Chinese sausage

glenn · February 23, 2022

I have some basic questions.

I remember making a sausage and rice dish when I took classes decades ago and I'd like to replicate it. After searching, I'm finding this is not as simple as I thought. I bought Lap Xuong Thuong Hang (Kam Yen Jan) from Amazon. What is the best way to prepare/cook the sausage?

I found a basic recipe, lop cheung chow fan that calls for these sausages. It appears similar to what I had in the past.

Are there other recommended dishes? Or other recommended sausages?

Caveat: I have to buy them online.

Thank you.

liuzhou · February 24, 2022

Well, for a start your sausages are Vietnamese, not Chinese, but possibly made in a Chinese (Cantonese) style.

China has many different types of sausage. I have in my fridge blood sausage from Hunan, red sausage from Harbin near Siberia. Camel sausages from Xinjiang in the far west of China. Yak meat sausages from Tibet.

Are you getting your online sausage from Amazon US or a local version? That may limit availability.

As to recipes for Cantonese type sausage (腊肠 / 臘腸* - lapcheong in Cantonese, là cháng in Mandarin), they tend to be cooked very simply. Just sliced and fried. Or steamed over rice in the rice cooker. And yes, of course with fried rice as you have found. Dropped into hotpots or over noodles.

Also, some are very fatty; some are very lean. Some are pork; some are liver. Some are duck liver. Some are chicken.

* The first, 腊肠 is written in simplified characters as used on the Chinese mainland; the second, 臘腸 is in traditional characters as used in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as among much of the Chinese diaspora.)

Edited February 24, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

liuzhou · February 24, 2022

Harbin Red Sausage 哈尔滨红腊肠 (hā ěr bīn hóng là cháng) was introduced to China from Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. It resembles a smoked Polish or Lithuanian sausage much more than the well-known lapcheong Cantonese sausages.

They are relatively low in fat and smooth textured. Me likes 'em.

Edited February 24, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

glenn · February 24, 2022

Clearly, I need to do more research! Thanks for the info

liuzhou · February 24, 2022

Sichuan sausages 四川腊肠 (sì chuān là cháng) come in various forms. Most are pork, but they also do beef*. Sichuan sausages tend to be less fatty than their Cantonese counterparts and are laced with chili in various strengths, giving them a distinct red appearance. Generally speaking the darker they get, the spicier.. The also often contain Sichuan peppercorns.

Not for the faint hearted.

* As often as not, the 'beef' sausages are actualy water buffalo or even yak meat.

Edited February 25, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

liuzhou · February 25, 2022

Most people here in the south of China make their own sausages. Every January, they smoke them and hang them everywhere to dry in the wind. Here are a few examples showing the diversity of styles.

2053180230_17Sausages.jpg.ccc3e9deb28dad034e4c3d83d6512a90.jpg

Sichuan Style

These were made by a friend who lives in Guangxi, near the borderwith Yunnan.

What's in my fridge right now. All home made (not by me!)

Cantonese

Of course, the supermarkets and regular markets get in on the act.

Market Sausages

Supermarket Selection

... and many more.

glenn · February 25, 2022

Amazing!

liuzhou · February 25, 2022

46 minutes ago, glenn said:

Amazing!

much more to come.

Beebs · February 25, 2022

I quite enjoy the liver lap cheong, but don't eat it very often.

Last night I had Taiwanese sausage with our dinner. Plumper and juicier than lap cheong, but not as salty. Commonly eaten with slices of raw garlic - my spouse loves it this way, but me not so much!

You can use lap cheong as you would bacon. I'm a big fan of it sauteed with brussel sprouts or broccoli. Steam with chicken, add to tofu, fried noodles or rice noodles, minced in scrambled eggs.

glenn · February 25, 2022

I admit total ignorance when it comes to sausages. Other than Italian :).

With that said, which sausages (appropriate for Chinese cuisine) are recommended that don't need refrigeration and are available online? I assume only hard sausages don't necessitate refrigeration.

Beebs · February 25, 2022

1 hour ago, glenn said:

I admit total ignorance when it comes to sausages. Other than Italian :).

With that said, which sausages (appropriate for Chinese cuisine) are recommended that don't need refrigeration and are available online? I assume only hard sausages don't necessitate refrigeration.

I'd probably stick with the one you got from Amazon (Kam Yen Jan), if you can't get any others. I'm not sure I can even get most of the ones liuzhou mentions, and it's a huge Chinese community here.

Amazon Canada has same brand, vac packed. Looks like you can store it at room temp when it's unopened. I've had good results freezing vac packed lap cheong too, if you don't plan to use the whole pack at once.

From your previous posts, it sounds like you're just getting into Chinese cooking. What you've got should be good for almost all of your basic recipes and a lot of your not-so-basic ones too. 🙂

liuzhou · February 26, 2022

On 2/26/2022 at 7:43 AM, Beebs said:

which sausages (appropriate for Chinese cuisine) are recommended that don't need refrigeration and are available online? I assume only hard sausages don't necessitate refrigeration.

Sausages were invented as a means of preservation! Typical lap cheong type sausages have been cured, smoked and dried. Three different preservation methods. So yes, the hard (dried) type usually need no refrigeration. However, any responsible vendor or brand will include that information on the packaging or inform you verbally.

But it seems you are stuck with your Vietnamese sausages unless you can find a passing Chinese aunty to teach you how to make them!

Amazon only sell branded "Chinese" sausages from S.E. Asia for the simple reason that few people in China buy branded sausages, so there are few brands. As I said upthread, most people make their own.

The sausages in that market picture were made by the vendor. They hang there all day until she sell them. In the tropics! No refrigeration.

Edited March 7, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

liuzhou · February 26, 2022

黑龙江 (hēi lóng jiāng) Heilongjiang is China's northern-most province and borders Russian Siberia. It also shares a similar climate with Siberia and its freezing winters. It is most famous perhaps for the annual Harbin Ice Festival.

It is also goose central! Goose meat is widely available, both farmed and wiild. And their livers are used to make foie gras and these goose liver sausages. Actually, they are pork and goose liver sausages. They taste mild but I can definitely detect the liver without effort. Delicious.

These, I too have to buy on line. They cost me the equivalent of approx $7 USD / per pound. including delivery. They are one of my most frequent reorders. They are branded, but I'd be amazed if they are exported.

Edited February 27, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

liuzhou · February 27, 2022

Being of Scottish descent, I was brought up eating 'black puddng' from Stornoway. Food of the gods! Unsurprisingly, I found that impossible to source in China. - well sort of.

in the late 1990s I was living in Huaihua (怀化 huái huà) in western Hunan (湖南 - hú nán) province in south-central China and found the locals make a blood sausage. This I had to try. They are known as 血肠 - xuè cháng, which you will be astonished to hear means 'blood sausage'.

Unlike the Scottish version which is made using pork blood and oats, in China rice is used as the filler (no surprise there). Apart from that the taste was close enough to keep me happy. Then in the early pandemic days, supplies were disrupted, but I found a substitute.

Just south of Heilongjiang is Jilin Province (吉林 - jí lín). On Jilin's south-eastern corner is 延边 - yán biān Prefecture which borders North Korea. This area is home to between 1 and 1½ million ethnic Koreans, who are recognised as being one of China's official 56 ethnic groups.

And they make blood sausage, too!

Korean Blood Sausage

I didn't like this one so much. It was rather over-much rice and poorly seasoned.

Here in Guangxi, the neighbouring town of Yizhou (宜州 - yí zhōu) also makes blood sausage, but very few make it outside the town. They are also very good, though.

Luckily, the non-supply from Hunan ended quickly and I'm back to as normal as I ever get.

Bloody Breakfast

Edited February 28, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

liuzhou · February 28, 2022

A round up of pics of some of the more rare meat sausages found here. The camel comes from Xinjiang, the ostrich from Shandong and the crocodile from Shanghai. We also get donkey and horse meat sausages from Henan Province.

liuzhou · March 1, 2022

Most people probably think of yaks as being Tibetan, but their habitat stretches much wider. Also parts of China other than Tibet itself are on the Tibetan Plateau, including Qinghai, parts of Yunnan, Gansu and Xinjiang and western SIchuan provinces in west China. Yaks are also found in Inner Mongolia many miles away.

These sausages are yak meat from Sichuan. Apart from the yak meat they also contain chili, Sichuan peppercorn, salt, baijiu (Chinese liquor), chicken seasoning, spices, sugar, MSG, and preservatives in a natural yak intestine casing.

They come in three categories. Lightly spiced (by Sichuan standards that means quite spicy), medium (very spicy) and extra spicy (incendiary). These are the medium version. The packaging says to wash them and then boil for 25 minutes. I don't do that. I fry 'em (preferably in yak butter ghee). Alternatively I may place some on top of my rice in the rice cooker. They really flavour the rice.

Recommended storage time after opening vacuum pack: Fridge 3 days; Freezer 180 days. I freeze them, but have never gotten close to 180 days.

Edited September 29, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

FlashJack · March 1, 2022

On 2/24/2022 at 2:47 PM, liuzhou said:

Also, some are very fatty; some are very lean. Some are pork; some are liver. Some are duck liver. Some are chicken.

That is a fine paragraph. Nicely punctuated. Euphonious. Thank you.

FlashJack · March 1, 2022

On 2/24/2022 at 2:47 PM, liuzhou said:

blood sausage from Hunan,

I note your black pudding sausage in a further post. Is the Stornaway version local? I can't figure the address.

Black pudding isn't easy to come by in Melbourne. I get it occasionally from a Spanish delicatessen.

This whole post has me drooling. Horse, camel, yak ... YAY!

