Bologna: A History
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- The history of Bologna combines a distant past with modern inventions, immigration patterns, government regulations, and economic necessity, all to arrive at the boloney, mayo and American cheese on white bread staple that USA Today calls “a nutritionally dubious midday meal for millions of US students.” Join The History Guy for this snippet of forgotten history and be sure to subscribe for more.
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Script by THG
#history #thehistoryguy #lunch
I remember eating two bologna, cheese, and mustard sandwiches almost every day growing up
right up until I entered the Army. After a tour of Viet Nam, I was stationed at Ft Lewis, Washington, by that time I had mastered the fine art of trading beer for after-hours food from the mess hall, my food of choice; bologna, cheese, bread, and mustard. I returned home in 1972, married, and settled into life raising kids, growing older, all the time eating two bologna, cheese, bread, and mustard sandwiches.
I am now 72 years old, retired, and enjoying life more than ever. I still eat two bologna, cheese, and mustard sandwiches almost every day, and sometimes for a night-time snack. By my very unscientific reckoning, I believe I have consumed over 30,000 bologna, cheese, bread, and mustard sandwiches in my lifetime, all thanks to Mr. Oscar Meyer!
Thats a bunch of bologna.
@@allenferry9632 - Maybe he's never heard that "you are what you eat."
Mustard is the only fitting condiment for balongna.
@@captainamericaamerica8090 people who put mayo on balongna are the same ones who put ketchup on hotdogs.
Great Story! Thanks for sharing 😄
If this man can make bologna interesting, he is a part of history, that deserves to be remembered.
Yup, he makes you want to go out and buy a bow tie!
I carried bologna and mustard sandwiches to school EVERY DAY for 12 years. If for some reason on the rare occasion that some other sandwich was substituted, I didn’t feel like I’d had lunch… I still eat boloney and mustard sandwiches to this day nearly 70 years later❤
@Oklahoma Girl Cooks yes!! I put the chips on the sandwich. When I was young I called that my lettuce🤗
Mustard always. Was never a fan of mayonnaise with it
It’s the little things in life one remembers fondly
That's funny but it tells me I'm not alone in life-I grew up kinda poor and as soon as I started working (at 15) I bought ham to take for lunch. So for over 40 years that I have taken my lunch to work it has always been ham and cheese sandwiches...no more bologna except on "special" occasions lol
I spent summers in northern Michigan with my Grandfather Smokey and his brother Tye. A day on the boat fishing always started with a stop at the grocery store for a large piece of uncut bologna, a loaf of bread an onion and some mustard. Sandwiches were made on the boat's bench seat with a pocket knife followed with a cold can of Carlings Black Label. Best lunch's I ever had.
Lunch’s what?
My mind often drifts back to memories of my late wonderful grandfather and I fishing. He was too poor to have boat so we fished from the bank. Lunch was often bologna sandwiches, Vienna sausages on saltine crackers, or canned sardines. Desert was a moon pie or little Debbie snack cake of some sort. We didn't have much, but we had a lot of love and good times. I miss him dearly.
@@williamwilson6499 Wilson!!!!
Used to go fishing with my uncle and cousins every Saturday morning and would pack the night before in a cooler bolongna sandwiches and Falstaff and an occasional black label or PBR wouldn't be to far fetched back in the late fifties and sixties the sandwiches were good and the beer just barely cold by the time lunch came around those were some good memories even when we didn't catch a thing only a severe sunburn.
Black Label! You sound like a Canuck. LOL
My father grew up the son of Sicilian immigrants in the 50’s and went to very “white bread American” schools. His grandmother packed his lunch, which usually contained sandwich of roasted red peppers, an Italian cheese and coppa or mortadella on fresh baked sourdough. He was so embarrassed. All he wanted was Oscar Meyer bologna and Kraft American cheese on Wonder bread. Crazy.
Roasted red peppers are so good together with ham though... Then again, I was always more concerned with how food tastes as opposed to what other people think of me eating it.
Watch the Sal Maniscalco clip about taking lunch to school. Complete with Stella d’Oro cookies.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
WONDER BREAD? YUCK!!!
It is ROMAN MEAL BREAD that was good!!!!!!!
Had that very sandwich, last night.
It's finally come to this. A History Guy episode full of bologna!
LOL! But he admits it!
🤣🤣🙄
Baloney.
