Sausage, Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausage)

What are lap cheong?

Lap cheong (腊肠) are Chinese pork sausages with a sweet-salty flavor and a beautiful reddish-pink color. It is the presence of monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer regularly used in Chinese cuisine that gives lap cheong its special flavor and also baijiu, a rice brandy.

Lap cheong is eaten hot or cold but always cooked in a wok. These sausages can be found almost everywhere in Asia, meat drying being a method of preservation known since ancient times and probably more.

What is the origin of lap cheong?

Lap cheong is often eaten at the time of Chinese New Year, lap being the name of the winter sacrifice and the last month of the Chinese year.

They also give their name to dachshunds and bassets, làchanggou, sausage dogs. While lap cheong originated in China, it differs from country to country in Asia and is consumed in much of the continent.

How is lap cheong prepared?

While lap cheong sausages are easily found in Asian grocery stores, they are even better prepared at home. As with all sausages, a mixture of fat and lean meat should be used. The loin, neck or sometimes the belly are the most frequently used pieces for the preparation of pork sausages.

The pieces of meat must be cut to the same size and marinated in baijiu. Sugar, finely ground Szechuan pepper, MSG, red rice yeast are also added for coloring, as well as chili pepper, garlic, ginger, nutmeg and salt.

A mixture of fine salt and pink salt, i.e. nitrite salt, is used to preserve the sausages while they dry. Once the exchange of flavors between the spices and the meats has taken place, the preparation is passed through a mincer and then through a sausage pusher.

Some devices perform these two steps at the same time. Natural pork casings must be used to stuff the sausages. They can be sold in different forms, preserved in brine, i.e. salt water, or sold dry. In the latter case they will have to be rehydrated in water and desalinated.

The stuffing stage is not easy and requires a little experience, the stuffing must be guided as it comes out of the machine to pack it into the casings without pressing too hard to prevent them from being too dense and bursting.

Lap cheong sausages should be about 8 inches (20 cm) long and the casing should be twisted on itself between each sausage. The sausages are then immersed in warm water and brushed with baijiu.

Finally, they are tied up and left to dry for a dozen days. Drying conditions must be ideal to prevent the sausages from deteriorating. To do so, they should not touch each other and should be kept in a cool and dry place, if possible at a regular temperature.

Once dry, lap cheong can be frozen or consumed within a fortnight. They are usually cut in bevels and sautéed in a wok with vegetables and noodles. They can also be used to garnish Canton Bao buns.

What are the variants of the Chinese sausage?

Lap cheong can be dried, smoked or both. There are also many varieties of sausages in China, such as yun chang made from duck liver, xiang chang similar to lap cheong but even sweeter.

Nuomni chang are stuffed with sticky rice. Xue chang are similar to blood sausages and therefore contain pig’s blood. Finally, bairouxue chang are halfway between xue chang and lap cheong, so they are made of pig blood and ground pork meat.

Ingredients

For the stuffing

• 4 lb fatty pork
• 6 lb lean pork
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 cup sugar

¾ cup Chinese baijiu or rosé wine

• 2 tablespoons Sichuan pepper ground or whole peppercorns
• 4 tablespoons pink salt
• 1 teaspoon MSG
• 1 tablespoon red rice yeast
• 3 oz. chili powder (or more to taste)
• 3 cloves garlic pressed
• 2 tablespoons grated ginger (or galangal)
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

For the envelope

• 10 feet 3 meters natural pork casings (or synthetic sausage casings)

Directions

Stuffing

1. Cut the pork into 2x1 inches (5 x 3 cm) pieces with a thickness of ¼ inch (0.6 cm) and place them in a large bowl.
2. Then add the Chinese baijiu or the rosé wine and mix well.
3. Then add all the other ingredients and mix well by hand for at least 5 minutes.
4. Set aside in the refrigerator for 1 hour, stirring from time to time.

Envelope

1. Soak the pork casings (or synthetic sausage casings) in a large container of lukewarm water.

Fit the grinder with the sausage stuffer.

1. Thread a few wet casings at a time on the stuffing tube, letting the last casing drop slightly or tie a knot.
2. Pass a little stuffing mixture at a time through the mouthpiece, pressing down with the pusher.
3. Hold the casing close to the tube to ensure good pressure as the meat fills the casing.
4. Continue until the casing is almost full. Leave a set of casings empty or tie a knot.

Repeat with the rest of the ingredients.

1. Using a small needle (or sausage pick), make several small holes in the sausage to prevent air bubbles from forming in the next step.
2. Shape thin sausages 8 inches (20 cm) long by twisting each on itself and changing direction with each sausage.
3. Twisting three times should be enough to keep the sausages in shape.
4. Tie up the sausages at each intersection.

Cleaning and sterilization

1. In a large pot, pour enough lukewarm water and immerse the sausages in it to clean them by rubbing them gently.
2. Drain them and, using a pastry brush, brush with Chinese baijiu.
3. Dry the sausages using a cotton cloth, then using cotton kitchen twine, hang them to dry for 10 to 12 days in a cool place and ideally where there is a little wind.
4. After a maximum of 12 days, place the sausages in an airtight glass container or wrap them in plastic wrap and store them for 15 days in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer.