 Hey folks, how are you? It's Kevin and Ralph and we are at the cottage in the kitchen. So it's Memorial Day weekend and we've got company coming and we're going to have a Polish dinner this weekend. So among the things that we're going to have on the table is Kavasa. And yes, we can go out by Kavasa but you know what, it's a lot more fun to make it yourself. What we've got here is about 6 pounds of pork shoulder. Pork shoulder roast, it's also sometimes referred to as a pork butt. And you can see there's a fair amount of fat and I'm going to cut some of this fat off. But what I'm going to do right now is I'm simply cutting the meat into small pieces because what we're going to do is we are going to run it through the food grinder and get it ready for the Kavasa. Now making Kavasa is a two day process. So we're starting today. We'll finish the process tomorrow. Today's job is to cut the meat, run it through the grinder and then to season it. And then we will cover it and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. And then tomorrow we'll actually put the sausage into the casing. And then it'll be ready to be cooked. So here's what we've got. Once I trimmed all the fat off, we've probably got maybe just a little over five pounds of pork here. Pork shoulder cut up into small pieces. And then here's things that are going to go into the Kavasa. It's a salt of two and a half tablespoons, about two teaspoons of freshly ground black pepper. Thank you Ralph for doing that. And we've got about maybe a teaspoon and a half little under two teaspoons of marjoram, which Ralph also, we had the leaves and he made a really nice powder out of it. Then I've got like about three cloves of garlic chopped up there. And we've got some water. So that's going to go in with our meat. But first what we have to do is grind it. We're going to shine our shoes first. And that's what this pride and joy is all about. Here is the Kavasa meat grinder, food grinder. I picked this up a few years ago at the state sale. And as you can see, somebody really, this was a prize possession. They made this case total custom just for this machine. And every part of it has its own little place in the machine. And I'm going to put this thing together and take out all the pieces I need. What's that down there in treasure map? This is a recipe Polish Kavasa. That's something you can see it's written in pencil and someone wrote over it in ink pen. And actually, this is the recipe that we follow still for making our Kavasa. But these are all the pieces. And we're going to use the course. And see it has two dies. This is a course die. This is obviously a fine die. You know, they say you never want to see sausage being made. But I think this is beautiful. Don't you, Ralph? Yeah, I think when like you said earlier, when you're making it from scratch and you know what's going in, it's all pretty healthy ingredients. You know, you've crimped a lot of the fat off, but kept enough to give it flavor. And you know, there aren't a lot of, or any, you know. No fillers. This is going to be meat and seasoning. No preservatives. So what were you saying that other stuff was the soul fights? I mean, well, you know what, when you make something that has to stay in the refrigerated case in a supermarket for three or four months, yeah, you've got to put all kinds of stuff in. The thing is we're going to, we're going to make this today. We're going to put it in the casing tomorrow. And then we're going to cook it, and then we're going to eat it. Yeah, and so that's how it is. And that's about, that's about things being fresh. So we have got our pork here, it's all ground, ground, porcelain. And so now the next step is to season it up. So again, we're putting in our marjoram. Which well, they were flakes until I put them in the grinder. Made it, made it powder. Yeah. And then we've got some pepper. Just regular black crushed ground salt. Kevin took off enough of the fat so this sausage won't be too fat for us. And garlic. Can't have cabbasa without garlic. Mmm, I wish this was smell of it. And you can smell all these great seasonings coming off of the meat that he's seasoning here. This fresh cabbasa sausage, Polish sausage. Then we got some water. The meat is actually going to absorb the water. And soak it up. And you know, sometimes in the kitchen your best tool is your hands. And we're going to mix these seasonings in. That's probably the traditional way by hand. Yeah. And last to the salt. And the last little bit of the salt. And so what we're going to do now is we're going to leave this meat here in the pan. I'm going to cover it up. And we will put it in the refrigerator. And those spices and the garlic will really infuse through the meat overnight. Here we go. So we're going to wrap this. Look, I'll tell you what. I have said more bad words because of plastic wrap in my life than anything else. But it does the trick when you get it. But I think we can't stress enough how this is homemade Polish sausage. And there was a time when processed food was the height of progress. And nowadays making it from scratch is better for the economy, better for your health, and just better all around. That's right, Ralph. We actually know everything that's going to be in this sausage. All the ingredients are right there. And I think when you, if you could taste it once it's done, you'll understand. While