Sichuan sausages from southern China and Hong Kong are renowned for their unique flavor, which is attributed to the red chili powder and powdered Sichuan pepper they contain. These dishes are popularly known as fried rice and lo mai gai. Chinese sausage is a generic term used to refer to the various types of sausages made in China. The history of Chinese sausage dates back to 300 AD, when a special technique was used for meat preservation and sausage filling in the northern and southern dynasties.
During the Southern dynasties, sausages were considered a delicacy for the New Year festival. The sausages are air-cured or smoked, and their shape and color define the variety. Thin, dark sausages are usually made with pork or duck liver, while dull red ones with bright white spots are usually made with pork and pork fat. I have been a fan of Chinese sausage for many years, and fried rice is my favorite way to enjoy it.
Once, my mother even brought a whole Chinese duck to the barbecue when she visited me at university. A larger quantity of nitrite can be added to sausages, which will dry out as their manufacturing process takes longer and the nitrite dissipates over time. This gives Chinese sausages their unique flavor, which may be unfamiliar to those who have never tried them before. Traditional Chinese recipes for salamis have been passed down from generation to generation without much understanding of the underlying processes.
A new type of sausage called Harbin Red, Kazakh Red or LI Dao Si has become increasingly popular in Harbin, China, and other neighboring countries. Black pudding made in Poland differs from a sausage made in England, France or Spain because it includes a different combination of ingredients; however, it still contains blood and is still a sausage. Each of the two broad categories of Chinese sausages is specifically made to suit local tastes. It is sometimes confused with the native Macau sausage (also known as Chinese sausage) and is used instead of it.
To avoid this confusion, it is best to ask the retailer to explain the differences between the sausages on display so you can get exactly what you want. This is not unusual; for example, there are Spanish sausages that are made only with blood (Morcilla Lustre, Morcilla Lustre Malagueña). For processing Lap Cheong sausages, the best sources of lean meat are the back legs (ham) followed by the front legs of pigs (lean cuts of butts and picnics). These sausages have been modified to comply with safety regulations set by the China Meat Safety Department.
The recipe calls for 10 pounds of meat (for 50 sausages), but you can adjust the measurements as needed. The relatively high drying temperature results in a short drying process due to the small diameter of the sausages, which does not provide favorable conditions for healing and flavor-producing bacteria such as micrococcus and staphylococcus to react with meat and develop flavors.
