Lap Cheong (臘腸)
Cantonese dried sausage of sweet-savoury taste, scented with rice wine and soy sauce.
| Lean pork (shoulder) | 700 g |
| Hard pork fat (back fat) | 300 g |
| Sugar | 40 g |
| Light soy sauce | 30 ml |
| Shaoxing rice wine | 40 ml |
| Fine salt | 15 g |
| Chinese five-spice | 2 g |
| Rose water (optional) | 5 ml |
| Fine hog casing (Ø 22–26 mm) | — |
- Preparation: Cut the lean pork into small 5 mm dice. Cut the fat into 8 mm dice (larger, so it stays visible). Chill.
- Seasoning: Dissolve the sugar in the soy sauce and the rice wine. Add the salt and the five-spice. Add this mixture to the meat. Mix well without mincing further.
- Resting: Refrigerate for 24 hours.
- Stuffing: Stuff into the fine casings, forming sausages of 15 to 18 cm. Prick lightly with a needle to aid drying.
- Drying: Hang in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place for 5 to 7 days, or use a dehydrator at 55–60 °C for 24 to 48 hours.
- Storage: The dried lap cheong can be kept for several months in the refrigerator.
- Cooking: Slice and steam over rice, stir-fry, or add to braised dishes.
The name lap cheong (臘腸) joins the characters là (臘), designating the twelfth lunar month and, by extension, the winter period propitious to preserves, and cháng (腸), which designates the intestine. The first written attestations of dried sausages in Chinese literature appear under the Wei and Jin dynasties (third to fifth centuries AD), notably in the Qimin Yaoshu (AD 544); explicit recipes comparable to the contemporary lap cheong appear only from the Song period (960–1279). Preservation by desiccation using alcohol (the Shaoxing rice wine plays at once the role of flavouring and of antimicrobial agent) allowed the lap cheong to cross the centuries without major structural change.
Its logic runs counter to that of the European fresh sausage. While bratwurst or saucisse de Toulouse seeks to retain moisture and softness, lap cheong aims for a degree of desiccation that concentrates the aromas and firms the flesh. The sugar draws moisture out of the forcemeat during the drying, accelerates browning and provokes a slight surface fermentation. The alcohol of the rice wine dries the surface, inhibits bacterial growth and leaves a fruity, floral note.
The Cantonese version, made of pure pork, is the most widespread and the sweetest. It uses Shaoxing rice wine rather than baijiu (a more powerful sorghum alcohol), which gives it a sweetness the Sichuan version does not possess. The liver version (yun cheong, 膶腸), listed in the Supplement, is enriched with duck liver.
The traditional mode of cooking consists of arranging the sausages on raw rice in a steamer: the rice absorbs the fat and juices that run off, taking on the flavour of the soy–rice wine–five-spice blend. This dish, the lap cheong fan, has been a fixture in Cantonese family kitchens for generations. The sausage is also used as an ingredient in fried rice, braised dishes, and dim sum. The spread of lap cheong outside China follows the routes of the Cantonese diaspora, and its influence is evident in the Philippines (where some provinces' longganisa incorporate sugar and soy sauce) and in Thailand (where kun chiang is a direct adaptation).
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