,6 °F), otherwise your mass will lose its binding and the sausage will crumble later on.
8. Add the coarsely ground ⅓ and the mustard seeds to the mixture and mix in well.
9. You can fill the mass into the casings. Make sure that not much air gets into the casings.
10. Next you can link the sausages. You can decide for yourself how big you want your sausages to be.
11. Hang your Krakauers into your smoker / smoking chamber to dry for about 1 hour. Alternatively, you can also let them dry in the smoker for 10-15 minutes at 40 °C (104 °F) without smoke.
12. When your Krakauer sausages are dry, you can smoke them at 60 – 70 C° (140 – 158 °F) for 45 – 60 minutes. The duration depends on your personal preferences. Depending on how much smoke and what color you want.
13. After smoking poach your Krakauer for about 15 minutes in 80 C° hot water (176 °F). Let them cool in an ice bath afterwards or eat them hot and fresh.
14. There they are, your Krakauer sausages. Enjoy!
What is the shelf life of Krakauer?
If you vacuum the sausages, they should keep refrigerated for about 2 weeks. If you store them in the refrigerator without vacuum around 1 – 1.5 weeks.
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