Homemade Lap Cheong or Lap Chong Dried Chinese Sausage Recipe. Chinese sausage referring to many different types of dried and cured sausages originally in China.In Cantonese chinese sausage called Lap Cheong or Lap Chong, while in Mandarin it’s called Là Cháng. In Indonesia, we used to called chinese sausage as sosis cina, lap chong, or sosis merah (red sausage). Chinese sausage commonly made of fatty pork, either the fat is chuncky or well blended. Chinese sausage usually smoked, sweetened, and seasoned with chinese five spice powder ot ngo hiang seasoning, , rice wine and soy sauce. Premium quality chinese sausage got it’s distinct umami smells, just like a good old ham.
Chinese sausage is usually added to enhanced the umami flavour into a dish. Chinese sausage can be used for soup, stir fried and almost all rice dishes. Chinese sausage usually stir fried until charred and then added to Chinese style nasi goreng/fried rice and Lo Mai Gai or Steamed Sticky Rice with chicken, Abalone, Salted Egg Yolk and Mushrooms Stuffing in Lotus Leaves Wrap(/nuòmǐ jī), trust me that addition of chinese sausage made simple fried noodle or vermicelli into the next level of deliciousness. Well, actually i useed to replace any chorizo recipe with my homemade chinese sausage, infact i added chinese sausage as topping for Broccoli Crust Pizza Recipe, stuffing for my Nasi Bakar (Grilled Banana Leaf Wrapped Spiced Rice), Peanut Crusted Roasted and Stuffed Whole Beef Tenderloin, Steamed Glutinous/ Sticky Rice Roll and Claypot of Chicken, Tofu, Sea Cucumber and Mushrooms Recipe
Chinese sausage or lap cheong or la chang usually traditionally hung unpackaged in the street market or wet markets in China town market anywhere nearby your place. Chinese sausage available in many forms of fat content, color and prices. Chinese sausage usually looks like a hard and waxy in the surface, although no wax added into it. I like chinese sausage with chuncky fat so it’s fat will renderred right after stir fried in a smoking hot wok pan and release it’s goodness and flavoured your entire rice or noodle cooked within it. Real thinsg isn’t cheap, that’s for damn sure, so i insist you to choose the expensive chinese sausage ones when you visit your chinese groceries.
Before you considering to made your homemade chinese sausage or any other air dry cured meat, you should know about the savety about curing first. Improper dry curing sausage can be derived to botulism, a serious, potentially fatal and lethaly disease. Botulism is an intoxication usually caused by ingestion of potent neurotoxins in contaminated foods. You should know first that the neurotoxin excrete by Clostridium botulinum bacteria. The neurotoxin destroyed by heating more than 85 °C (185 °F) for more than 5 minutes, but the bacteria spores that are heat-resistant. The bacteria usually in a spores (inactive form) and usually germinate, grow and then excrete toxins in the low or absence of oxygen. So in my opinion the additional of nitrate (pink salt, salpetre etc) is absolutely important because it’s an effective agent agains Clostridium botulinum. Maybe you heard that nitrate are toxic, infact nitrosamines did. Nitrosamine formed when nitrate transform into nitrite then react with amino acids or very high heat. Nitrosamines are known to be powerful DNA damaging chemicals and resulting cell mutation and cancer. But don’t really bother about it, infact a single portion of spinach or celery contain more nitrosamines than you can imagine.How to made sausage without fancy sausage maker is another question, eversince i din’t really want to investing pretty much $$$ for it, which mean i have to do is manually. Using my chopper or food processor is not a good option, because it’s too powerfull and can easily overdo the sausage stuffing grinding, beside the heat possibly melt the fat even i freeze it out priorly. So then i using my old school meat mincer knive and properly clean wood cutting board to diced the pork meat and a regular knive to diced the back fat.
Making my own chinese sausage or lap cheong in my very humble amateur kitchen is one of my obsession. Eversince i start making charcuterie or dry aging meat, i was curious about homemade air dry curing sausage. Store brought chinese sausage may contain tons of preservatives, color dying agent, and msg (monosodium glutamat) or other flavour enhanced agents. I didn’t added any msg on my homemade lap chong, instead i’m using palm sugar to enhance umami balance flavour with the salt, simply magic as what happen to salted caramel.
