Chinese sausage is a generic term referring to the many different types of
sausage
A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders.
...
s originating in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. The southern flavor of Chinese sausage is commonly known by its
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
name (or ) ().
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
Dim sum () is a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cuis ...
.
![Chinese sausages drying](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Chinese_sausages_drying.jpg)
* ''Lap cheong'' (Cantonese, or ) is a dried, hard
sausage
A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders.
...
usually made from
pork
Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE.
Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...
and pork fat. It is normally smoked, sweetened, and seasoned with
rose water
Rose water ( fa, گلاب) is a flavoured water made by steeping rose petals in water. It is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals, a by-product of the production of rose oil
Rose oil (rose otto, attar of rose, attar of rose ...
,
rice wine
Rice wine is an alcoholic beverage fermented and distilled from rice, traditionally consumed in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. Rice wine is made by the fermentation of rice starch that has been converted to sugars. Microbes are the so ...
and
soy sauce
Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and '' Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''Asp ...
.
* ''Yun chang'' () is made using
duck
Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...
liver.
* ''Xiang chang'' () 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.
* ''Nuomi chang'' () is a white-colored sausage consisting of
glutinous rice
Glutinous rice (''Oryza sativa var. glutinosa''; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amylose ...
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''.
* ''Xue chang'' () are Chinese sausages that have
blood as the primary ingredient.
* ''Bairouxue chang'' () is a type of sausage popular in
northeast China
Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of t ...
that includes chopped meat in the blood mixture.
* ''Guan chang'' () is a long, red sausage made of fresh meat.
Regional
![Lachang Canontese short](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Lachang_Canontese_short.JPG)
Chinese sausage is used as an ingredient in quite a number of dishes in the
southern Chinese
South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not ...
provinces of
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
,
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
,
Jiangxi
Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...
,
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
, and
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
, and also
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
. Sichuan sausage also contains red chili powder, Sichuan pepper powder, and Pixian bean sauce, to characterise the sausage with a special flavour. Two common examples of such dishes include
fried rice
Fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to another dish. Fr ...
and ''
lo mai gai
Lo mai gai (), literally "glutinous rice chicken", is a classic dim sum dish served during yum cha.Hsiung, Deh-Ta. Simonds, Nina. Lowe, Jason. 005(2005). The food of China: a journey for food lovers. Bay Books. . p27. The portion size of ''lo mai ...
'' (糯米雞). The traditional unpackaged forms are usually found in
street market
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...
s or
wet market
A wet market (also called a public market or a traditional market) is a marketplace selling fresh foods such as meat, fish, produce and other consumption-oriented perishable goods in a non-supermarket setting, as distinguished from " dry market ...
s.
Hongchang
![Smoked Chinese sausage](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Smoked_Chinese_sausage.jpg)
In
northeast China
Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of t ...
, especially
Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...
's largest city
Harbin
Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...
, Hongchang (), a popular regional specialty, is smoked savory red sausage similar to Polish "country"
kielbasa
Kielbasa (, ; from Polish ) is any type of meat sausage from Poland and a staple of Polish cuisine. In American English the word typically refers to a coarse, U-shaped smoked sausage of any kind of meat, which closely resembles the ''Wiejska'' ...
and Lithuanian
skilandis
Skilandis or Kindziukas is a Lithuanian matured sausage made of meat, fat, salt, pepper and garlic. The ground meat is traditionally pressed into a pig's stomach or bladder, but today may be contained in other skins. The sausage is dried and Smoki ...
, with a coarsely ground texture and more "European" flavours than other Chinese sausages. It was first manufactured in March 1909 by
Lithuanian staff in a Russian-capitalized factory named
Churin Sausage Factory, located in Harbin's Daoli District. An alternative name is Lidaosi (), from Russian ''kolbasa «litovskaâ»'', "Lithuanian sausage". Harbin-style sausage subsequently became popular in China, especially in northern regions.
A sweeter dried version similar to southern Chinese sausages is also produced.
In Chinese, ''Hongchang'' may also refer to other red-colored sausages in China. This includes the
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
Big Hongchang, an adaptation of
Falukorv
Falukorv ( , ) is a Swedish sausage (''korv'' in Swedish) made of a grated mixture of smoked pork and beef or veal with potato starch flour, onion, salt and mild spices. Falukorv is a cooked sausage, so it can be eaten without any further prepar ...
. The aforementioned "Lidaosi" is used to unambiguiously refer to the Harbin original in the language.
In other countries
Vietnam
In
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
, Chinese sausage is called ' or '. 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 (') or chicken ('), the latter of which yields a leaner taste. ''Tung lò mò'' is a similar sausage made from beef by the
Chams
The Cham (Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people (Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territo ...
community in southern Vietnam.
