Hi, I'm glad to find these recipes here, as I'd love to have another go at lop cheong. I tried to make some last winter using a recipe from "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing", and was very disappointed with the results. It looks like I might have had better luck if I had used light soy sauce instead of dark, as one of the recipes posted here calls for it explicitly.
FYI for anyone not into Chinese cooking, in Chinese terminology "light" or "thin" soy sauce is a salty, tangy flavorful sauce used most often to finish off a dish or in dipping sauces - a typical Japanese soy sauce like "Kikkoman" falls in this category. Dark soy is a lot darker, almost opaque black brown. It's used in general cooking, and to give stews and meats a rich reddish brown color. The taste is a little like blackstrap molasses, though it's thin in texture like light soy sauce. "Light" doesn't have anything to do with reduced sodium or dieting.
"Pearl River Bridge" is a good brand from mainland China, and easy to find in Asian stores.
I was really pleased with the way my lop cheong looked - very gnarled and beautiful, with shapely cubes of fat, just like the ones in stores - but the taste was atrocious, I think b/c I used dark soy. It overwhelmed both the meat, and the garlic and 5 spice I added to jazz up the recipe. Also, Kutas recommends adding soy protein concentrate, for which I substituted skim milk powder, and that couldn't have helped matters.
Here's the recipe,
Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing, Rytek Kutas, 3rd edition, p229
"Chinese-Style Sausage" - 10 Lbs
3/4 cup dextrose / glucose
2 cups soy sauce (I should have used light soy sauce!)
2 cups Chinese white wine
(I wasn't sure whether to interpret this as light colored rice wine, or white spirits - shochu / vodka. I ended up going with shochu, for the alchohol content)
2 tsp Instacure (Prague powder) #1
1 1/2 cup soy protein concentrate
4 Tb corn syrup solids (I omitted)
6 Tb salt
6 1/2 Lb very lean pork - cut in 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes
3 1/2 Lb backfat - cut in 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes (I went with ~3/8 inch, centimeter size)
"Place fat cubes in hot boiling water for a few seconds using a sieve or screen. This prevents the cubes from sticking together. This is done just before adding the rest of the ingredients. Be sure you allow it to cool properly.
The lean pork is also cut up in cubes 1/4 to 1/2 inch; mix all ingredients with the pork, except the soy protein concentrate. Let stand for about 5 minutes. Then add backfat and soy protein concentrate and mix well. Let stand another 5 minutes before placing into stuffer. Use a 38 - 42 mm hog casing for stuffing into 5 or 6 inch links. The casings will have to be pin-pricked to insure proper drying. Place in smokehouse without smoke and let dry for 5-6 hrs at 120 F or until desired color is obtained. Remove to cooler overnight."
This sounded like a bland, bland recipe so I tried to enliven it by adding some 5 spice powder and garlic. It might have worked out, but for the dark soy and skim milk. BTW one thing I'm not fond of in the Kutas book are the requests for corn syrup solids, soy protein concentrate and "Fermento"; skim milk powder really doesn't seem much better.
I know that a whole range of different sausages are made and sold in China - I think I remember seeing "pork and liver"and "pork and duck" ones for sale here in the US. It would be great to find some of these other recipes -
I like the idea of letting the sausages hang for a day before heating them; perhaps this would allow a fuller flavor to develop.
PS. Bob, if you're still reading this thread, and your daughter in law really does have some family sausage recipes in Mandarin (or ?), do let me know, I'd love to have a go at translating them ...
Best - krnntp