Preserved Meat at Chinatown Chinese New Year Bazaar Part 1

Preserved meat, duck & sausages are traditionally found at specialised preserved meat stalls in Chinatown during the month before the Chinese Lunar New Year. 

Chinese sausage 腊肠 (Lap Cheong) is a common delicacy seen often at tables of the Chinese more so during the Chinese New Year season. Pork with some fatty meat is passed into casing made from pig intestine lining, then compressed, dehydrated and dried. 

Legend has it that in 1894 - during the 20th year reign of the Emperor Guangxu 光绪 in the Qing Dynasty, a porridge seller named Su Depei 苏德培 in Guangdong to used leftover pork meat & liver - he added salt, sugar & soya sauce to marinate, then placed them in a casing to dry for days. Hence the Chinese sausage was developed. 

The dark colored Chinese sausages are made using  pig liver. 

These shorter Chinese sausages are made with about 50% fatty pork meat, hence the one bits appear more prominently.

Preserved duck腊鸭 can also be found during the Chinese Lunar New Year season. They are either sold whole in flattened shape  or as legs. 

According to the Yi Jin 易经 - the history to preserving meat using salt dates back almost more than 2000 years ago way before the refrigerator was invented. Using raw meat (pork, duck, chicken, fish, beef) and preserving them serves to extend their shelf-life, plus the preservation process makes the the meat more flavourful and tasty.

Steps to preparing the preserved meat involves frying the raw salt in the wok till hot, then adding the raw meat into the hot salt, wait till it cools down, then marinate the meat & leave for a week, after which wash the meat & leave it to dry in the sun, lastly use fire to smoke the meat till the color darkens.