Groan
ba da dum
I remember my great-grandmother telling me the story of her and her brothers and sister taking their wagon from Charleston, Illinois to Chicago for the world's fair. They were the children of poor farmers. But they saved up their money to try a new delicacy they'd heard about. Once they arrived they sent their oldest brother to get them the new sandwiches they'd heard so much about. But he, being worried they might not like it, and being so hungry, decided to get them their usual egg sandwiches instead. The rest of the kids were so mad at him. They'd traveled probably days and all they got were egg sandwiches! They enjoy seeing the fair. And the delicacy they were looking forward to do desperately?...it was a bologna sandwich. She always told me this story while she fried me a piece for my own sandwich. I miss her, her food, and her story. Her history deserves to be remembered. 😉
my grandmother was from midland Texas (my grandfather was Cherokee from near lake Hugo in Oklahoma. In one of the state parks around the lake is the old barn and cistern from their family farm) and she and my great grandparents took a buckboard wagon to Dallas to buy bologna and bread. A nickle got you a 1lbs loaf of bread and a "roll" of bologna. It was just one of many stories about just how much things had changed both in prices and technology.
@@davidmiller9485 I grew up with bologna sandwiches. Fried Bologna sandwiches were the best. Mustard, and sometimes tomatoes.
The moral of the story.. just because you might not have any sense of adventure don't ruin the fun for everyone else.
@@davidmiller9485 Why did you think the ethnicities of your grandparents were relevant to any of that?
@@nacanacoo Maybe because I'm quite proud of my native American heritage, maybe because it shows how disadvantaged it was for him to spend money on something you didn't grow (as in just how bad the U.S. population has/is been treating Natives or maybe just because. I'm more curious why YOU thought it was an issue.
Being a Swedish guy this made me think of the swedish sausage "Falukorv", which is a bologna-style sausage. It's commonly viewed as a poor mans choice of sustenance since it originated in the 1500's mining towns in northern Sweden, where they used horses to pull the mining carts. Needless to say, these horses (and miners) were short lived due to horrible working conditions and got turned into sausage when they couldn't work anymore (not the miners, mind you).
😜👍
You _hope!_ 😋
Ugh. Them horses should have rebelled.
Waste not, want not. I'm sure the Swedes had an analogous saying.
Norwegian here. Falukorv is a sentimental childhood weekend lunch treat for me. Fried eggs and falukorv with sliced tomato and my mother's homemade, wholegrain bread. 😋 I still have that on occasion, except with store bought bread. It has a taste of good memories and simpler times to me.
As a child I loved fried bologna/baloney on white bread with mustard...
Toasted white bread for me, please!
Yep. Me too. I remember cutting 3 slits around the edge to keep it from shrinking up. I still like to eat one of those delicious sandwiches once in a while. It's very nostalgic.
That was our Sunday lunchtime treat.
Love it fried. Made college affordable.
Oh yeah! I think I'll make one for old times sake
I can remember a lot of road trips as a kid where instead of stopping at a restaurant for lunch (fast food wasn't nearly as prevalent in the 1970's as it is now), Mom would buy a loaf of bread and a package of Oscar Mayer bologna and we'd make sandwiches while driving wherever we were headed. I'm sure it was at least partly motivated by finances; Dad was a high school teacher and Mom stayed at home to raise my sister and me until I was 12.
BTW, for almost the entirety of his career (36 years; he's been retired since 2002) Dad took a bologna and American cheese sandwich with mayo and mustard to work with him for lunch.
You're right about eating out. My family road trips in the late 1970's and early 80's rarely included restaurant stops. We drove from Nebraska to Florida eating mostly what my mom had packed in a cooler. In Florida we got into a fight at the grocery store because I wanted pears, and my mom couldn't believe I liked pears. She didn't know they were a staple of school lunches. What a memory.
Even in the 90s my family didn't eat a lot of fast food. Similarly to yours, my mom would stop and get bread and chicken salad from the store and we would all make sandwiches before moving on to other errands.
Atlantic Canadian here. One reason for it's popularity here, and especially in Newfoundland, is the historic dependence on the fishing industry. It was largely seasonal, and many of the fishing communities were located in remote places and on islands, so preserved meat, particularly bologna, was a common staple because it could be kept well and used to supplement protein intake during the leaner periods, and it was easier to transport to and keep in remote areas.
