Long-keeping smoked sausages

Long-keeping smoked sausages are sausages that after smoking are also baked or fermented and then dried, so they keep for weeks outside the fridge. In Poland the classics are traditional specialities guaranteed: kabanosy, kiełbasa krakowska sucha, myśliwska and jałowcowa, all smoked, baked to at least 70 °C and dried to a yield of 68–75%. ¹³⁴

Cooked or not. USDA FSIS divides sausages into uncooked ones, fresh and smoked, which must be cooked to 160 °F (71 °C), or 165 °F (74 °C) with poultry, and ready-to-eat ones: dry, semi-dry and cooked. Sausages that look cooked but are not must say so on the front, for example «Uncooked» or «Cook before eating». Dry sausages end up at 60–80% of their weight before drying, and semi-dry ones are usually fully cooked in the smokehouse and partly dried. ⁶

What smoke does. FAO explains that burning wood breaks down lignin and cellulose into more than 1,000 compounds: aldehydes, phenols and acids slow microbes, phenols and aldehydes delay rancidity, carbonyls and phenols give flavour and colour, and aldehydes harden the casing. The known drawback is benzopyrene residues, a carcinogenic risk only at high intake over long periods; FAO does not link moderately smoked meat products with that risk under normal eating habits. ⁵

The Polish method. The pigs are late-maturing breeds fattened to about 120 kg with more than 3% intramuscular fat, fed without vegetable oils or animal-origin feed. The meat is cut into pieces of about 5 cm and dry-cured for about 48 hours, 24–72 hours for krakowska, ground in classes, stuffed and left to settle for two to three hours at no more than 30 °C. Then come hot smoke, baking until the centre reaches 70–72 °C, chilling and drying until the sausage has lost a quarter to a third of its weight. ¹³⁴

Kabanosy. The thinnest of the group go into 20–22 mm sheep casings as sticks of about 25 cm, get about 150 minutes of hot smoke and baking to 70 °C, and dry 3–5 days at 14–18 °C and 80% humidity until the yield falls to 68% or less. They hold at most 3.5% salt, 35% fat and 60% water, and break with an audible snap. The name was registered as a TSG in 2011 and complemented to «Kabanosy staropolskie» with a reserved name in 2017. ¹²⁴

Kiełbasa krakowska sucha staropolska. This thick sausage, 50–70 mm across and about 300 mm long, is 70% lean class I pork, never frozen, never from sows or boars, from pigs slaughtered 48–144 hours earlier, seasoned with black and white pepper, nutmeg, fresh garlic and sugar. It is smoked over alder, beech or fruit wood with smoke flavourings banned, baked to at least 72 °C and dried to a yield of 70% or less; thin slices look almost like stained glass. The method was described in 1926 by Andrzej Różycki and standardised in 1959 and 1964. ³

Myśliwska and jałowcowa. Myśliwska, the hunters' sausage, was carried as dry provisions: crescent pairs of about 15 cm, over 32 mm thick, with juniper, garlic and a tenderising mix of vinegar, water and oil, smoked about 135 minutes, baked to 70 °C and dried 5–7 days, with up to 4.5% salt. Jałowcowa comes in garlands of about 0.5 or 0.8 kg, seasoned with freshly ground juniper berries, hot-smoked for two hours, cooled a day, then cold-smoked over beech chips and juniper branches and dried to a yield of 75%. ⁴

Unlike raw sausages. Salami and other raw-fermented sausages are never heated and keep thanks to fermentation and drying, while these Polish sausages are baked first and dried afterwards. USDA FSIS notes that E. coli O157:H7 can survive dry fermentation: after children fell ill from dry-cured salami in 1994, the agency set special processing rules, and since 1997 it has tested fermented sausages for Salmonella and Listeria; people at risk may prefer to avoid uncooked dry sausages. ⁵⁶

Why it matters to you. «Smoked» on a label does not mean a sausage can go in a backpack, so check whether it was baked and dried. A whole hard dry sausage keeps 6 weeks in the pantry and indefinitely in the fridge, 3 weeks once opened and 1–2 months frozen; mind the salt, 3.5% in kabanosy and up to 4.5% in myśliwska. More on Kabanosy, Dry-cured sausages, Salami, Smoking of meat and Cured meats & charcuterie. ¹⁴⁶ WHO classes processed meat, including smoked sausages, as carcinogenic to humans, with risk rising with the amount eaten. ⁷