Meats and Sausages
Chinese Sausage
Chinese sausage is a dried, hard sausage usually made from fatty pork. The Chinese name for sausages is “Lap Chong” which means the “winter stuffed intestine” or “waxed intestine” because “chong” not only means “intestine” but also “sausage”. This sausage is normally smoked, sweetened, and seasoned. It is used as an ingredient in many dishes in some parts of southern China, including Hong Kong and countries in Southeast Asia. It is for example, used in fried rice, noodle and other dishes. Chinese sausage formulations are unique, based on long tradition.
Ingredients like monosodium glutamate, soy sauce and sugar are added to the sausages in very high levels. The addition of selected Chinese rice wines or even scotch or sherry are common for certain quality products. The most popular spice is cinnamon since Chinese manufacturers believe that it acts as a preservative. Chinese sausages may be divided into meat sausages (Yuen Chong) and liver sausages (Goin Chong). A special class of sausages are chicken liver sausages containing chicken livers or chicken livers combined with selected young pork livers.
| Meats | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| pork | 1000 g | 2.20 lb. |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
| soy sauce | 30 g | ⅛ cup |
| Cure #1 | 2.5 g | ½ tsp. |
| sugar | 50 g | 4 Tbsp. |
| monosodium glutamate (MSG) | 3.0 g | ½ tsp. |
| cinnamon | 1.0 g | ½ tsp. |
| rice wine | 30 ml | 2 Tbs. |
| pepper | 2.0 g | 1 tsp. |
| garlic | 3.5 g | 1 clove |
| cold water | 80 ml | ⅓ cup |
Instructions
- Grind pork through the 3/8” (10 mm) plate.
- Mix ground meat with all ingredients.
- Stuff into small diameter hog or sheep casings and make 5” - 6” long links. Tie both ends with a light butcher twine. Hang sausages at room temperature for one hour.
- Hot smoke at 140º F (60º C) for 50-60 min, then increase the temperature and bake for about 20 min until the meat reaches a temperature of 154-160º F (68-71º C inside. The color of the casings should be dark brown. Total smoking and cooking time about 70 - 90 min. This is a rather short time due to the small diameter of the meat sticks. The sausage is done and ready to eat.
- Shower with cold water.
- Keep under refrigeration
Notes
Popular Chinese wine is Mei Kwei Lo.
The sausage color is dark reddish-brown. Its surface is normally shriveled due to quick drying.
Traditional Chinese method of tying sausage casings uses pieces of straw. This is the same technique as the Polish method of using wooden picks.