My Canadian In-Laws (New Brunswick French Canadians) are huge fans - a special treat for them is "New Brunswick Steak" - a 1/2 in (12-13 mm) slab of a Deli Bologna round, fried up and served with fired potatoes. A good meal in a cold winter surveying camp.
It would definitely be an alternative to relentless dried or smoked fish fillets.
@@peterstickney7608 Canadians call that Newfie Steak, and you can just call your relations Acadians, or alternatively, North American Hide & Seek Champions.
I bet you know how to pronounce Newfoundland too!
Newfoundland: FRY IT. FRY IT. FRY IT ALL.
I’m a 70 year old guy who grew up down in Texas where baloney was a stable in our house. My parents would buy “Store Bought” products like Oscar Mayer or Hormel for building sandwiches but would go to the neighborhood “Mom & Pop “ grocery where they could get “hand cut” slices of this heavenly meat, in extra thick ¼” thick slabs for frying (something I don’t think you mentioned). We would have this treat for our evening meal served up with various veggies, for a non formal family meal. I recall my Dad always referred to it as San Diego Sirloin, but gave no explanation for that name. Nonetheless, it was and always will be a household favorite for me, as well as my wife, who grew up in a small Central Texas German community. As always, thanks for all you do, Mr Guest…you preserve the past and it’s history much like fine charcuterie!!
- “Ol’ Scooter” down here in East Texas…
I’m 61 yo, grew up in the westside of San Antonio with a family of 9. Had baloney cold or fried. As we got older we use to joke around and called it Mexican round steak 😂.
We were dirt poor when I was in kindergarten and first grade. I all but hated bologna. Kraft cheese product slices helped make it more palatable for me. Then again, I've always had a more adult taste, preferring dark chocolate to milk chocolate, for example.
I now want to have a bologna sandwich.
Was he a Marine?
Would that be Fredericksberg?
I love Balogna! Although I do remember the first time I encountered Mortadella! I was in Brazil and was a dorky kid from Utah, a friend ordered a hot mortadella sandwich for me and my life was changed forever. Wonderful stuff!
*bologna, not "balogna". It's in the title of the video for crying out loud!
@@sidgar1 That's the worst spelling error you can comment on in this thread? You must be a serious "balogna" addict🤣🤣🤣
My father, who passed away four years ago at age 98, vividly remembered the nauseating frequency with which his mother served bologna during the Depression, and having it served to him in wartime canteens. As a result, it was the one foodstuff that was not allowed in our home as I grew up. My siblings and I were frequently served bologna at friends’ houses, but none of us acquired a taste for it. Chips off the old block.
Chips off the old block? Cream chipped beef is another food that US GI’s would mostly never eat again after WWII. They had a special name for it when served on toast.
My Fad was born in Montreal ( where I still live. ) in 1918 ( he died at 93 ) He was in the RCAF in WW2 but didn’t talk about mess food. What he talked about were ketchup sandwiches during the depression and the horse drawn I’ve cart ( for ice boxes) the drivers kid would sit in the back and toss chips of ice to the kids in the street who’d chase after it. Poor kids popsicles. Lol.
My Dad. Lol.
Ice cart
Maggie: My grandmother had a little grocery store during the Depression and at times helped men down in their luck with one slice bologna and bread sandwiches.
This episode literally gave me craving for a bologna and swiss cheese sandwich. 😋
With pinto beans.
'Merican cheese
Me too!
SWISS cheese?!?! Communist!
@@onewolf3750 🤣😂😅🤣😂
As a child we were poor, but bologna was eaten as the main dish several times a week. Mom would fry the bologna, cut it up in baked beans and we'd have bologna and cheese sandwiches. Occasionally she would cut out a hole in the middle and fry an egg in the hole, which she called a one eyed Egyptian. I'm 65 and still like an occasionally bologna sandwich with cheese sandwich.
One CHRISTMAS, my Mom took a huge "chub" of baloney (that's what we called it) scored the top with a knife, covered it with a homemade glaze and then poked cloves in it & and baked it. That was our Christmas Ham that year. My memory (from 60+ years ago) was that it was so good, and, not until my adult life did I realize we couldn't afford ham.
Sounds like your mother was a very creative person.
We had a square can of spam one very tough year. My mom but pineapple chunks and brown sugar on it with cloves.
People who grew up around the 30's & 40's knew how to make due with what they had. My folks grew up around then and did similar stuff like your mom.
