Harbin Red Sausage Making Technique

The Harbin red sausage craft began in the sausage workshop the Russian merchant Churin opened in Harbin's Xiangfang in 1900, inheriting the Lithuanian-style Russian method, brought into Harbin with the Chinese Eastern Railway and its émigrés and gradually fused into a local style; the craft is now listed among the intangible cultural heritage representative items of Heilongjiang province.

The craft takes pork and beef through dozens of steps—curing, grinding, seasoning, filling, smoking and baking—centring on garlic seasoning and hardwood smoking that give the finished sausage its date-red skin, firm meat and deep aroma of smoke and garlic.

The Harbin red sausage craft is a living witness to the mingling of Chinese and Russian culture, carrying the unique history of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the Russian émigrés, and an important vehicle for studying modern east-west food exchange.