Before making homemade chinese sausage, you should know that the ammount of all the ingredients for making air dry cured sausages is properly measured, especially the amount of the nitrate preservatives. The recommendation maximum ammout of saltpetre (potassium nitrate) for dry curing is 500 ppm or 500 mg per kg sausage mixture. The salt ammount for dry ured sausage is about 3 % of the weight, you really take a close attention on it. The meat and fat ration is commonly 80% meat to 20% fat. The spice and flavour enhancement is another optional too. Eversince i like a fattyand chunky chinese sausage or lap cheong, i’m using 40% fat on it. The best fat for dry curing is solid back fat because the soft fat like in the soft tissues is really easily rancid and turn into off smells and flavour. I’m using 500 grams of pork loin and 200 grams of pork back fat for this recipe, 3% salt means 21 grams and the amout of salpetre is about 350 mg. I also added 21 grams of palm sugar and 2 tablespoons of Here’s the fun part, my digital weight scale can only measure 1 gram, so i need to put the 1 gram of saltpetre in a piece of paper and divided it into three part equally with my atm card and it made me thinking of myself “heck what i’m doing, my mom ganna be going crazy and beat the hell of my head because i obviously seems like a crack addict ” lol
Most chinese sausage wrapped in an edible artificial casings, such as collagen and cellulose, but i really want the original version with natural pig intestine casing. Is it possible to making a dry cured sausage using natural pig intestine ? luckily the answer is YES. The pig small intestine is needed to be cured before the sausage hung to dry cured. The pig intestine cleaned inside out, you can read about How To Clean and Preparing Pig Intestine, then salted to enhanced the self life. Simply ask your butcher for pig small intestine, he or she probably give it for free for you.
I’m using plasting funnel to stuffed the chinese sausage stuffing into the pork intestine. For unnecessary photography, i’m using spoon to plug the stuffing. Clean hand fingers or even chopstick is much more effective and fungtional for plug the sausage stuffing, just made sure you’re wearing a sterile gloves and sterilized chopstick otherwise it’s gonna be a mess. The end of the the pig intestine tie out after you finished stuffing to let the air released, slightly different with commonly people did because my plasting funnel tube didn’t long enought to be slipped with the intestine.
After you stuffed your homemade chinese sausage stuffing into your pork intestine, the stuffing a little bit slippery on the instenstine because so many air bubble on it. The stuffing can be plugged better with your hand too, just squeese the stuffing out with the intestine tube to the end, then divide the sausage link by twisting and then tiding it to made individual homemade fresh sausage
After peeling the remaining fat on the pig intestine, the fresh sausage looks more translucent. The air bublles then removed by pricking it with sterilized metal pin. Remember that this process also enhanced the sausage drying process too. Pricking the fresh pig intestine sausage also iniciate free oxigen entering the sausage stuffing and prevent Clostridium botulinum to grow.
The fresh pig intestine chinese sausage or lap cheong the hung to dry in a cold, good-ventilated and dark place, then left until dry and loosen 30 percent of it’s original weight.Make sure you notes the weight of the fresh sausage before you hung it and calculate the 30 percent loss from the original weight. In my case, the fresh lap cheong sausage weight is 736 grams and the 30% loss is 216 grams, which means my chinese sausage is ready to be eaten (cooked first) when it’s weighted 52o grams. Unfortunately, my homemade lap chong or chinese sausage a little bit forgotten in the fridge and the drying goes a little bit too far until the weight reach 393 grams in 30 days (24 october-22 november 2014).
If you living in a tropical country like indonesia, i guess it’s possible to left the fresh sausage hung to dry curing in room temperature because it’s too hot and too humid. You can use your refrigerator for dry it, just made sure you cleaned out your fridge. Simply left it hung undisturbed in the fridge doorin the ideal fridge temperature (about 1– 4°C or 33 – 39°F) and the fridge humidity in “dry mode”. Do not open the fridge door too often since the temperature will fluctuated and made the lap cheong taste funny.
This is my homemade lap cheong or chinese waxed sausage lool a like after air dry cured in the fridge after 30 days. The sausage looked great dark plum in colour with chunky bits of fat meat showing inthe surface. Nice umami with distict anise smells comes out of it and the taste just perfect for my licking; fatty, savoury and sweet. Totally better than the store brought. The lean loin meat has shrunk a lot, but i guess the fat didn’t. Because i didn’t use any artificial filler, the weight losen out in a greatlyI think the fat meat is a little on the high side. Next time I will reduce it to around 28 – 30% : lean meat. To keep the homemade lap cheong in fridge or freezer. If you want to keep them for longer than 2 – 3 weeks, best in freezer. I don’t really know if it will go mouldy or turn racid if you leave it in the fridge for too long, but i guaranteed that i won’t be last than longer before ended out in my tummy.