That sounds very appealing. One 4th of July the year my dad was sick for months we had thick slices of bologna on the grill. Mom brushed some make do BBQ sauce on it and toasted stale bread on the grill. I liked it and didn't care a thing about the neighbors... just glad daddy didn't die from how sick he was.
@@alienonion4636 we smoke a log of bologna a few times of year. Glaze it with a sweet chili sauce and omg it is amazing. Even food snobs eat all of it.
Growing up, my brown bag lunch often included a mortadella and cheese sandwich which sometimes raised the curiosity of my classmates much to my embarrassment. Nowadays, mortadella sells for a luxurious $6 for 4oz at Kroger. Who knew mortadella would become so high-class.
Au cotraire, mortadella is considered a fine luxury meat in Italy. One would never dare to compare American bologna and Italian mortadella.
@@drcowan3468 It’s his perception based on childhood. :)
Never imagined bologna had such an elaborate history.
Since I trend towards the bizarre and strange, I once thought of combining two childhood foods, Bologna Sandwiches and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches into one. It was then that I discovered to my dismay that Bologna doesn't fry evenly like bacon or hamburger patties. Instead it tends to shrink on the outside edges causing it to "dome up". The obvious solution was a single radial cut from the center to the edge. Thus I had created a Pac-Man out of Bologna many years before the game was created. I still enjoy my Bologna seared and then melted with cheese on a grilled sandwich.
My mom cut the bologna 4 times around, making it turn into a fan when she fried it. I never liked it fried, though. I grew up with not only bologna and cheese, but also bologna and peanut butter. I have no idea where the idea came from, but I still enjoy a PB and bologna sandwich nowadays.
I know that exactly. Here in the Philippines people tend to lightly fry sliced cooked ham or bologna even though they're supposed to be cold cuts. The Pac-man bologna is regular thing in a sandwich.
When money was tight, you went to the deli and ordered your bologna "cut thick" so you could make fried bologna for dinner. Chopped slices of bologna could also be added to some ramen to make those "bachelor meals" a little more hearty. An "Italian sub" had prosciutto/capicolla, mortadella, salami, and provolone. An "American sub" was ham, American cheese, and bologna. And the best bolognas all had German brand names.
Only fry bologna in the summer time when you can open the windows.
I had forgotten about how the butcher would ask my parents how thick they wanted the slices. It was fun watching the slicing and wrapping of the purchase in wax paper with the tape to bind it together that came from the big dispenser that kicked out the tape with a bump of the handle. The tape had had WEIGHT and PRICE printed on it, and the butcher filled those spaces in with his wax pencil.
Then when you got home and made your sandwich, you would peel the casing off from around the edge of the meat, or you would get a surprise with your first bite.
Awwwww! Those good old days!
Processed meat is a type 1 carcinogen according to the World Health Organization. In the same category as smoking tobacco, and asbestos exposure. The plant based version of bologna tastes exactly the same. Maybe a good place to start your journey to a plant based diet? Vegans have lower rates of ischemic heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain types of cancer, and obesity according to the peer reviewed Adventist Studies. Link to the studies at my channel under "About."
I am retired living in the Philippines. Whenever I go back to Texas I have a neighbor who has one request. He is an elderly man, retired US Navy. All he wants whenever I go back is for me to bring him a pack of Oscar Meyer Bologna. The local type is definitely different, not bad but different. I have to admit, fried bologna sandwich with mustard was always a favorite.
I heard a story about when country singer Toby Keith opened one of his restaurants in Vegas, the “experts” tried to talk him out of putting fried bologna sandwiches on the menu, but he insisted, and so they were. A few months after opening, he went to a meeting with the same “experts” and asked what was the best selling menu item. They hemmed and hawed a bit before finally admitting - it was the fried bologna sandwich.
Heard that one too. 🥪
Mexican Hats! Love‘m 🥰
Doesn’t say much for the rest of the food at that restaurant, and i say this as someone who loves bologna. I don’t really think i need to pay someone to make me a bologna sandwich, as it is perhaps the easiest sandwich in the world to make.
@@bartmix8994 You sound like the kind of guy who would harp on the idea of the "Pet Rock" and anyone who bought it, yet will never be as rich as the man who actually came up with the idea.
