Sausage in Rice Sausage

Ingredients

The rice sausage

• 500 gglutinous rice
• soaked 4 hours
• 1metre sausage casing
• or use a large one
• 1 tablespoonsoy sauce
• 1 teaspoonwhite pepper
• 1 teaspoonsalt
• 2 tablespoonsoil

The pork sausage

• 4Taiwanese pork sausages
• sweet and garlicky
• or any sweet grilling sausage

The fillings

• raw garlic cloves
• sliced or whole
• pickled mustard greens
• chopped
• pickled cucumber
• coriander
• chopped

The sauces

• soy paste
• or thick sweet soy
• chilli sauce
• wasabi, optional

Directions

1. Leave real room for that swelling. Fill every one of them only loosely. Rice sausages are sold ready made. Rinse the glutinous rice thoroughly. Rinse it until the water runs clearer. Three or four changes is enough. Soak the rice for at least four hours. Rinse the salted casing thoroughly. Rinse it out both inside and out. Then soak it in fresh cold water. Soak the casing for thirty minutes.
2. Keep it in water until you use it. Drain the soaked rice thoroughly. Mix it with the soy, salt and pepper. Add the oil to the rice as well. That stops it sticking in the casing. Mix it all right through evenly. Tie a knot in the far end of it.
3. Work it down the casing as it fills. Fill it only about two thirds full. Work them out with your fingers. Squeeze them along and right out. Tie the filled casing into lengths. Make them about fifteen centimetres. Tie them firmly with kitchen string. Leave a little slack in each one.
4. Prick each sausage several times. Use a fine needle or else a pin. Make holes along the whole length. Steam the rice sausages for thirty minutes. The rice must cook right through.
5. Steam is gentler than boiling here. Steam is genuinely the right method. Let the sausages cool completely. They firm up considerably as they cool. Warm ones fall apart on the grill. Wait until it glows under grey ash. That is what the method needs.
6. Grill the pork sausages until browned. Give them about ten full minutes. Turn them regularly throughout. Pork sausage must be cooked right through. Turn it more often than usual. Grilling the rice sausage is done alongside. Grill the rice sausages until crisp. Give them about eight full minutes.
7. Turn them regularly as they cook. The casing should go crisp and blistered. Cut most of the way through only. Leave one side joined as a hinge. Use a sharp knife very carefully. Hot steam escapes when you cut it.
8. Hold it in a thick cloth to cut it. Let it cool for a moment first. It should sit snugly right inside. Work them into all of the gaps. Add pickles, garlic and coriander. Slice it thinly for going inside. Squeeze soy paste and chilli sauce over. Soy paste is thick and quite sweet.
9. Serve it straight from the grill. Make them to order if you can. Hold it in a paper sleeve to eat. Eat it while it is genuinely hot.

Technique

• Fill the casing only about two thirds full and work out any air pockets: rice swells enormously as it cooks and a tightly filled or air-trapped casing bursts open, which is the commonest failure. Then prick each sausage along its whole length with a fine needle so steam can escape.
• Steam the rice sausages rather than boiling them, since boiling waterlogs the rice and bursts more casings, then cool them completely before grilling — they firm up considerably and warm ones fall apart on the grill.
• Pork sausage must be cooked right through to seventy-five degrees at the centre with no pink at all — cut one open to check the first time. Taiwanese sausage is sugary and burns readily on a grill, so turn it more often than usual and move it to a cooler spot if it chars.

Substitutions

• Ready-made rice sausages are sold frozen in Asian shops and are the practical route for most; any sweet grilling sausage stands in for the Taiwanese pork one.
• Charcoal produces carbon monoxide, which is odourless and genuinely lethal, so burn it outdoors only and never in an enclosed space.

Variations

• Split the rice sausage lengthwise but only most of the way through, leaving one side joined as a hinge so it holds together; hot steam escapes when you cut it and can scald, so hold it in a cloth and let it cool a moment.
• Raw garlic cloves eaten between bites are a genuine Taiwanese habit that sounds startling but is entirely normal — the sweet fatty sausage genuinely needs it. Pickled mustard greens and cucumber do the same job.
• This is a 1990s night-market invention borrowing the hot dog format, barely thirty years old, and the atlas records that plainly — not every traditional dish is old, and it is no less genuine for it. The rice-stuffed casing is the older element; putting the two together is the new part.

History

A 1990s night-market invention that borrows the hot-dog format, pairing Taiwan’s sweet grilled sausage with the older rice-stuffed intestine casing.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sausage in Rice Sausage?

Sausage in Rice Sausage is a street food from Taiwan: grilled pork sausage tucked into a split glutinous-rice sausage with pickles and garlic. A 1990s night-market invention that borrows the hot-dog format, pairing Taiwan’s sweet grilled sausage with the older rice-stuffed intestine casing.

How long does Sausage in Rice Sausage take to make?

Sausage in Rice Sausage takes 40 minutes plus soaking of preparation and 40 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Sausage in Rice Sausage?

Yes, within limits. Ready-made rice sausages are sold frozen in Asian shops and are the practical route for most; any sweet grilling sausage stands in for the Taiwanese pork one. Charcoal produces carbon monoxide, which is odourless and genuinely lethal, so burn it outdoors only and never in an enclosed space.

What is the most important thing to get right in Sausage in Rice Sausage?

Prick each sausage several times. Use a fine needle or else a pin. Make holes along the whole length. Steam the rice sausages for thirty minutes. The rice must cook right through.