Chinese Meat Recipes
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.
For every catty of meat, use:
The mixture of spices is made up of the following:
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.
Use hams, shoulders, chops, fat back, and neck. Sometimes the liver is added to give a dark color. No belly meat or tough parts should be used. Separate the lean from the fat meat. Chop into pieces about one-quarter inch in diameter, or run through a sausage mill. One part fat and one part lean meat is generally used, though the proportion may vary either way, to suit the taste and demand.
Sausage casing is generally made from the middle coat of the small intestines of sheep although it is also made from the intestines of the hog. The casing is very thin and transparent. Some casing is prepared in Canton, but most of what is used in Canton comes from Shanghai, as there are comparatively few sheep or goats slaughtered in Canton. The dried casing sells for $3.00 to $6.00 a catty.
When ready to be used, the casing should be immersed in luke warm water for a few minutes to soften it. If the walls of the casing adhere to each other so that it is difficult for the meat to enter, water should be forced through to distend the casing.
Insert the small end of the filler (a tin funnel about six inches long) into the end of the casing. Hold the casing tightly to the filler with the left hand, and with the right hand force the meat through the filler into the casing. It is customary to use the hand for this, but a large wooden spoon would work just as well.
A sausage stuffing machine can be purchased for a few dollars, and will do the work of stuffing in a much more satisfactory manner than it can be done by hand. The end of the casing is tied around a tube at the bottom of a jar containing the sausage meat. A disc the size and shape of the inside of the jar is then pressed down on the meat with a lever, and the meat is thus forced into the casing. Such a machine will do the work of five or six men, and if of the right type, can also be used as a lard press. If it is difficult to force the meat into the casing, on account of compressed air, the air should be allowed to escape by punching small holes in the casing with pins. The stuffed casing is usually tied with a string every six inches, cut into convenient lengths, and hung up to dry.
The sausage should be prepared in the morning, so that it can be hung up to sun by noon. If it is prepared in the afternoon, there is some danger of its spoiling, especially if the day is not very cold, because it has to be stored over night before it gets much sun. Sunshine and cold north wind are needed to make the best sausage. With five days of wind and sun, the meat becomes hard and firm. In case of rainy or damp weather while the sausage is being dried, it must be hung up in a small room and a small charcoal or wood fire kept burning underneath. If the sausage is not well sunned or dried, it is very likely to spoil, and an effort should be made to get it pretty well dried within five days.
The time for making sausage is when there is a dry, cold wind blowing from the north. Such weather usually does not occur before the middle of November. From this time to the middle of January is usually the best season. If made earlier, the weather will not be cool enough. If made later, the chances for sunny weather are lessened, and the meat is not apt to cure so well.
This sausage is made the same as ordinary sausage, except that only lean meat is used.
In this sausage, duck liver is used instead of lean meat. Otherwise, it is made the same as ordinary sausage.
This is the same as ordinary bean sauce sausage, except that large casings are used. It is not very popular because of its size.
This is made in the same manner as ordinary sausage, except that oyster sauce (ho yau蠔油) is used instead of bean sauce in making up the pickle.
Catsup sausage is the same as ordinary sausage, except that for every catty of meat, three taels of catsup instead of bean sauce are used.
Prepare ordinary sausage, but use large casings. Dip in honey solution, and bake or roast.
An excellent cured ham is produced in Yunnan Province. This is due to the fact that the hogs in that region are largely of the bacon type, and the climate is very favorable for curing meat, being dry and fairly cool during the meat curing season.
In curing ham, the Chinese use much the same method as is used in western countries in making dry cured ham, except that sugar is not used in the pickle. The pickle is made up as follows: Salt (shuk im熟鹽) 20 catties (kan卄斤), Saltpeter (siu硝) .05 tael (半錢), mixture of spices (ng heung fan五香粉) 2 taels (leung二両).
Rub each piece of meat for one-half hour. Puncture the meat with needles so the pickle will work in well. Rub again in two days. For the two days after the first rubbing with the pickle, keep under pressure to squeeze out the water. After the second two days, rub again with the pickle. Rub again after two more days. Then the meat is packed in salt for fifteen days, when it is taken out and the salt wiped off and the meat is allowed to dry and harden. Curing should require forty days. The flavor improves with age.
Sun drying is a common method of curing pork in the Canton region. For this purpose, head, side, ham, and shoulder meat is used. The meat is cut in strips, about eight to ten inches long, and about one inch thick. It is immersed over night in a pickle which is the same as the one used in making sausage, and the next day rubbed with a mixture of honey and water (mat t’ong shui蜜糖水), made up of one part honey and one part water, and hung up to dryin the sun for two days. Again it is soaked in the pickle for a short time, and dried in the sun for two days. This is done a third time. Then it is put in a stone jar in a cool, dry place for two days, and again hung up to dry for one week, when it is cured. When cured, the fat meat is rather firm.
Pork can be sun dried in the Canton region between the first of November and the middle of January. Dry, north wind is best for curing. If cured later than January, it must be consumed immediately as it will not keep long.
In making pickled pig feet, the bone is first removed from the leg, leaving only the meat, skin and toes. Boil, and stuff with roast fat and lean meat to take the place of the bone. Tie up with rice straw, and immerse in the sausage spice for several hours.
