Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausage) Recipe

Lap Cheong is a traditional Chinese pork sausage which has been seasoned, smoked & dried, with a sweet & savoury flavour. While these tasty little guys are easy enough to find at your Asian grocer or the Asian section of your local supermarket, nothing quite beats homemade.

As you’ll see in this recipe, we use our Hi Mountain Jerky Gun to stuff our sausages. This handy little gadget comes with several nozzle attachments, one of which is a sausage stuffing head which coped just fine with our chunky mix. So don’t feel like you need expensive stuffing equipment to make your own sausages at home.

At the end of the sausage making recipe we’ll share another recipe on how to use your homemade Lap Cheong to make Sticky Rice with Shitake Mushrooms and Lap Cheong. Guaranteed to satisfy washed down with your own home brew!

PREP TIME: 1 hour

DRYING TIME: 3-4 days

YIELD: approximately 2 dozen

INGREDIENTS

• 1.1 kg of lean pork meat (shoulder and/or leg meat)
• 500 grams of pork fat (we used pork belly)
• 1 pack Misty Gully size 23 Sausage Casings
• 1 cup sugar (for candied pork fat)
• 200ml water
• 4.8 gram Misty Gully Cure #1 (2%)
• 22.5 grams of salt
• 90 grams of sugar (stuffing)
• Half tablespoon red rice yeast, crushed in a mortar & pestle
• 40 grams chilli powder
• 15 grams Sichuan peppercorns ground
• Half teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 15 grams of pressed ginger paste
• 2 cloves of pressed garlic paste
• 60ml light soy sauce
• 45ml rose wine

EQUIPMENT

• Hi Mountain Jerky Gun
• Kitchen Twine
• Mixing bowl
• Cling film
• Toothpick

RECIPE

1. Separate the lean meat and fat. Dice each into pea-sized pieces. Re-weigh each to make sure you’re still at 1.1kg lean meat & 0.5kg fat after trimming.
2. Make the candied pork fat. For this, blanch the pork fat for ~2 min in boiling water, rinse off and let it drain for a minute or two. In a small bowl, alternate layers of pork fat and sugar until all pork fat is covered. Cover with cling film & leave in the fridge overnight.
3. Mix the lean meat with the items in bold in the ingredient list. Cover with cling film & leave in fridge overnight.
4. Next day, cut approximately 30cm lengths of sausage casing. Feel free to use any casing you wish, simply follow the instructions on the package as they made need soaking prior to use.
5. Rinse the sugar off the pork fat & drain excess water thoroughly. Combine the lean meat with the fat, together with the 200ml of water. Mix thoroughly for 3-5 minutes to ensure all ingredients are incorporated well throughout.
6. Attach the sausage stuffing nozzle to the Hi Mountain Jerky Gun. Scrunch your casing over the nozzle, leaving approximately 5 or so centimetres of casing remaining at the end. Tie an overhand knot at the end of the casing.
7. Stuff the filling through the Hi Mountain Jerky Gun & gently fill. Once all the casing has been stuffed, once again leave approximately 5 or so centimetres of casing and knot at the end.
8. Using a toothpick, puncture the sausage every 2-3 centimetres or so down the whole casing. Turn 90 degrees, and repeat. Repeat 2 more times.
9. Cut 10-15cm lengths of baker’s twine, tie it in a loop. Separate each 30cm sausage into individual Lap Cheong’s by laying the loop of twine under the sausage in the middle, looping it through the loop, and tightening. In this way, they are able to be hung easily.
10. Now give the sausages a quick rinse off, pat dry with paper towel & place in the oven at 50 deg Celsius for 24 hours with the fan ON.
11. After 24 hours, hang your sausages in a cool, dry, sunny place for approximately 3-4 days. Keep in your refrigerator for up to 2 week or store in your freezer for up to 6 months. Enjoy!

BONUS RECIPE USING LAP CHEONG

STICKY RICE WITH LAP CHEONG SAUSAGE 

INGREDIENTS 

• 2 cups uncooked glutinous rice 
• 6 dried shiitake mushrooms 
• 1.25 cups of dried shrimps 
• 3 links of Lap Cheong sausage 
• 2 tablespoons of neutral oil of choice 
• 1.5 teaspoons salt 
• 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine 
• 1.5 tablespoons light soy sauce 
• 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce 
• 1 tablespoons oyster sauce 
• 1.25 teaspoons toasted sesame oil 
• 2-3 scallions for garnish 

RECIPE 

1. Submerge mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes until tender. Remove, drain and dice. Meanwhile, submerge shrimp in hot water for 30 minutes until rehydrated. Remove, drain and pat dry with paper towel. 
2. Prepare the rice according to instructions on the packet. Set aside to cool. 
3. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the mushrooms to the wok along with the shrimp, sausage (which have been cut into thin slices on the diagonal) and salt and stir fry for 3-5 minutes until the mushrooms are browned. 
4. Add rice to the wok & lower heat & stir-fry for another few minutes.  
5. Add the Shaoxing wine, soy sauces, oyster sauce & toasted sesame oil & agitate the work rapidly to mix all ingredients thoroughly. 
6. Serve immediately topped with thinly sliced scallions.