Lap cheong
腊肠 / 臘腸 · laap6 coeng2 (jyutping)
A dried, sweetened Cantonese-style pork sausage, sliced into rice, fried rice, noodles and claypot dishes; Chinese sausage on US menus.
What it means
Lap cheong (腊肠, làcháng) is Chinese sausage. Wikipedia describes a dried, hard sausage usually made from pork and pork fat, sweetened and seasoned with rice wine and soy sauce. The Woks of Life describes a sweeter, wine-flavored taste and contrasts it with lap yuk, which has a richer pork flavor and dark soy seasoning.
It is common in Cantonese cooking. Wikipedia says it is placed on uncooked rice in claypot dishes so its fat flavors the rice, and that sliced sausage goes into stir-fries and glutinous rice dishes. Omnivore's Cookbook suggests soaking lap cheong in cold water for two hours before claypot rice so it turns more tender, and The Woks of Life slices it thin and caramelizes it in a wok for three to four minutes.
Wikipedia lists other sausage types under the broader heading, including duck liver sausage, glutinous rice sausage and blood sausage, and says Chinese sausage is common across southern provinces such as Guangdong and Fujian as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
A common mix-up
Lap cheong is not the same as lap yuk, the cured pork The Woks of Life describes as richer in pork flavor and seasoned with dark soy sauce.
Questions people ask
What is lap cheong made of?
Wikipedia says usually pork and pork fat, sweetened and seasoned with rice wine and soy sauce. Other types are made with duck liver, glutinous rice or blood.
How is lap cheong usually cooked?
It is steamed on top of rice in claypot dishes, sliced into fried rice and stir-fries, or caramelized in a wok, per Wikipedia, Omnivore's Cookbook and The Woks of Life.
Sources & further reading
Background and preparation references. Our descriptions are editorial summaries, not restaurant reviews.