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I'm of Polish heritage, hence I have to post this under a fake name.

I've got several recipes for Polish Sausage. They are all basically variations on "pork and beef with lots of garlic". They are good, but they don't have the same magic as the Hilshire Farms, American-supermarket "Polska Keilbasa" product.

The closest I've found is this recipe: http://thespicysausage.com/recipes/polishsausage.htm

It's got a nice sweetness to it, but it's missing... something.

Is there a spice that the americanized version uses that's lacking in this recipe?

Come to think of it... two things I have not tried adding are liquid smoke and Pink Salt. Might those be it?

Welcome

For their Polska Kielbasa the ingredients are listed as: Meat Ingredients (Pork, Beef), Water, Corn Syrup, Salt, Dextrose, Sodium Lactate, Isolated Soy Product, Yeast Extract, Pork Stock, Isolated Soy Protein, Potassium Phosphates, Granulated Garlic, Sodium Diacetate, Sodium phosphate, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite.

I hope this helps.

I'd hate to think the "magic taste" I'm missing is just ungodly amounts of sodium...

or even worse: tofu...

Here's a slightly different version of the ingredient list that Phil posted. Not sure why.

Meat Ingredients (Pork, Beef), Water, Turkey, Corn Syrup, Contains 2% or Less Of: salt, NATURAL FLAVORS, Dextrose, isolated soy product, Isolated Soy Protein, sodium phosphate, Monosodium Glutamate, SODIUM ERYTHORBATE, Sodium Nitrite. Contains: Soy

It does contain Nitrite, or pink salt.
The natural flavors listed, could very well include liquid smoke. Possibility a dip in a LS bath before packaging and heat processing.
But that magic flavor you're looking for is no doubt the Monosodium glutamate or MSG

Marianski's wędzona is my goto recipe for kielbasa, try it sometime
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausag ... hot-smoked

Hope this helps, and welcome to the forums!

DanMcG wrote:Here's a slightly different version of the ingredient list that Phil posted. Not sure why.

They appear to make a number of different Kielbasa Dan.

Sometimes, after days of searching, Google will suddenly ask me: "oh, is THIS what you wanted?"

There are two variations on polish sausage here, and they both sound pretty good, and very much in line with what I'm looking for. The mustard is an interesting addition.

https://www.barbecue-smoker-recipes.com ... usage.html

It's good that you've found something that looks like it may work. It's bizarre that I have a couple of hundred authentic recipes (from the soviet era), but only one or two Americanised versions.

Phil

Yeah, in the end it appears to be the secret is:
1: sugar
2: msg
3: pink salt #1
4: lots of garlic
5: not doing anything fancy

also, how sad that "Americanized" has become the universal term for "turned to crap"

As I'm not American I'll not comment!

BigFatGuy wrote:
also, how sad that "Americanized" has become the universal term for "turned to crap"

Oh how true, now you need to put a couple slices of processed american cheese on top and your set to go!

DanMcG wrote:Marianski's wędzona is my goto recipe for kielbasa, try it sometime
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausag ... hot-smoked

Hope this helps, and welcome to the forums!

Sorry to resurrect a zombie thread, but this was, indeed, quite good!

it's also quite flexible. I've made it with massive amounts of garlic, small amounts of clove, brown sugar and corn syrup, and other versions, and they've all been very tasty.

Thanks for the help!

Glad it got sorted.

Phil