§ 62. Bean Sauce Sausage (Laap Ch’eung 腊腸).
Sausage is a very popular meat with the Chinese, especially during the winter season. It is probably the most widely used of all cured meats, although as a rule it is quite expensive compared with other meats.
§ 63. Pickle for Bean Sauce Sausage
For every catty of meat, use:
- Saltpeter (siu 硝) 1 mace[2] (ts’in 一錢)
- Salt (shuk im 熟鹽) 3 mace (ts’in 三錢)
- Sugar (ping fa t’ong 冰花糖) 2 mace (ts’in 二錢)
- First-drawn bean sauce (t’au ch’au yau 頭抽油) 2 mace
- Raw bean sauce (shang ch’au yau 生抽油) 1 mace
- Mixture of spices (ng heung fan 五香粉) 1 mace
The mixture of spices is made up of the following:
- Red pepper (ch’un tsiu 春椒) 10 mace
- Ground anise seed (taai wui 大回) 10 mace
- Cloves (ting heung 丁香) 10 mace
- Cinnamon (yuk kwai 玉桂) 10 mace
These spices should be purchased separately and never ready mixed, as ready made mixtures are often worthless.
Sometimes two orange peelings, finely cut or ground, fresh or dried are used for every ten catties of meat. Two mace of double distilled wine (sheung ching tsau 雙蒸酒), or treble distilled wine (saam ching tsau 三蒸酒), and a wine called (fan tsau 汾酒), are sometimes added for each catty of meat. The wine helps preserve the meat.
The above spices should be carefully mixed and the mixture thoroughly stirred into the meat. In mixing the spices the usual method is to use the hands as mixers. A better way is to use a large spoon, or some similar utensil.