@@FredrickTesla The Pet Rock was still a stupid idea that made money because people are stupid. If you value everything based on dollars alone, I feel sorry for you.
The primary flavor in American bologna is garlic, that's why the people who like it enjoy it so much, and that's the flavor that really comes out when you grill or smoke it. I personally enjoy getting it cut thick and putting it in a smoker full of hickory. It comes out firm like pork steak and all the spices concentrate to make it a completely different experience than your average bologna sandwich. Drizzle some BBQ sauce on it, then serve it up with mashed potatoes, corn, and green beans with bacon and onions.
Interesting. I'll try that. TX.
Thanks for the suggestion
I work for probation and parole at a supervision center and every lunch contains a bologna sandwich, I joke with the residents when they complete the program if they need inspiration to not return to drug use, slap a piece of bologna on your dash to remind you where you'll be if you relapse, they always start laughing at that.
Prison mystery meat the best . When I was in Jail we had it for breakfast , lunch , and dinner most days , on Easter they gave us a thick slice of it warmed up with a slice of white bread and a pat of actual real butter (it was a holiday after all) . Nobody including the warden knew what the stuff was , what it was made from , or where it came from . The administration just knew they preferred the guards mess over the prisoners food (me too , having good connections make a difference) . Oh the good memories (sarcasm) .
Mr History Guy you are so right. I was born in 1975, the baby boy to a upper poor to lower middle class family. From when I can remember to now my family has always ate bologna & cheese sandwiches with mustard & mayo. But I generally didn't like it growing up because it was all we had for food many times. Always for lunch & in desperate times supper. I remember going on a few vacations/family reunions or to White Lake, NC to go swimming, as a rarity & treat but to afford to go my Mom would buy a pack of bologna, cheese & a loaf of bread & make us all several sandwiches then repack them all in the original bread bag & put in a cooler. Today I have a love hate relationship with bologna sandwiches. But one way I did love it & still do to this day is fry an egg, then fry bologna & make a breakfast sandwich with Dukes mayonnaise & ketchup! Oh lordy it's heavenly. Everyone should try it!
Mate, if you're eating bologna twice a day, you're poor.
My family experienced our own "great depression" in the 1970's & 1980's. We ate lots of bologna. Even though my mother was very creative with preparation techniques, I still have an aversion to bologna.
I’ve a similar aversion to macaroni & cheese and turkey hot dogs for similar reasons in the same time period.
I was going to say, your taste for it as an adult might depend largely on WHY you ate it as a child, which probably also determined how often you ate it. I wouldn't touch any Oscar Mayer product with a 10ft pole.
I have that with ramen noodles, it reminds me too much of being hungry whilst listeing to lectures at university.
I am from Newfoundland and I can attest to the fact that we do love bologna. It makes the best sandwich in the world!
Having lived in Germany for years, I can tell you with certainty that every butcher shop one visits there is filled with all kinds of Cold Cuts . Germans love them. Each town and shop has its way of making all kinds and many are familiar to a U.S. citizen and some not . A common named one is Beer wurst but each towns' version is different as are their other cold cuts. Except Kinderwurst ( Baloney ) it is universal in Germany and tastes very much the same. And it is traditional and as universal if you are ordering meat with your toddler on your hip , the butcher will pass your child a slice ...usually from a fork. I can't say Germans were making Baloney in ancient times. .. But I suspect they were making it long ago. I'm sure the German version blended with the Italian version in this country.
Let's face it... What kid doesn't like to say "Baloney" . The Army often would serve cold cuts for the evening meal something that is common in Germany. I haven't been back for the last 25 years.. but I doubt that Kinderwurst has changed. BTW Evil Kaneival ? He wasn't famous when I drug my Roy Rogers lunch box around with 2 Mayo and Baloney sandwiches. I loved to leave one crushed in the box for when I got home from school. It was Delicious.
LOL Thanks for some wonderful memories.
Yep, they even have cold cuts for breakfast.
I was stationed in Germany in the Army back in the 80's, that was one of the first things I noticed that was different from America, as I recall it was called a Continental style breakfast.
Growing up in America, in the 1970's if we kids were waiting with dad or mom while they were ordering cold-cuts, we too would be handed a a slice or two from the grocer/butcher. Not from a fork, but from a piece of deli plastic or deli paper. I completely forgot about that practice until reading your comment. Times were better back then even for those of us who weren't wealthy.
