Polish sausage ( don't laugh )

Help! Last weekend, our family got together to make homemade sausages. We ground the meat, added seasoning, and stuffed it in a casing. Many ethnic varieties were made that day, including Polish.

I looked up a recipe for Polish sausage on the net and found 2 that seemed to be ok.
My Polish guy was on hand to look over the recipe and thought it weird that it called for sugar to be added. Together we decided to combine, pork & beef, salt, pepper, and lots of garlic. I added Marjoram, and Paprika to the mix because he couldn't remember any other seasonings that went in, besides, that's what my recipes called for.

After stuffing the sausage, I cooked it in a pan with a little water. I didn't know exactly how to cook it, and he had gone to work before leaving instructions. When he tasted the final product he said it was different. Not only because it was cooked differently, but the spices were different. We still have some uncooked sausage left, but he wants to smoke that. He's from Poland, and he says, their sausage's are cooked in a special salt? and smoked. I asked him what kind of salt, but he has no idea.

By the way, my brother-in-law is getting a smoker just for the sausage.

My question is this: Does anyone have any recipes for Polish sausage? Spices? Should I have used sugar? What special salt is he talking about? How do you smoke it? Type of wood?

I have a friend who has been running a business making sausages for 35 years - he never uses sugar. Just salt (normal table salt), garlic, pepper, nutmeg and sometimes juniper (for boar) or paprika (for veal). He marinades the pork (he doesn't mix it with beef) in brine for a few days then makes the sausage. It's smoked over beech wood, or fruit wood if he can get it for about 5hrs. Using natural casings makes a big difference.

I've never heard of a special salt being used here.

The special salt he’s talking about is probably “sól warzonka” which is a sea salt.
Some recipes call for sugar so the answer is Yes if it calls for it.
He can look through the recipes on this site and find what he likes. URL
Spices type of wood and how to smoke it ,you will also find that information on this site.

make it? ha! my parents just buy it!(cabasa is what i think it is called)!!!!

Honeybee - stay tuned. I'll be calling my Mum ( in Pl) soon and will ask her - for you.
My Mum and her partner are making/smoking their own "kielbasa" Pl sausages so they are experts.
I will find out what kind of wood they are using etc.....
...so I'll be back :)

My father stuffs and smokes his own kielbasa. We eat it with horseradish, as we eat just about all of the other easter foods with the horseradish. He puts beets in with the horseradish so it isn't so hot. It's one of my favorite.

Bialy kielbasa is great with chrzan :) White or pink

I learned a new polish word today. I'll try it out at Easter, my father and uncle know a little polish. My grandparents taught me many polish words as a child, but sadly I did not retain them.

the salt could also be rock salt.. and there are as many kielbasa (learn how to say it because it is NOT sausage lol) recipes as there are regions in poland. there isn't just one.

try this site look under "polish" in the list

http://lpoli.50webs.com/AlphabeticalList.htm

cheers and enjoy