Chinese sausages are many different types of with ties to China, the Sinosphere or the Chinese diaspora.
Varieties
There is a choice of fatty or lean sausages. There are different kinds ranging from those made using fresh pork to those made using pig livers, duck livers and even turkey livers. Usually a sausage made with liver will be darker in color than one made without liver. Recently, there have even been countries producing chicken Chinese sausages. Traditionally they are classified into two main types. It is sometimes rolled and steamed in
dim sum.
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Lap cheong (Cantonese, or j=laap6 coeng2) (lit."preserved sausage") is a dried, hard sausage usually made from pork and pork fat. It is normally smoked, sweetened, and seasoned with rose water, rice wine and soy sauce.
[CNN Go 40 Hong Kong foods we can't live without 13 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-09]
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Yun chang (j=jeon2 coeng2) (lit."liver sausage") is made using duck liver.
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Xiang chang ( j=hoeng1 coeng2) (lit."aromatic sausage") is a fresh and plump sausage consisting of coarsely chopped pieces of pork and un-rendered pork fat. The sausage is rather sweet in taste.
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Nuomi chang (j=no6 mai5 coeng2) (lit."glutinous rice sausage") is a white-colored sausage consisting of glutinous rice and flavoring stuffed into a casing and then steamed or boiled until cooked. The nuomi chang of some Chinese cultures have blood as a binding agent similar to Korean sundae.
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Xue chang (j=hyut3 coeng2) (lit."blood sausage") are Chinese sausages that have blood sausage.
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Bairouxue chang (j=baak6 juk6 hyut3 coeng2) (lit."white meat blood sausage") is a type of sausage popular in northeast China that includes chopped meat in the blood mixture.
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Guan chang (t=贯肠) (lit."through sausage") is a long, red sausage made of fresh meat.
Regional
The southern flavor of Chinese sausage is commonly known by its
Cantonese name
' (or ', j= laap6 coeng2). Chinese sausage is used as an ingredient in a number of dishes in the southern Chinese provinces of
Guangdong,
Fujian,
Jiangxi,
Sichuan, and
Hunan, and also
Hong Kong and
Taiwan.
Sichuan sausage contains and is flavored by red chili powder, Sichuan pepper powder, and Pixian bean sauce. Two common examples of such dishes include fried rice and lo mai gai (糯米雞). The traditional unpackaged forms are usually found in or .
In northeast China, especially Heilongjiang's largest city Harbin, Harbin-style sausage (first=t), a popular regional specialty, is a coarsely ground, smoked savory red sausage similar to Polish "country" kielbasa and Lithuanian skilandis. It was first manufactured in March 1909 by Lithuanians staff in a Russian-capitalized factory named Qiulin Group, located in Harbin's Daoli District. An alternative name is lidaosi (s=里道斯),
In other countries
Vietnam
In Vietnamese, Chinese sausage is called
lạp xưởng or
lạp xường. It has been incorporated into a variety of dishes from simple omelets to more complex main courses. Due to the salty taste of the sausages, they are used in moderation with other ingredients to balance the flavor. The sausages are made from pork (
lạp xưởng heo) or chicken (
lạp xưởng gà), the latter of which yields a leaner taste.
Tung lamaow (
Cham language: ꨓꨭꩂ ꨤꨟꨯꨱꨥ
tung lamaow) is a similar sausage made from beef by the
Chams (who are
Muslim) in southern Vietnam.
Myanmar
In
Burmese language, the sausage is called either
kyet u gyaung (chicken sausage; ကြက်အူချောင်း) or
wet u gyaung (pork sausage; ဝက်အူချောင်း). The sausages made in Myanmar are more meaty and compact compared to those in Singapore or China. They are usually used in fried rice and along with fried vegetables, mostly cabbage.
Philippines
In the
Philippines, Chinese sausage is an ingredient in some Chinese-Filipino dishes like
siopao bola-bola. It is sometimes confused with and used in place of the native sausage
chorizo de Macao (which is also sometimes known as "Chinese chorizo"). The latter is not derived from the Chinese sausage, but derives its name from the use of
star anise, which is associated with Chinese cuisine in the Philippines.
Taiwan
Taiwan also produces a similar form of sausage; however, they are rarely dried in the manner of Cantonese sausages. The fat and meat may be emulsified, and a larger amount of sugar may be used, yielding a sweeter taste. These sausages are usually produced by local
and sold at markets or made at home. This variant of Chinese sausage is known as
xiangchang () in Mandarin Chinese, literally meaning fragrant sausage.
Singapore
Singapore produces innovative Chinese sausages that could be considered healthier than the traditional variety. Examples include low-fat, low-sodium, and high-fibre Chinese sausages.
[ Low Fat Sausages - Singapore Polytechnic .][ Shitake Sausages - Singapore Polytechnic .]
Thailand
In
Thai language, Chinese sausage is called
kun chiang () after its name in the
Teochew dialect (贯肠,
kwan chiang in Teochew), the dominant Chinese language within the
Thai Chinese community. It is used in several Chinese dishes by the sizeable Thai Chinese community, and also in some
Thai cuisine such as
yam kun chiang, a
Thai salad made with this sausage.
There is also Chinese sausage made with snakehead fish (
pla chon; ).
Suriname
In
Suriname, Chinese sausage is referred to by a
Hakka Chinese word (fa1cong3 花肠 'motled sausage') rendered as
fatjong,
fachong,
,
fashong, or
fasjong in colloquial spelling. It is part of the dish
moksi meti tyawmin (mixed meat
chow mein).
Other regions
Chinese sausages are generally available in Asian supermarkets outside Asia, mostly in a vacuum-packaged form, although some Chinese groceries sell the unpackaged varieties as well. These tend to be made domestically due to prohibitions on import of meat products from overseas.
For example, many of the Chinese sausages sold in
Canada are produced by a number of manufacturers based in
Vancouver and
Toronto.
is also a very popular sausage in Hawaii due to large numbers of Chinese in Hawaii who have incorporated it into local cuisine.
See also
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Curing (food preservation)
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Ham sausage – a mass-produced sausage in China
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List of dried foods
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List of sausages
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List of sausage dishes
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List of smoked foods