Only slightly off-topic: I used to make liver sausage with an old Italian friend. It's now impossible to buy pork lights. I trust you have no trouble with that.

liuzhou · March 1, 2022

On 3/1/2022 at 1:06 PM, FlashJack said:

I note your black pudding sausage in a further post. Is the Stornaway version local? I can't figure the address.

Stornoway is just over 9,000 miles away from me, so not very local. It was more local when I was a child - a mere 186 miles.

On 3/1/2022 at 1:06 PM, FlashJack said:

I get it occasionally from a Spanish delicatessen.

I assume you mean morcilla. It is made more like the Chinese version in that it uses rice.

On 3/1/2022 at 1:06 PM, FlashJack said:

It's now impossible to buy pork lights. I trust you have no trouble with that.

No. I can buy any part of the pig, except its squeal.

Edited February 6 by liuzhou (log)

liuzhou · March 2, 2022

Horse meat is eaten all over China, especially in the north and in the far western province of Xinjiang. It is also popular in Guilin, Guangxi's tourist city where there are many horse restaurants. These are usually identified by a no messing picture of a horse on their signage. There is at least one here in Liuzhou. Their horse noodles are very good. Horse is one of my favourite meats, only slightly pipped by donkey, but that's a tale for another day.

Adjacent Horse Meat Restaurants, Guilin, Guangxi

These horse meat sausages 咸马肠 (xián mǎ cháng) or 熏马场 (xūn mǎ cháng) are from Xinjiang and are heavily smoked.

Smoked horse meat jerky is also popular.

Edited March 2, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

liuzhou · March 3, 2022

I wouldn't want to give the impression that China is ALL homemade and artisan sausages incorporating exotic meats and made like this:

This image is of the packaging of the yak meat sausages above.

Far from it. While there are great sausages, there are also a number of companies which have perfected the art of taking pork (and chicken) and turning it into a wide range of products, all labelled with the names of the different styles they are, while simultaneously making them taste exactly the same. Of nothing.

The worst offenders are those who make these revolting objects or as I call them "train sausages". Made from mechanically recovered meat and preservatives and with the texture of wet cardboard, they were for many years all you could buy on long, slow train journeys (the longest I ever took lasted five days!) along with your instant noodles. Today, China has the world's most extensive high speed train service and somewhat better catering.

Yes, these sausages persist. I have no idea who eats them.

They tend to come in two flavours - pork or chicken, but taste of neither. The quality of the sausage is reflected in the price $4 USD for 90 sausages (approx 4½ pounds). And that is overpriced!

KennethT · March 3, 2022

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I wouldn't want to give the impression that China is ALL homemade and artisan sausages incorporating exotic meats and made like this:

This image is of the packaging of the yak meat sausages above.

Far from it. While there are great sausages, there are also a number of companies which have perfected the art of taking pork (and chicken) and turning it into a wide range of products, all labelled with the names of the different styles they are, while simultaneously making them taste exactly the same. Of nothing.

The worst offenders are those who make these revolting objects or as I call them "train sausages". Made from mechanically recovered meat and preservatives and with the texture of wet cardboard, they were for many years all you could buy on long, slow train journeys (the longest I ever took lasted five days!) along with your instant noodles. Today, China has the world's most extensive high speed train service and somewhat better catering.

Yes, these sausages persist. I have no idea who eats them.

They tend to come in two flavours - pork or chicken, but taste of neither. The quality of the sausage is reflected in the price $4 USD for 90 sausages (approx 4½ pounds). And that is overpriced!

I saw these being sold out of carts all over Beijing. I actually tried one - it really does taste like nothing!

liuzhou · March 5, 2022

On 3/3/2022 at 9:41 PM, KennethT said:

I saw these being sold out of carts all over Beijing. I actually tried one - it really does taste like nothing!

Yeah. Everywhere.

When I lived in Hunan, there was a woman who stood outside the gates of a local college with an oil drum stove. She only sold two things. Deep fried sprigs of coriander leaf / cilantro and similarly deep fried 'train sausages' which she first cut as in the image below, fried, then drenched in hot chilli sauce. Oddly compelling after a night on the beers. The coriander I could eat any time.

liuzhou · March 5, 2022

These little turds are about 4 inches / 10 cm long and are sold as 方家柴火丸子 (fāng jiā chái huo wán zi), which literally means 'Fang family firewood balls', but they are sausages, just the same. The name carries rustic implications in Chinese but in fact they are factory made in Hunan.

They are smoked pork and pork blood sausages and quite dense for their size, each sausage weighing 5½ ounces / 156 grams. Not bad; not great.

liuzhou · March 6, 2022

My usual horse meat vendor was out of stock in the sausage department when I tried to reorder some the other day, so I went to one I hadn't used before and ordered a kilo of their smoked horse sausage. It arrived yesterday evening.

To my amazement, instead of a kilo of sausages, I got a kilo of sausage. One huge sausage weighing a shade under a kilo but well within their specified tolerance.