Baloney

Overview

Baloney is the North American spelling and popular form of bologna sausage, a large-diameter cooked and often smoked emulsified cold cut. It is related historically to mortadella but became a distinct American processed-meat category.

The cut

Identity and terminology

The spelling baloney also developed figurative meanings in American English, but the food name refers to bologna. It must not be presented as protected Bologna mortadella or as an authentic Italian regional sausage.

Composition and characteristics

Beef, pork and fat are finely emulsified with curing salt, seasoning and sometimes starch or other binders. The cut face is uniform and smooth, usually pink, without the large fat cubes characteristic of mortadella.

Production and process

The fine batter is stuffed into a large cellulose or fibrous casing, smoked or cooked, thermally processed and rapidly cooled. Commercial loaves are peeled and sliced.

History and regional forms

European bologna-style sausages entered North American industrial meat processing in the nineteenth century. Mechanised chopping, large casings and national distribution transformed them into an inexpensive sandwich meat with its own spelling and cultural associations.

Use, storage and related products

It is eaten cold in sandwiches, fried in slices or used in lunch dishes. It differs from mortadella, ring bologna and high-quality coarse bologna products.