Bacon Sausage (Kiełbasa boczkowa)
Also known as Bacon Sausage, kiełbasa boczkowa
Poland
Overview
Kiełbasa boczkowa is a Polish bacon or pork-belly sausage named for the visible belly pieces and cured-smoked bacon character of the cut face. The Curesmith branch combines beef and pork with conspicuous cubes of belly.
Where it's from
The cut
Identity and terminology
Boczek means pork belly or bacon in Polish. The name therefore describes the defining ingredient and appearance, not a particular town. Modern products sold under the name vary in meat composition and casing.
Composition and characteristics
Large cured pork-belly cubes are embedded in a finer matrix of beef, pork trim and jowl. Pepper and restrained garlic support the smoke and bacon flavour. The large casing produces a cold-cut format rather than a grill link.
Production and process
Different meat classes are cured and minced separately. Belly cubes are folded into the extracted fine matrix, and the chub is smoked, cooked and cooled.
History and regional forms
The sausage reflects Polish industrial and craft practice of naming products by the featured cut, alongside szynkowa, polędwicowa and other cut-defined sausages. It remains a recognised commercial category in contemporary Polish procurement and retail.
Use, storage and related products
It is sliced for bread, cold platters and sandwiches. It differs from ordinary bacon, which is a cured whole-muscle or belly product, and from fine homogeneous cooked sausage.
Recipe and cure
This is not a finished recipe. It is a window into how this meat is traditionally cured. Before you follow any process, run it through one of our curing calculators so the salt, cure and timings are right and safe for your own batch.
Make this — the measured Curesmith version →“Make this” opens the same cure as a measured recipe, scaled to your batch.
- Meat
- Beef chuck
- Cut
- Beef chuck
- Salt (%)
- 1.8
- Curing salt
- Cure #1 as specified in the recipe
- Fermented
- No
- Smoked
- Yes
- Maturation
- Cooked sausage 0–4°C for up to 7 days; freeze for longer storage
- Basis
- per 1,000 g beef chuck
- Style
- Cured, smoked and cooked beef-pork sausage with visible belly cubes
Ingredients
- Beef chuck100% · 1000 g
- Beef shank meat60% · 600 g
- Pork shank and shoulder trim100% · 1000 g
- Skinless pork belly, 12 mm cubes100% · 1000 g
- Skinless pork jowl40% · 400 g
- Fine salt1.8% · 72 g
- Cure #1, 6.25% nitrite0.25% · 10 g
- Ground black pepper0.2% · 8 g
- Granulated sugar0.1% · 4 g
- Fresh garlic, crushed0.35% · 14 g
- Sweet paprika0.1% · 4 g
- Ground coriander seed0.1% · 4 g
- Ground ginger0.05% · 2 g
- Ice-cold water9% · 360 g
Method
- Mix all meats and fat with salt and Cure #1 proportionally and refrigerate 24–48 hours at 2–4°C.
- Grind chuck through 5 mm; shank, pork trim and jowl through 3 mm; dice belly to 12 mm.
- Process connective-tissue meats and jowl with water, sugar and spices into a sticky fine matrix.
- Mix chuck until tacky, then add matrix and belly cubes.
- Stuff firmly into 70 mm fibrous casings.
- Dry at 45–50°C without smoke for 45 minutes, then smoke at 55–65°C for about 100 minutes.
Safety. Cooked and smoked but refrigerated. Visible cured colour and smoke do not establish shelf stability.