*2.1. Materials*

The pork lean meat (protein: 20.16%; fat: 2.57%; moisture: 71.11%; ash: 1.18%) and back fat (protein: 0.54%; fat: 91.01%; moisture: 7.26%; ash: 0.17%) were obtained from Jilin Huazheng Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Development Co. Ltd. (Changchun, China) and stored at −20 ◦C until use. Dry *Auricularia cornea* was supplied by Engineering Research Center of Chinese Ministry of Education for Edible and Medicinal Fungi. All spices (salt; sugar; wheat; carrageen; isolated soy protein; dry starch; ice) were obtained from the local market. All the additives and chemical reagents were purchased from Sichuan Jinshan Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Guangyuan, China) and Beijing Beihua Co. Ltd. (Beijing, China), respectively.

### *2.2. Sausages Formulation and Processing*

The lean pork meat was minced and the back fat was cut into approximately 1.5 cm cubes. Dry *Auricularia cornea* was immersed in water at 40 ◦C for 30 min, then cut into 0.5 cm slices. The sausages were prepared using the formulations that are shown in Table 1. Differently, the control sausage formulation was made with pork fat, and the other four formulations (AC25, AC50, AC75, and AC100) were prepared with substitution of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of pork fat by AC, respectively. Each sausage (Control, AC25, AC50, AC75, and AC100) was added according to the formula and the ingredients were homogenized by the blender (GermanK+G wetter touch screen) for 140 s. The sausage was roasted at 68 ◦C for 30 min, steamed at 80 ◦C for 50 min, and smoked at 50 ◦C for 150 min. The three processes were completed by an electric heating flue gas furnace (Zhucheng Yizhong Machinery Co., LTD., Weifang, China). After cooling, the samples were individually packaged in polyethylene bags using a vacuum packaging machine (Zhucheng Yizhong Machinery Co., LTD., Weifang, China) and stored at 4 ± 1 ◦C for subsequent analysis.


**Table 1.** Formulations of sausages with alternative of pork fat at *Auricularia cornea* (AC).

Notes: Control (0%), AC25 (25%), AC50 (50%), AC75 (75%), AC100 (100%) were substitution of pork fat by AC, respectively.

### *2.3. Proximate Composition and Energy Value*

The proximate composition of cooked sausages was detected foundation the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC, 2005). Energy value was calculated based on 9 kcal/g for fat, 4 kcal/g for protein and carbohydrate [18].
