Kitchen Projects

Last week Joe's new KitchenAid mixer showed up, and he took advantage of this last weekend to put it through its' paces. On Sunday he mixed up a chocolate cake that turned out very light and moist. On Monday it was time to make sausage. My maternal Polish grandparents made homemade kielbasa every year; my grandfather taught Joe how to do it and now we are the only family members who keep the tradition going. About ten pounds of pork butt was purchased and cut into cubes. Some of the heaviest fat was trimmed off but a fair amount of fat is needed to keep the kielbasa from being too dry.

Four cloves of garlic were crushed with salt, marjoram, and ground black pepper.

The casings (dried sheep intestines - we are nothing if not traditional sausage makers) were soaked to remove the salt they were packed in.

The cubes of pork were ground up using the grinder attachment on the mixer.

The spices were thoroughly mixed into the ground meat, and a bit was fried up and tasted to make sure the proportions were correct.

The casings were threaded onto the stuffing attachment and the mixer did its' job admirably.

Five long kielbasa, a little over a pound and a half each. About a pound was packaged and frozen in a chunk to be used later in stuffing the Thanksgiving turkey.

Dinner's ready!