Hmong sausage

Hmong sausage (Hmong: nyhuv ntxwm hmoob ) is a long thick pork sausage from Hmong culture seasoned with herbs like lemongrass and Thai chili pepper. The sausage is popular during Hmong New Year celebrations. The exact recipe varies depending on factors such as clan and individual immigration background.

Hmong being a diaspora incorporate a wide variety of ingredients, methods, and cultural backgrounds in Hmong cuisine such as Hmong sausage. There is no standard recipe for Hmong sausage, but the key ingredients are coarse ground fatty pork cuts such as pork belly and pork shoulder, Thai chili peppers, lemongrass, Kaffir lime leaf or lime juice, and fresh ginger root or galangal. Other common ingredients are salt, black pepper, garlic, scallions, shallots, fish sauce, oyster sauce, cilantro, green onion, Serrano pepper, and monosodium glutamate (MSG). Fresh aromatic herbs are prioritized for flavor and are visible under the sausage casing. One commercial producer sells a number of popular variations: original (no chilies), spicy (with chilies), ginger, made with pork blood, and "egg roll-style" made with vermicelli noodles and other egg roll fillings.

Typically Hmong sausage is 1 and 1/4th inches in diameter and sliced into 9 inch long links for cooking and serving. The sausage is usually sold and served fresh, although some variations are lightly fermented or cured. Commercial outlets ship the sausage frozen.

Hmong sausage is typically grilled at a low heat and served as large slices with steamed white rice or purple sticky rice, another signature Hmong dish, pan fried with blanched cabbage, or with pho soup. Sour and spicy sauces are served on the side, especially a Hmong sauce made with Thai chilies called "pepper dip". Reflecting the diverse backgrounds of Hmong people, some restaurants offer "Thai-style" or "Lao-style" preparations. The sausage is widely available in Hmong communities at restaurants, butchers, and delis.

Culture
Many Hmong Americans express that making and eating traditional Hmong foods such as sausage connects them to their identity and family history. About Hmong sausage in relation to the difficult background of Hmong immigrants, Minnesota Hmong American chef Yia Vang said: "This sausage is redemption... I’m proud of it... I’m not ashamed anymore. This shit is legacy."

Hmong sausage is commonly processed and served during special occasions like Hmong New Year celebrations. Hmong American families tend to make the sausage in large batches with common American processing equipment such as sausage stuffing machines and synthetic sausage casing, although historically and in other Hmong diasporas across the world the sausage is produced by hand, frequently in small batches. Chef Yia Vang recalls his father teaching him to coarsely chop pork by hand and stuff it into intestine casing with a modified Coca-Cola bottle. Hmong Americans tend to make the sausage a foot or more long and very thick, then eat it fresh or freeze it to preserve it. Some families prefer shorter sausages. Others prefer to lightly ferment or smoke the sausage for flavor and preservation.

Hmong families pass down "secret" sausage recipes and don't disclose the exact ingredients or methods they use. In Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America (2023), an authoritative Hmong American cookbook, the authors say: "Good cooks guard their sausage recipes, and everyone makes sausage a little differently." La Vang-Herr, proprietor of @La's, a Hmong food cart in Aloha, Oregon, declined to share their recipe and revealed only that the main ingredients of their sausage are "juicy ground pork and aromatics like ginger and lemongrass".

Commercial preparation
There are numerous commercial producers of Hmong sausage including:


 * Tsim Neej LLC (Fresno, California)
 * 3 Hmong Sausage (Saint Paul, Minnesota)
 * Hnyuv Npua / Sausage By CPK Company (Saint Paul, Minnesota)
 * Pork Sausage Wholesaler (Saint Paul, Minnesota)

Restaurants that serve Hmong sausage include:


 * Union Hmong Kitchen
 * Hmongtown Marketplace

Union Hmong Kitchen debuted at the Minnesota State Fair in 2022 with dishes such as purple sticky rice and Hmong sausage made with crunchy Thai chili oil, and began serving the sausage at Target Field in 2023. Kramarczuk's, a James Beard Award-winning Ukrainian deli in Minneapolis, makes and sells Union Hmong Kitchen branded Hmong sausage. Discussing Yia Vang's restaurants, Minnesota Monthly listed Hmong sausage as one of Minnesota's most iconic foods.

Hmong College Prep Academy, located in the largest urban Hmong population, serves Hmong sausage and other Hmong specialties for its students.

In popular culture

 * Food critic Andrew Zimmern featured the popular Hmong sausage with purple sticky rice meal at Hmongtown Marketplace on Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations in 2016.
 * In YA novel Sunny G's Series of Rash Decisions, the main character insists he is "willing to die for this sausage now that he has not-so-subtly insinuated he thinks I can't handle it" when told it's "Hmong-level spicy." The Thai chilies frequently used in spicy Hmong sausage are around 50,000 – 100,000 Scoville units, which is less than a habanero, but many times hotter than the spiciest jalapeños.
 * Yia Vang mentioned Hmong sausage as part of his background in the opening of Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend episode six, "Battle Chili Peppers".