Myanmar
In
Burmese, the sausage is called either ' (chicken sausage; ) or ' (pork sausage; ). 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
![Chaopaojf1570](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Chaopaojf1570.JPG)
In the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, Chinese sausage is an ingredient in some Chinese-Filipino dishes like ''
siopao
''Siopao'' (), is a Philippine steamed bun with various fillings. It is the indigenized version of the Fujianese ''baozi'', introduced to the Philippines by Hokkien immigrants during the Spanish colonial period. It is a popular snack in the Phi ...
bola-bola''. It is sometimes confused with and used in place of the native sausage ''
Chorizo de Macao
Chorizo de Macao, sometimes called Chinese Chorizo or Longaniza Macau, is a Filipino dry pork sausage. The ingredients of Chorizo de Macao is identical to other Filipino sweet ''longganisas'' (''longganisa hamonado''), except for its dry textur ...
'' (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
''Illicium verum'' is a medium-sized evergreen tree native to northeast Vietnam and southwest China. A spice commonly called star anise, staranise, star anise seed, star aniseed, star of anise, Chinese star anise, or badian that closely resembl ...
, which is associated with Chinese cuisine in the Philippines.
Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
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
butcher
A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesal ...
s and sold at markets or made at home. This variant of Chinese sausage is known as ' () in Mandarin Chinese, literally meaning fragrant sausage.
Singapore
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
produces innovative Chinese sausages that are healthier than the traditional variety or varieties produced in Malaysia. Examples include low-fat, low-sodium, and high-fibre Chinese sausages.
Thailand
![Yam kun chiang](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Yam_kun_chiang.JPG)
In
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
, Chinese sausage is called ' ( th, กุนเชียง) after its name in the
Teochew dialect
Teochew or Chaozhou (, , , Teochew endonym: , Shantou dialect: ) is a dialect of Chaoshan Min, a Southern Min language, that is spoken by the Teochew people in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and by their diaspora around the world. I ...
(贯肠, ' in Teochew), the dominant Chinese language within the
Thai Chinese
Thai Chinese (also known as Chinese Thais, Sino-Thais), Thais of Chinese origin ( th, ชาวไทยเชื้อสายจีน; ''exonym and also domestically''), endonym Thai people ( th, ชาวไทย), are Chinese descenda ...
community. It is used in several Chinese dishes by the sizeable Thai Chinese community, and also in some
Thai dishes such as ', a
Thai salad
Salads that are internationally known as Thai salads with a few exceptions fall into four main preparation methods. In Thai cuisine these are called ''yam, tam, lap'' and ''phla''. A few other dishes can also be regarded as being a salad.
Overvi ...
made with this sausage.
There is also Chinese sausage made with
snakehead fish ('; th, ปลาช่อน).
Suriname
In
Suriname
Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
, Chinese sausage is referred to by a
Hakka Chinese
Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around th ...
word rendered as ''fatjong'', ''fachong'',
''fa-chong'', ''fashong'', or ''fasjong'' in colloquial spelling. It is part of the dish ''
moksi meti tyawmin'' (mixed meat
chow mein
''Chow mein'' ( and , ; Pinyin: ''chǎomiàn'') is a Chinese dish made from stir-fried noodles with vegetables and sometimes meat or tofu. Over the centuries, variations of ''chǎomiàn'' were developed in many regions of China; there are seve ...
).
Other regions
Chinese sausages are generally available in
Asian supermarket
In the West or non-Asian countries, an Asian supermarket largely describes a category of grocery stores that focuses and stocks items and products imported from countries located in the Far East (e.g. East, Southeast and South Asia).
These stor ...
s outside Asia, mostly in a vacuum-packaged form, although some Chinese groceries sell the unpackaged varieties as well. These tend to be made locally; for example, many of the Chinese sausages sold in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
are produced by a number of manufacturers based in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
and
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. ''Lap cheong'' 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
*
Curing (food preservation)
Curing is any of various food preservation and flavoring processes of foods such as meat, fish and vegetables, by the addition of salt, with the aim of drawing moisture out of the food by the process of osmosis. Because curing increases the solu ...
*
Ham sausage
Ham sausage is a sausage prepared using ham and other ingredients, the latter varying by location. It is a part of the cuisines of China, Germany, Poland and the United States. Ham sausage is a mass-produced food product.
By country China
Auto ...
– a mass-produced sausage in China
*
List of dried foods
This is a list of dried foods. Food drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of bacteria and has been practiced worldwide since ancient times to preserve food. Where or when d ...
*
List of sausages
This is a list of notable sausages. Sausage is a food usually made from ground meat with a skin around it. Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made from intestine, but sometimes synthetic. Some sausages are cooked durin ...
*
List of sausage dishes
This is a list of notable sausage dishes, in which sausage is used as a primary ingredient or as a significant component of a dish.
Sausage dishes
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List of smoked foods
This is a list of smoked foods. Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. Foods have been smoked by humans throughout history. Meats and fish a ...
References
{{Sausage
Fermented sausages
*
Hong Kong cuisine
Malaysian cuisine
Singaporean cuisine
Taiwanese sausages
Burmese cuisine
Philippine cuisine
Thai cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine
Smoked meat