Kielbasa - Definition and Overview

Kiełbasa (properly pronounced in Polish as "kyew-ba-sa", but usually called "kyel-ba-sa" or "k'ba-see" in American English) is the generic Polish word for sausage. Sausage is a staple of Polish cuisine, and comes in dozens of varieties, smoked or fresh, but almost always is based on pork. Every region has its own speciality. Popular types include kabanosy (thin, air dried sausage 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 (although often not U-shaped and seldom containing veal), which may be fully- or part-smoked or unsmoked.

A wiejska recipe can be found at the Wikimedia Cookbook.

The world's largest Kielbasa is located in Mundare, Alberta.