Recipe Homemade Chinese Sausage or Lap Cheong:
Ingredients: (i’m using half of the recipe)
- 1 kg pork loin
- 400 grams pork back fat
- 2-3 pig intestine, cleaned (2-3 m sausage casing)
- 1 cup salt to salted the pig intestine
- 42 grams salt
- 42 grams palm sugar
- 700 milligrams saltpetre (0,7 grams)
- 4 tablespoons chinese five spice powder
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons chinese rice wine
How to Make Homemade Chinese Sausage or Lap Cheong:
- Measure the weight of each ingredients properly
- Clean out and sterilize all of the utensils
- Mix and rub the salt to the pig intestine, let is marinated about 24 hours in the fridge, washed it properly under running water and drain in properly, set aside
- Meanwhile, dice the meat and fat with a knife into half cm cubes.
- Combine all the seasoning in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the meat and fat and mix well and let soak overnight in the fridge.
- Stuffed the chinese sausage stuffing to the pig intestine using the plastic funnel and chopsticks or finger.
- Tie off one end of chinese sausage casing and then plugged out the stuffing to the tie
- Tie the casing into 15cm links.
- Prick the links and the sausage all over with a sterilized metal pin to allow the air bubbles to escape from the sausage.
- Hang them to dry in a well ventilated place until dehyrated and losen it’s 30 percent of it’s original weight.
Your made your own Chinese lap cheong? wow…that’s just amazing!
Love Lap Cheong – but am going to just have to admire yours – great post and really interesting – thanks Dedy.
This looks great, not something I would be brave enough to attempt myself!
Wow – can’t believe you made your own Chinese lap cheong! So impressive!
Really? what cant you make. Really impressed with your talent
Making home cured sausages is really an accomplishment! Great job! 🙂
What a great post Dedy! I laughed out loud when I read about the ‘crack’. I’d love to try this sausage I’m sure I would love it.
Good for you to make your own Chinese sausage, not something I will try.
Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! Just the other day, I saw Chinese sausage in a recipe and had no idea what it was. What a delicious looking sausage! I love making my own, so thanks for sharing your recipe and process!
Hi Dedy, sounds like quite an endeavor, you are quite the chef.
I am so excited now I can made my own sausage for my fried turnip cake . I like knowing exactly what is in my sausages so this is perfect. Thanks for the detailed instructions
WOW this seems so intricate and difficult to make – looks fantastic 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Ok this is very impressive!! I’m not sure I could do this but would love to try!
My mum used to make her own sausages!
Aku liatnya aja geli 😦
I wish I was your neighbor! These look great, and I am so impressed that you make things like this.
Imressive!
We make many types of sausages here in Greece! I love yours Dedi!
They look appetizing! Wonderful recipe! 🙂
They look like the chorizos I brought back from New Zealand. Respect, man!!! You can make your own. Here, we can buy them very easily…and now, they also have the Taiwan sausages that are very popular.
I don’t buy – my friend in Kuala Lumpur will always give me – her hubby’s family make for sale – very nice ones, wine-infused and not as hard as the imported ones.
huaaahhh! looks like very delicious, yummy!
I really salute you for making these sausages. Love eating them but lazy to make. But still, it was good to see and read on how to make at home.
I know, you thought I forgot about you aha! Never 😀 this sausage is a masterpiece, you know my dad makes sausages at home, I’ve seen it hundreds of times so my compliments because this is really something my friend 🙂
Hi Dentistchef, First of all thanks for dropping by my humble blog. I am glad I return your visit. You have a marvelous blog!!! My goodness! You know how to make your own lap cheong. This is my favorite but never thought of making it at home. Thumbs up to you at least we know what’s going into our stomach. No doubt I love lap cheong but I try to limit it as I don’t know what other stuff are being added to the lap cheong. Honestly speaking, homemade lap cheong is anytime better than commercial ones. Thanks for sharing and you have a great week ahead 🙂
Dedy, all of your posts are amazing to me, but this one is just superb. I cannot believe you make your own charcuterie at home. It’s something I’ve always wanted to you. You have such an amazing talent. It’s awesome that you cleaned your own pig intestines.
Wow! I’m so impressed and totally ‘blown away’ with your incredible talent making these amazing homemade sausages. Reminds me of Italy, where my relatives are still making all their salamis and sausages and keeping them in the cold basement to cure them. Such an ‘old world’ talent that not too many people practice these days! Hats of to you, Dedy…you just made my day!
