Siumai sausage – shrimp + pork = super tasty

In this post, I’ll show you how to make a siumai sausage yourself. Siumai are actually dumplings from Cantonese cuisine and are often eaten with dim sum.

My sausage is a variation of it and thus something exceptional. The shrimp, shiitake mushrooms and seasoning give you a sausage you’ve never had before. It’s a great change from the typical bratwurst and is perfect for a barbecue.

I have other bratwurst variations for you on my website. For example, how about a spinach feta bratwurst. 

 If you’re interested in more great bratwurst recipes, my recipe book “24 Bratwurst Recipes For A Perfect Barbecue Experience” is for you!

I also answered some general questions about making bratwurst in my post Making Bratwurst Yourself. Have a look there.

But now enough talking… 

Here you will find the complete siumai sausage recipe as a video or to read through.

Have fun and good luck making it!

Siumai sausage – What do you need to make it?

Ingredients for 1 Kg 

• 45 % pork shoulder (450g) 
• 30 % shrimps (300g) 
• 25 % pork back fat (250g)

Spices per Kg of meat

• 150 g shiitake mushrooms (soaked)
• 25 g soy sauce
• 25 g “soaking water” from the shiitakes
• 15 g salt
• 2 g sugar
• 2 g white pepper
• 2 g glutamate (if you have a problem with it, leave it out)
• 1,5 g baking soda

Optional: 50 g carrots (very finely chopped strips)

Marinade for the shrimps

• 1 g salt
• 1.5 g baking soda

The equipment to make siumai sausage

Meat Grinder

You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks with it.

Natural casings / jars

The siumai sausage is stuffed into natural casings. I recommend pork casing caliber 28/30.  

If you want to make sweet Italian sausage  without casings, you can use jars and boil down the mixture. 

Make Siumai sausage  – Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Cut the meat into pieces suitable for the grinder. You can vary the size depending on how big your meat grinder is.

2. Put the pieces of meat in the freezer for 1-2 hours to freeze. This will help you later with the grinding and ensure that the mixture does not get too warm.

3. Add the salt and baking soda to the shrimp and let them marinate for 15 minutes. The marinade will give the shrimp a special bite later.

4. After 15 minutes, rinse the shrimp with water.

5. Cut the soaked shiitake mushrooms into small pieces and squeeze out as much of the soaking water as possible. Make sure you save a little of it. We’ll add some back to the sausage mixture later.

6. Now you can grind the meat, fat and the shrimp. Depending on how coarse or fine you want your sausage, you can use different perforated discs. Honestly, this is a complete matter of taste. I use the biggest perforated disc (8mm). 

7. Add the spices, soy sauce, a little baking soda and the shiitake mushrooms to the mixture and knead vigorously for 3 – 5 minutes until a good bond is formed. You can usually tell by the fat streaks on your bowl.

8. Now slap the sausage meat vigorously into the bowl from above up to 10 times. This process is copied from the original production. The soda and this method gives the sausage a very special bite.

9. Fill the sausage meat into the casing. Important: Do not fill the casing too much, otherwise it will burst later during frying. I use the pork casing caliber 28/30.

10. Now it is twisted off. You can decide for yourself how big your sausage should be. To do this, press the sausage to the desired length with two fingers on each hand and rotate it forward a few times. Then leave out one sausage length and repeat the process.

11. Your siumai sausage is ready😄. Enjoy it. 

How long is the shelf life of the siumai sausage?

The siumai sausage can be kept raw in the refrigerator for about 1-2 days.

If you scald it directly after production at 75 degrees Celsius (167°F) for 25 minutes, it can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about a week.

Alternatively, you can freeze it raw or scalded, then it will keep for up to 6 months and will not lose any flavor.