Harbin sausage/ Hongchang (哈尔滨红肠)
Smoked pork sausage with garlic, introduced to Harbin in 1909 by the Russian Churin factory. The technology transfer is precisely documented. It is sliced cold and eaten with dalieba, Harbin's Russian sourdough bread.
| Lean pork (shoulder) | 600 g |
| Fatty pork (belly) | 250 g |
| Potato starch | 50 g |
| Fine salt | 20 g |
| Curing salt (Prague Powder #1) | 2.5 g |
| Fresh garlic, crushed | 15 g |
| Ground black pepper | 3 g |
| Grated nutmeg | 1 g |
| Sugar | 3 g |
| Iced water | 80 ml |
| Hog casing (Ø 32–36 mm) | — |
- Preparation: Cut the meats into cubes. Refrigerate at −2 °C for 2 hours.
- Mincing: Mince the lean pork through the 5 to 6 mm plate. Mince the fatty pork through the 8 mm plate.
- Seasoning: Dissolve the salt, the curing salt and the sugar in the iced water. Dilute the starch in this brine. Add the garlic, the pepper and the nutmeg. Pour over the minced meats and knead for five to six minutes to a sticky, homogeneous preparation.
- Stuffing: Stuff the hog casings firmly to form sausages 20 to 25 cm long. Tie the ends.
- Drying: Hang for 2 to 4 hours in a cool, well-ventilated place to let the skin dry.
- Smoking: Smoke over hardwood (oak, beech or fruit wood) for 3 to 5 hours at 60–70 °C. The skin should take on a characteristic dark red-brown hue.
- Poaching: Poach in water at 75–80 °C for 30 to 40 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 70 °C.
- Cooling: Shower with cold water, then air-dry. The sausage is then ready to eat.
- Serving: Slice into rounds and serve cold with dalieba bread and mustard, or pan-fry with green peppers and soy sauce.
The Harbin sausage, or hongchang (红肠, ‘red sausage’), is also called lidaosi (里道斯), a transcription of the Russian kolbasa litovskaya, ‘Lithuanian sausage’. Its birth is precisely dated: in March 1909, Lithuanian charcutiers employed by the Churin company produced, in the Daoli district, a smoked sausage similar to the Polish country kielbasa and the Lithuanian skilandis. The firm was founded in 1867 by the Russian merchant Ivan Yakovlevich Churin (1833–1895), born in Irkutsk, who operated warehouses and shops in Harbin.
The presence of Eastern European charcutiers in Manchuria follows from a railway concession. Defeated by Japan in 1895, the Qing dynasty signed the following year a secret treaty known as the Li-Lobanov, a defensive alliance that granted Russia the right to build the Chinese Eastern Railway across Manchuria, a shortcut of the Trans-Siberian towards Vladivostok. Harbin, founded in 1898 at the crossing of the lines, became its hub and administrative centre, placed under Russian jurisdiction. The census of February 1913 counted about 70,000 inhabitants from 53 different nationalities, speaking 45 languages.
The making involves the process of Eastern European smoked sausages. Unlike the country kielbasa, of pure pork, the hongchang incorporates a binding starch (potato), which alters its texture. The curing salt fixes the rosy hue of the forcemeat, while the prolonged smoking colours the surface a red-brown from which the sausage takes its name.
It is eaten cold, sliced, as a street snack or with dalieba (大列巴), the large Russian beer-leavened bread inherited from the bakers of Harbin; this pairing remains one of the most visible markers of Russian heritage in the city. Sold vacuum-packed throughout the country and brought home as souvenirs by visitors, it is today carried by the heirs of Churin under the Qiulin (秋林) brand. This book illustrates a direct charcuterie transfer from Eastern Europe to China by the Russian railway, without a detour through the Silk Road or Portuguese colonisation.
The book
All 144 recipes and their histories, gathered in a single volume.