Homemade Sausage Making

Kindziuk is a traditional Polish large diameter smoked and dry cured sausage. It origins are Lithuanian where it is known as kindzukas or skilandis. It is make of large cubes of quality pork, mainly loin and ham meat. Originally it was cased and then pressed in pig stomachs and now it's commonly cased in pig bladders. Seasoned with the classic Polish ingredients: salt, pepper, garlic and marjoram then air dried for months. A shot of 190 proof "spirytus" was also added. Today it is still found is sausage shops in the Suwałki Voivodeship which borders with Lithuania and has a significant Lithuanian minority.

I made a modern version of this specialty, adding Cure #2, erythorbate, and fermenting for 48hrs with Bitec LM-1. Rather than hand cutting I ground the meat once through a 20mm plate. It was cased it in a beef bung, and cold smoked for 50 hours. It spent a little over 3 months in the curing chamber where it dropped from 2.4 kg to 1.3 kg. (46% weight loss). From the technical perspective it's very good. Even though there is a level of case hardening, the bind is excellent allowing for very thin slices. And air pockets are virtually non-existent. Flavour wise the first thing that hits you is the smokiness and then the salt. After such a high percentage of weight loss the salt does definitely become more concentrated. The garlic has mellowed out and it does need something to better define the flavour. Next time I will use less salt and increase the pepper and use a mixed pepper blend.


Cased and ready for the fermentation stage.


Smoked for 50 hours and dried for 3 months.


Bit of dry rim, so the netting and casing was removed and it was vac packed and went into the fridge for 6 weeks.


After 6 weeks of vacuum seal.


Finally ready!

Did you smoke that all at once (50 hrs) or several times during the fermenting/drying process ?

Was Marianski's recipe used or a different one?

It surely has a pronounced ring but maybe some of that is caused by smoke. Like a smoke ring on BBq'd meats.

I first smoked it for 4 successive days 10-12 hours each time. Temperature in smokehouse was between 8-10C. Left it in the smoke house between smokes since it was cool and humid outside. Then after about a month I smoked it again for 10 hours because it started to take on some mould. I agree that the dry rim is largely the cause of the smoking since the Kindziuk really firmed up after the smoking session.

I crafted the recipe from a long thread about this product on the Polish Forum. Marianski's recipe contains beef, which I did not find in any recipes or historical descriptions. As mentioned above, I modernized the recipe somewhat by using a starter culture and #2. The traditional recipes called for potassium nitrate and a shot of 96% alcohol, which was to aid in drying. Some recipes also did not include marjoram, others included coriander or Polish herbal pepper.

Below is my recipe.

Kindziuk

Meats
Pork loin, class I (no connective tissue) 350g
Fresh ham, class I, (no connective tissue) 350g
Pork butt, fatty, class II (no connective tissue) 300g

Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
Salt 27g
Cure #2 2.5g
Granulated garlic 3g
Black pepper, coarsely ground 3g
Marjoram 1g
Erythorbate 4g
Bitec LM-1 1tsp used for the 2.5kg meat block

Instructions
1. Cut pork meat into 3-4cm. cubes.
2. Combine the meats, add the salt, #2, and erythorbate, mix and cure in fridge for 48 hours.
3. Grind everything with a 20mm plate.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients to the ground meat and mix throughly.
5. Stuff tightly into a beef bung and tie with string or net.
6. Ferment at 20-22C and 90+RH until pH reads 5.2 or lower. (My pH meter probe was broken at the time so no readings were taken. I simply fermented the Kindziuk for 48 hours)
7. Cold smoke (<20C) for 40-60 hours
7. Dry at 75-85% RH until weight drops by around 40%