Kiełbasa (the "ł" is pronounced like an english "w") is the generic Polish word for sausage. Sausage is a staple of Polish cuisine and comes in dozens of varieties, smoked and fresh but almost always pork. Every region has its own speciality. Almost all are based on pork. Popular types include kabanosy (thin, air dried and flavoured with caraway seed), krakowska ( a thick, straight sausage hot smoked with coriander and garlic), and wiejska (a large U-shaped pork and veal sausage with marjoram and garlic). In the USA, "kielbasa" almost always means some form of wiejska, which may be fully or part-smoked.

Table of contents
1 Recipe for Wiejska
2 Kielbasa Family

Recipe for Wiejska

Ingredients

Note: The purpose of the ice is to keep the fat in the pork solid, which is very important in the final texture of the sausage. If you don not add the veal then add 1 lb. additional pork

Procedure

Cut the meat into small chunks, then grind the meat with the seasonings and ice, mix this well. Stuff the meat mixture into the casing. Smoke in your outside smoker following the manufacturer's directions, or you can place the sausage in a casserole and cover it with water. Bake at 350° F until water is absorbed, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This makes about 2 lbs.

When making sausage by hand, tie a knot about 3 inches from one end of a cleaned sausage casing and fix the open end over the spout of a wide-based funnel, easing most of the casing up onto the spout. Then spoon the mixture into the funnel and push it through into the casing with your fingers. Knot the end and roll the sausage gently on a firm surface to distribute the filling evenly.

Kielbasa Family

Origin: German

Coat of Arms: Red and yellow, four-quadrant shield. Quadrants contain towers and club-wielding warrior.

(Below is a small excerpt from their 1800-word history:)

Spelling variations include: Kiel, Kiehl, Kehl, Kieler, Kiehler, Kyler, Kielman, Kielmann, Kiehle, von Kiel and many more.

First found in Baden, where the name was anciently associated with the tribal conflicts of the area.

Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Christophle Kielman, who arrived in Louisiana in 1720, Johann Martin Kielman, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1753, Johan Georg Kiehl, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1738, Jacob Kiehl, his wife and four children, who came to Pennsylvania in 1752, Johannes Kiehl, who came to America in 1776 as one of the Hessian Troops in the Revolutionary War, Baslion Kieler, who came to South Carolina in 1752, Carl Kiehlmann, who came from Hamburg to New York city in 1851, as well as George Kyler, whose Oath of Allegiance was recorded in Philadelphia 1842.