Oh, I can’t believe it. Lap-Cheong made at home!! Truly helpful post, as I love lap cheong! Love them in stir-fried noodles.
How do you get any time to do any dentistry? This is a superb post Dedi. I love it, particularly the botulism advice.
wow impressive you made these keep meaning to find some to try
wow! i’ve never did anything like a sausage at home! so good!
These sausages look as perfect as from a good butcher’s! Actually visually Chinese sausages look like many good European sausages (and moreover, they are smoked! I love smoked sausages…) but they must taste different from what you describe. They are quite dark and reminded me at first of black pudding, aka blood sausage (I’m a huge fan and I have it regularly, e.g. tonight for dinner 🙂 . Thumbs up! I am really impressed by the results of your home sausage making. It’s one of my dreams to make my own sausages and cold meats and smoke them…
I’m impressed Dedy, really impressed. You outdid yourself man, this sausage is killa!
This is a seriously great post Dedy. So impressed with your knowledge, and the resulting sausages look amazingly good. Chinese sausage is one of my husbands favourite guilty treats. I’d love to try making them for him one day….
That sausage is outstanding! What a great result from a lot of work!
I have never seen this before! The slices of the sausage reminds me of mortadella. Not sure if it resembles that or not in flavour, but that is what it reminds me of. Amazing that you did this, great job! 🙂
Wow, wow, wow! I can’t believe you made your own lap cheong!! Looks super professional! I bet it tastes amazing too. 🙂
Phew..that’s impressive! It looks as good as the ones we buy in the store. I’m definitely bookmarking this post!
wuihhhhh…ngilerrrrrr omm…duh seandainya mas dedy main-main ke lombok.
I’m fascinated because I grew up enjoying Chinese sausage in clay pot rice, etc. It is so indescribably good – I think it’s the lovely sweetness. This looks delicious!
I am all for added umami flavour and I am always so impressed by your dried meats posts. the sausages look amazing. I have filled sausages once…what an experience. One that post will go up 🙂
You know who was happy when I sent this link? My husband. He said he is going to give this a try. We’ll see! I’m waiting. Only problem is that he might eat way too much than he should. He loves this! I eat a few slices… 🙂 So good!
That is some impressive looking sausage Dedy! I had a uncle who use to make Italian sausage on the roof of his house in Brooklyn in the Summer time. Your post brought back a flood of those memories.
Kudos to you for making your own dreid meats. I’m sure they are delicious! Thank you so much for sharing…
Ooh, these sausages look SO good and I love how versatile they are – they sound especially delicious as a pizza topping. =) YUM!
Over and over again your recipes blow me away! These sausages look amazing!! I am not sure I will dare to try, but this recipe has gone onto my list of things to try (one day).
OMG, those sausages look fantastic! Great flavors. I’d love to try making them.
Cheers,
Rosa
What a culinary creative foodie chef you are!!! Waw!! Those home-made sausages look stunning! Great tips & tricks too! xxx
Hi dedy, wow…. homemade lup cheong!! Well done, very impressive.
Best regards.
How in the world!!!! So how much are you selling for? Amazing!
Halo, bisa tlg dijelaskan dalam bahasa Indonesia bagian ” bakteri botulinum” nya..mengenai bahaya2nya, soalnya takut salah nangkep kalo bhs Inggris..xP , trus apakah ada metode lain selain air dry. Misalnya dioven..dan bisa gak kalo gak pakai bahan kimia pengawet seperti yg disebutkan diatas, kalopun pakai belinya dimana? Terimakasih..
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GREAT recipe. I am a novice so please please tell me about the saltpeter—why is it used? I read so many recipes from China that claim not to use it and only regular salt which I can’t believe because meats don’t turn a reddish color without some kind of curing agent me thinks? also—buying said saltpeter is difficult where I live in the U.S. and probably will have to buy it online—–looking very much forward to your answer—-cheers—
Saltpeter is used as a preservative to prevent color loss in meat. It is converted into nitrite in your sausage. You can see it as a ‘time-released’ form of nitrite. It is therefore suitable for thicker dry sausages that dry slowly.
What a wonderful treat to find this post !!! I make my own Italian Sausage, but, have never thought of making Chinese Sausage myself. Will try this for sure !!! Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes!
Thank you for your recipe. Should the salt amount not be replaced by nitrite brine salt? Especially in combination with the saltpeter.