Russian-Style Smoked Sausage 俄式香肠
Russian-Style Smoked Sausage is featured among the local specialties of Heilongjiang.
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Russian-Style Smoked Sausage (俄式香肠) is the dark-red smoked sausage that Heilongjiang knows as red sausage (红肠), a Lithuanian-style sausage that came to Harbin (哈尔滨) in the railway era and is still called Russian red sausage.
Where it comes from
Chinese Wikipedia dates the story to 1897, when building the Chinese Eastern Railway brought many Russians and other foreigners to Harbin. In 1900 the Russian merchant Ivan Yakovlevich Churin founded the Churin company, Qiulin (秋林), in the city, and in 1909 a Lithuanian employee set up its sausage works on Shangwu Street (商务街) in Daoli (道里). It made a Lithuanian-flavoured sausage sold as "litovskaya", and because Lithuania was then part of the Russian Empire, the red sausage also became known as Russian red sausage.
Chinese Wikipedia puts Harbin red sausage first in its list of Heilongjiang local snacks. The Harbin Daily (哈尔滨日报) reports that Qiulin's traditional red-sausage technique is a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage item.
How it is made
The main meat is pork, traditionally with beef making up as much as half. Lean meat of about 80 percent and diced fat of about 10 percent (sometimes lard instead) are mixed with about 7 percent starch, under 3 percent salt, and spices, traditionally garlic and pepper, though other flavours exist. The meat is cured, made into filling, stuffed into casings, then baked, boiled and smoked.
Flavour and texture
The finished sausage is a deep jujube red, dry through the body, with evenly wrinkled casing and a smoky flavour. Wikipedia suggests it may descend from the Lithuanian skilandis and notes its likeness to the neighbouring Polish "country" sausage.
How it is bought
At the China Western Food Culture Festival on Harbin's Central Street (中央大街) in September 2026, Qiulin stacked its red sausage beside its big lieba bread and kvass. One 64-year-old local shopper quoted by the Harbin Daily ordered a portion of red sausage and two loaves together.
More dishes to compare
Explore related local specialties and compare their names, preparation notes and ordering guidance.
Smoked red sausage 哈尔滨红肠 →
The Harbin red sausage page covers the same Qiulin-style smoked sausage under its local name.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.