Sai Ua – Northern Thai Sausage – ไส้อั่ว
Sai Ua, AKA northern Thai sausage, is a type of fresh sausage that is commonly found throughout the northern region of Thailand. It is made with pork and a large quantity of fresh aromatics such as lemongrass, galangal, garlic, and makrut lime leaf. The sausage is complex, herbal, rich, and extremely aromatic. This is a bit of a project, but the sausages keep very well in the freezer. Feel free to make a double batch!
Ingredients
Once I learned how to make Sai Ua, I realized why this sausage is not very well known in the west. Many of the ingredients are very hard to find fresh. Fresh lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, and makrut lime leaves are essential to achieving the proper herbaceous, aromatic flavors. Any dried or powdered version of these ingredients will totally fail to achieve the right flavor. Luckily, many of these ingredients can be found fresh-frozen. The fresh-frozen variety of these ingredients work very well for making Sai Ua. Fresh lemongrass is becoming more common in western grocery stores. Frozen whole galangal and turmeric roots can be found in many Asian and Southeast Asian grocery stores. Makrut lime leaves (aka kaffir lime leaves, but that name is no longer politically correct) can also be found fresh or frozen in some Asian groceries.
Making the Sausage
The best versions of Sai Ua that I have tasted in Thailand all have a coarse, rustic texture that I find quite appealing. The pork is ground coarsely and the aromatics are often very coarsely chopped or pounded so that you can clearly see bits of lemongrass, lime leaf, galangal… in every bite you take. Sai Ua should not be perfectly emulsified and smooth as is common in many of the western styles of sausage. I find the easiest way to achieve this texture is to coarsely chop all of the aromatics and mix them with the cubes of pork before grinding. The pork and aromatics are then ground together using a coarse grinder die (approximately 7mm holes) before casing. Easy.
NOTE: I will not be going over “proper” sausage stuffing and linking technique. There are many good resources online to learn how to stuff a sausage.
A few more Thai dishes:
- How to make sticky rice at home
- Green Papaya salad
- Sticky Rice with Mango
- Pad Ka Prao (spicy stir-fried chicken with basil and a fried egg)
- Thai Roti with banana, condensed milk, and egg
- Thai steamed whole fish with garlic, chili and lime
- Crab Fried Rice
- Thai crispy egg salad
- Chicken and eggplant green curry
- Thai grilled chicken
Sai Ua – Northern Thai Sausage – ไส้อั่ว
Equipment
- Meat grinder with medium-coarse grinder die (holes about 7-8mm or 1/4" in diameter)
- Funnel, sausage stuffer, or stuffer attachment for the meat grinder
- kitchen scale
Ingredients
- 1400 grams lean pork, ideally shoulder
- 600 grams pork fat (try to use solid, harder pork fat)
- 20 grams salt
- 170 grams soy sauce
- 100 grams fish sauce
- 30 grams makrut lime leaves, center stem removed
- 110 gram chopped cilantro stems and roots (some leaves are OK0
- 320 grams roughly chopped lemongrass (tender parts only)
- 200 grams roughly chopped fresh or thawed galangal (peeled if the skins are very tough)
- 70 grams roughly chopped fresh or thawed turmeric root
- 200 grams roughly chopped shallot
- 240 grams garlic cloves
- 3 Tbsp toasted red chili flake
- 40 grams palm sugar or light brown sugar
- 20 grams Thai shrimp paste (gapi)
- 80 grams roughly chopped scallions
- pork sausage casings (as needed)
Instructions
- Cut the pork and pork fat into roughly 1-inch chunks. Mix the fat and lean pork together and place in the freezer until it is half-frozen, about 20-30 minutes, Cut and weigh out the rest of the ingredients.
- When the pork and fat are half-frozen (it should not be frozen solid), mix with all the rest of the ingredients (besides the pork casings) in a large bowl .
- Using a medium-coarse grinder die (holes about 7-8mm or 1/4" in diameter), grind everything together once. "Knead" the ground sausage a few times using your hands.
- Rinse the sausage casing very well inside and out using cold water and attach them to whatever implement you will be using to stuff the sausages. I will not be going over "proper" sausage stuffing and linking technique. There are many good resources online to learn how to stuff a sausage.
- Stuff the sausage into the casings and form individual links or large coils, depending on what you prefer. Pat the sausage dry and lay on an uncovered sheet tray and allow to dry overnight in the refrigerator. Pat dry and flip the sausages halfway through so that both sides of the sausage casing get a bit dry. Freeze whatever sausage you will not be cooking within 2 or 3 days.
- Cook the sausage using whichever method you prefer. For the ideal smokey flavor, cook over charcoal or wood.
