Directions

1. In a blender, add a handful of dried red chilies, 2 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorn. These 2 ingredients are the main elements for this recipe, if you skip any of them, you won’t ruin the sausage. But it is not gonna be Sichuan style anymore. Base on that, we will add some other spices: 1 tsp of cumin seed, 1 tsp of black peppercorn, 12 pieces of cloves, 1/2 of black cardamon, 1 piece of star anise, a small piece of cinnamon, 1 piece of dried orange peel. If you don’t have the dried form, you can use some finely minced fresh orange peel.

2. Cover it and blend them into a fine powder. Let that go through a sieve so we can get rid of some stubborn pieces. Mostly will be the chili seeds. Those are spicy, you wouldn’t want that in your sausage.
3. After that, we will add 60 grams (3 tbsp) of salt and 40 grams (2 tbsp +2.5 tsp) of sugar. Just mix this up and set it aside. We will take care of our meat.
4. You can use pork belly, pork shoulder, pork butt. What I like to do is combine 1 part of pork shoulder and 1 part of pork belly together.
5. Cut all the pork into smaller strips. Them slice it into bite size. I know most sausage you had are made by ground meat. The reason I don’t use ground pork is that it does make a big difference. I prefer the sausage that when you take a bite, there are real meat pieces inside. This is the way how the traditional Chinese sausage is made for centuries. You could use ground meat thought but it does come out different in texture. It might look like too much work but it is definitely worth it.
6. Pork belly is about 50% fat and the pork shoulder is pretty lean. By combing 2 kinds of cut together, you control the fat ratio in between 25-30%. You don’t want to use completely lean meat because the sausage will dry out as the day goes by. Without the fat, it will be tough, dry, and difficult to chew. The more fat it has, the juicer it will be. If you do want to use 50% fat ratio, go ahead but it just not something that I prefer.
7. Next, take the seasoning mix and dump it into the meat. Along with 3 tbsp of high level alcohol. The alcohol content needs to be at least 30%. The higher, the better. Also, you want to use the alcohol that doesn’t have that much flavor so it doesn’t affect the final taste. Do not skip the alcohol because it has many purposes in this recipe. It kills the bacteria, also changes the flavor and texture of the fat as the day goes by. Mix this until well combined. Cover it with a plastic film and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
8. The next day, you can start preparing the casing and the sausage stuffer. Soak the casing in clean water. Take the end and put it on the tube. Make sure you don’t have sharp nails or else you might break the casing by accident. Just keep putting the casing until you reach the end.
9. Stuff the meat in and push it into the casing. Once it reaches the length that you want. Give it a little squeeze and tie it with the rope. This process takes a little patient and time. You just keep doing it until you finish all the meat.
10. Check all the surface of the sausage and if you see any air bubbles, poke it with a toothpick.
11. Put all the sausage on a drying rack. and let it sit in the fridge uncovered for 10 - 15 days. Depends on the humidity and the temperature. If you see the surface is completely dry, that means your sausage is done.
12. When I film this video, it was summer time so I have to put it in the fridge. Here is how you can make the sausage in the winter without the fridge. Maybe some of you can try this way.