Cut the beef into pieces weighing about four or five taels. Rub each piece thoroughly with salt. Place the meat in a jar and cover with salt. In one or two weeks, the meat is cured and ready to use. Soak in water for one-half hour before using in order to remove part of the salt.
Remove the feathers, internal organs, and brain. Then treat same as in making sun dried pork.
Use the liver of hogs. Cut into strips about one inch wide. Use wine and ginger for flavoring. Half dry it in the wind. It should not be overdried, as it will then be hard to digest. Prepare fat meat by cutting strips of it into such sizes that they can be inserted into the liver. Soak the fat meat in a solution of salt, saltpeter, and sugar, in proportions of 3-2-1. Finally, half dry the fat by hanging in the sun for several hours. With a wooden stick, make pockets in the strips of liver from one end to the other, and insert the strips of fat meat into the pockets. The strips of stuffed liver should then be hung up to dry for a half day.
The tongue, bladder, intestine, and liver, are used in makinglo meialthough any part of the carcass may be used. It is made by cooking the meat for ten minutes and then plunging it while still hot into cold water, cooking for ten minutes again, and then plunging into cold water. The process should be repeated at least twelve times. The expansion and contraction of the meat by such handling makes it very tender, and firm. The process of preparing this meat is called “crossing the river.”
The boiled meat should be put into a strong solution of spices prepared before hand, which is the same as the mixture of spices used for making the pickle for sausages. After remaining in the solution of spices over night, the meat is ready to be eaten.
Poultry, or pigs weighing up to one hundred catties, frequently are roasted. Two methods are used. Poultry and small pigs may be roasted in pans in an ordinary oven. The other method, which is the one commonly used, is to roast in a special oven. The latter method requires more skill than roasting in the ordinary oven. The oven is in the form of a cylinder stood on end, thirty to forty inches in diameter, and five or six feet high. The poultry or pig is hung on iron bars across the top of the stove, and the stove or oven is then covered with an iron lid. Fire is built at the bottom of the cylinder through an opening at one side. Dry hard wood or charcoal, which give but little smoke, are generally used for fuel. The meat being roasted needs constant attention and shifting so that it will roast through uniformly. It is said that when the meat gives off a white smoke, it is an indication that it is done. A solution made up of one part honey and one part water is rubbed on the meat, both inside and outside the carcass, before the roasting. This honey solution gives the outside of the meat a desirable rich reddish brown color when roasted.
For one dressed bird, use five taels of salt, which should be well rubbed into the meat. Then pack in salt for one day. Take up, wash off the salt, and put between two bamboo mats. Apply pressure for a few days, and hang up to dry.
The Canton climate is not very favorable for drying duck, as during the meat curing season it frequently rains. If the meat does not dry fairly rapidly, it is likely to spoil. In Naam On, Kwong Sai province, where it is generally dry during the curing season, the ducks are packed away after two days exposure to the sun. In Canton, it often takes two weeks. Ducks’ heads, kidneys, feet and other parts of the bird are also cured in the same way.
In making puffed pig skin, the pig skin is first cooked, and then thoroughly scraped with a knife in order to remove the oil and fat. It is then hung up in the sun to dry for about ten days. When it is ready for the puffing or blistering process, which is accomplished by roasting the dried skin in hot gravel in a shallow pan over a slow fire This process whitens and puffs, or blisters, the skin.
The puffed pig skin is cut into small cubes and used in soups. It has a spongy appearance with very little taste.
The skin on the hams, shoulders, and sides will puff the best, while the skin on the back, legs, and belly will not puff well on roasting in the hot gravel, but can be puffed by roasting in peanut oil.
On account of dampness and cloudy weather which interfere with proper drying, puffed pig skin is best made during the dry, sunny winter months. The product is on sale, however, throughout the year, as it keeps well if hung in a fairly dry, airy place. It is commonly seen hanging in the front of meat shops in Canton.
1For further details on smoking, see sections 55 to 61.
2Note: 1 mace = 1⁄100 ounce; 16 ounces = 1 catty.
AGRICULTURAL PUBLICATIONSOF THECANTON CHRISTIAN COLLEGE
The following agricultural bulletins and publications may be obtained at the price indicated from College Bookstore, Canton Christian College, Cantor, China.
Bulletin No. 5.Groff, G. W., Agricultural Reciprocity between America and China. Illustrated. 40 pp. $0.20.
Bulletin No. 12. Groff, G. W., The Papaya for South China. Illustrated. 8 illustrations, 7 pp. $0.10.
Chinese edition under title木瓜. 8 pp. $0.10.
Bulletin No. 18. Levine, C. O., and Cadbury, W. W., A Study of Milk Produced in Kwangtung. 9 pp. $0.10.
Bulletin No. 20. The 1917–18 Journal of the Lingnaam Agricultural Society (in Chinese). Illustrated. 150 pp. $0.20.
Bulletin No. 23. Levine, C. O., Notes on Farm Animals and Animal Industries in China. Illustrated. 8 illustrations, 54 pp. $0.40.
Bulletin No. 25. Graybill, H. B., Lawn Grasses for South China. 6 illustrations, 6 pp. $0.20.
Bulletin No. 27. Levine, C. O., Butchering and Curing Meats in China. Illustrated. 7 illustrations, 41 pp. $0.20.
Groff, G. W., The Lychee and Lungnan. Canton, 1920. 60 illustrations, 149 pp. Cloth bound. $2.20.
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