Reuben Kielbasa
I give all the credit in this creation to the Lord Cheeba, as it guides me to come up with these left field ideas of culinary masterpieces. And here it is: the Reuben Kielbasa. This sausage consists of homemade ground corned beef chuck(because brisket is too expensive to grind), sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and pumpernickel breadcrumbs. The sausage is twisted into kielbasa-sized rings, then hung and smoked for 4 hours. From here, you can grill or pan fry the kielbasa. It can be eaten with sautéed cabbage and fried eggs. It is great on a bun with even more sauerkraut and thousand island dressing. The kielbasa can even be used on a charcuterie board. Anything you don’t plan on consuming in the next week should be wrapped in freezer paper and frozen down.
Equipment
- large bin for brining
- meat grinder
- blender
- sausage stuffer
- Electric Smoker
- meat hooks
Ingredients
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp pink curing salts
- 8 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp allspice berries
- 1 tbsp whole cloves
- 4 bay leaves
- 5 lbs chuck roast
- 16 oz sauerkraut drained
- 8 oz Swiss cheese small cubes
- 1 small rye or pumpernickel loaf processed into breadcrumbs
- 1 bunch parsley chopped
- hog casings
Wood Chips
- hickory
Instructions
- Mix the brining ingredients together in a large bin.
- Add in the chuck. Brine for 10 days.
- Cut up the chuck into cubes for grinding.
- Grind the corned beef Chuck on a coarse ground grinding plate. Thoroughly mix in the sauerkraut, swiss, pumpernickel breadcrumbs, and chopped parsley.
- Squirt the sausage into the hog casings. Twist the sausage into bologna sized rings; about 1lb each.
- Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Hang the kielbasa by meat hooks from the top rack in your smoker. Add the wood chips. All the wood chips to ignite for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 160 degrees.
- Smoke the kielbasa for 4 hours.
- Immediately place the kielbasa in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Drain and freeze whatever you don’t plan on cooking in the next week.
