Lap Cheong
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Lap Cheong
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Lap Cheong (Simplified Chinese: 腊肠; Traditional Chinese: 臘腸; Pinyin: Làcháng; Cantonese: laap céung; also Chinese sausage or Cantonese sausage) is a thin, wind-dried or smoke-dried pork sausage seasoned with sugar, salt, soy, and rice wine, yielding a sweet-savory snap when steamed or fried. It is a staple ingredient in Clay Pot Rice, fried rice, and steamed dishes. It is not La Rou (腊肉), which is cured pork belly or other slab cuts rather than a filled sausage casing. Related dried sausages (四川香肠, 广式腊肠 variants) share the family but differ in sweetness and spice.[1].
Characteristics
Appearance is reddish-brown, glossy, and slender; slices show a dense cured meat cross-section. Flavor is distinctly sweet-salty with wine aroma in Cantonese styles. Firm when raw/dried; softens when steamed.
Ingredients (overview)
Pork (often lean + fat), sugar, salt, soy sauce, Chinese rice wine, casing; optional rose wine or paprika-like color. Distinct form from slab La Rou.
History and culture
Cantonese winter curing traditions produce lap cheong as a pantry protein; Hong Kong and Guangdong menus list it in clay-pot and steamed minced pork dishes. English wholesale labels say "Chinese sausage" or "lap cheong." Soft folk usage may call any cured meat "腊味"; this page covers the sausage form.
Serving and variations
Steamed over rice, diced into fried rice, clay-pot toppings, or served sliced with greens. See La Rou, Clay Pot Rice, Guangdong Food, and Hong Kong Food.