it's a lot of work, it's well worth it to do on special occasions, especially when you're sharing at a table with people that you love family and friends. So in the refrigerator goes and then tomorrow we'll put it in casings and actually make sausage. See you then. Hi folks, it's Kevin and Ralph and Richard and Mary Ann and Lisa and we're at some more of the weekend. We're at the cottage and we're on our next phase of the Kibasa project. How many pulls does it take to make a Kibasa? Well, it looks like at least four. And a Mexican. And so anyways, here we go. We're going to actually make the sausage now. So if you remember, we ground up the meat, we added our garlic and margarine and salt and pepper and a little bit of water. And this has been covered in the refrigerator for a day. And then this is casing, by the way. We use a natural casing, which is pretty much chitmins. It's intestines, yeah, from a pig. But that's what we use and that's when you have something with a natural casing, that's what it is. And you can see that we've got it kind of ready to go here on our sausage stuffer. So the meat's been ground. The casing is on, ready to go. And so now what we're going to do is actually make the sausage. Have you told everybody what their role is? Well, yes, everybody knows what they're doing. A vital role here is Richard. And we're going to try to not get half the meat on the floor. But actually, Marianne, can you hold that? Thank you. All right. So we've got a little air on the end. Should we... I think there's no meat in there yet. Why not? Because we've got the air coming out. Is that good or bad? There we go. Oh, I see. So Richard's kind of coaxing the casing onto the meat to get it started. Right. So what you want to do is you want to fill the casing. So no air. Exactly. And you can see how it's sort of pushing it out. So... And we can even go a little wider than that, Rich, if you want. So that the casing's nice and tight. And this also, as it kind of goes through the hopper here, it helps to sort of re-blend the ingredients. We're making fresh, Polish sausage, right? Mm-hmm. Also known as kilbasa. It's okay. You can cut it off. The string. Yes, the string. You want to hand the end? Yeah, I would cut off the end. And then we tie it. And then we tie it. Okay. Beautiful. Isn't that look nice? Does it look very... So we're going to continue on and make... Oh, we'll probably get another three or four links out of this batch of meat. And then we'll have our sausage made. So we'll come back when we have it all done. And then we'll talk about the how to cook the sausage, which we're going to have for dinner tonight. Okay. So we'll be back in a little bit. Okay. Mission accomplished. So, wasn't that fun? We made kilbasa. And you can see we've got a few different sizes here. So a little something for everybody. And here's an individual... Here's a sample of like an individual one. That would be great on the grill. Here's a big giant family sized one. And then we have these others. So all in all we had about... Remember we had about a little more than five and a half pounds of meat, close to six pounds, I guess. And here's what it yielded. So what we're going to do right now, because we're not going to cook this right away, is we're going to put these back in our pan. And they're going to go back in the fridge to prepare these. And I'll probably maybe just do this big one for the five of us tonight, is I'll actually use this pan. I'll put about an inch of water in it, cover it with tin foil. And I'll put it in the oven for about an hour, about 350 degrees. And that's how we'll cook it, almost sort of kind of poach it, braise it. If you wanted to... Like I said, you could grill these, or you could do them on a skillet on top of the stove. But I like to poach it, because what it does is want to keep it nice and moist. And the other thing that it does is it renders out some of the fat, as well, from the cabassa. And not that we, again, we don't want some fat, whose fat means flavor, and fat means moisture. But some of the extra fat will come out then. And we'll be looking at it when we take it out of the oven. Okay, so there's our cabassa, and it is beautiful. Looks like meat cinabons. So anyways, thanks for being a part of our cabassa making here at Memorial Day weekend. And we'll see you later. I'm in the process of cutting up our cabassa. So what you can see is... That beautiful. So what we did is I just put it in the casserole with some water. And I baked it for an hour, at about 375 degrees. And cabassa is always nice. We like to cut it on a diagonal. So you can see. And it just, if you just smells beautiful, look at that. And so we're serving this with our capusta and some kittagi and beets and horse radish. And a nice salad. And a side of sour cream. And a side of sour cream. Now a lot of people mix the cabassa and capusta. In my book, that's a no-no. Because they both have unique flavors. And different meats. And you really want them. You certainly serve them together by all means. But to cook them together, I don't think that's right. I think they should be served separately and enjoyed separately. They have unique tastes to each their own. But that's how you do it. That's how I do it. So anyways, there it is folks. Fresh cabassa, homemade capusta, kittagi, beets and horse radish. Shmashenego. We'll see you next time.