Ingredient: Chinese Sausage
Origin: China

Chinese sausage, or lap cheong in Cantonese, is most commonly a sweet and rich pork sausage made in China. Chinese sausage is a very generic term, as it can be made with a variety of ingredients, sold fresh or smoked, and actually made in many regions of Asia. The variations in sausages make this a very versatile ingredient for cooking with. You can find Chinese sausage in Asian markets and at some specialty food stores.

When buying Chinese sausage, first consider how you’re going to work with it. If you buy a Smoked Chinese sausage, try dicing it up and adding it to a soup or broth. The smoked varieties are very dry, so it really helps to rehydrate it in a liquid of some form. On the other hand, fresh Chinese sausage can be used almost interchangeably with any pork sausage. Try removing the casing and make an Asian sausage gravy. Or wrap some flaky pastry dough around a Chinese sausage link, and you have a quirky pig-in-a-blanket. The possibilities are endless when you experiment with Chinese sausage.