I remember how so many readings in my German classes mentioned “kalte Platte”.
When I was studying in Germany we had cold cuts for breakfast sometimes. I liked having sausages and mustard. Good times!
Request a catalog from Usingers of Milwaukee. They have all kinds of cold cuts for sale. I like their Mortadella. Brats really good too. They ship all over the US
I'm 62 and I have been eating bologna all my life! I still take bologna sandwiches to work about every other month. I like it with American cheese and mustard, heated in the microwave for about 40 seconds. I will still eat it cold though. I have fond memories of me and my Grandmother going to the local butcher to buy slices of bologna and American cheese. Keep up the good work THG!
Got to hand it to you History Guy. From down south Louisiana, my Mom a German War Bride often would feed us Bologna sandwiches, and like you, I love mine with mustard. Of course you can zip it up some, Swiss cheese, diced tomatoes, and maybe a more "German" horse raddish mustard, well to me really is good. If you are going that far why not on some toasted Jewish Rye. Just don't toast the Jewish Rye Too much or it will be like sand paper against the roof of the mouth. Peace and Love. Your history site continues to grow in popularity! Another great topic could be the spread and love for Braunschweiger or Liverwurst. You are on a roll sir!!!
I got a burst of nostalgia because I too had an Evel Knievel lunch box. Bologna has long been a staple growing up mildly poor in rural South Dakota. As a truck driver I came to really enjoy the fried bologna sandwich option in Southern truck stops
Did you sing the song to yourself when he finally mentioned Oscar Mayer? I sure as hell did.
@@ronjones-6977 how could I not? 😁
Balongna was a staple in my childhood as with most everyone else in the US. Nowadays we avoid “cold cuts” but I miss them.
I am guessing you avoid them for this reason- Processed meat is a type 1 carcinogen according to the World Health Organization. In the same category as smoking tobacco, and asbestos exposure. The plant based version of bologna tastes exactly the same. Maybe a good place to start your journey to a plant based diet? Vegans have lower rates of ischemic heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain types of cancer, and obesity according to the peer reviewed Adventist Studies. Link to the studies at my channel under "About."
@@someguy2135 Yes processed foods are to be avoided and “lunch meat” is on my list to avoid. Plant based protein is a great alternative I’m a big fan of tofu. I’ve never tried plant based baloney I think my fond memory of eating baloney is more about being a kid again. Also my local butcher has a good selection of fresh locally raised meat available so I’m not on a vegetarian diet but meat is only served at a few of our family meals per week.
If you miss them…go buy them! They’re still there.
I am a 66 year old St Louis German boy who has had the flu for the larger part of a week.
You know the type...nothing smells good...nothing sounds good...nothing looks good.
I now have an overwhelming craving for fried bologna.
First time I've been hungry in 4 days.
Thank you.
Thanks Lance. I was not overly fond of Bologna growing up but I would not refuse to eat it either. When I hit adulthood and had a family of my own I discovered a liking for fried Bologna on soft white bread with mustard and possible mayo. I've never really put cheese on that sandwich but that is just personal choice. BTW my personal sandwich favorite growing up was definitely Tuna salad and it remains so to this day. Just goes to prove each cat has his own rat.
🐎🐓🥪!🤣
Like others, this took me back to childhood. I especially remember when, on Saturday, Mom would give us the treat of fried bologna sandwiches for lunch. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Fried bologna sandwiches are tasty but frying the bologna leaves a smell in the house one will not soon forget, my friends dad had one rule in his household, no frying of bologna when he was home and if you did fry some the odor had better be dealt with before he gets home or there'd be hell to pay.
Nothing like a good fried bologna sandwich. My Grandmother used to get the government supplied canned bologna that you sliced as thick as you wanted. I still think those were some of the best sandwiches I ever ate.😋
I grew up in Chicago, in the 60s. I had fried bologna on white bread with yellow mustard very very often. Still love it though...
Home made floor tortillas and fried bologna was a favorite of mind growing up!
Got a job at one of the last Auto Courts which still sold bologna sliced from a huge roll.
That's when heard the legend of the bologna trail! From Kansas to California many people remember dad stopping, while fueling up he bought a loaf of wonder bread and a pound of bologna
(Oscar Meyers) and continue driving non stop to the destination!
I think the trail is worthy of remembering!
I'm from the UK but have American relations. When I was younger I visited and picked up a taste for cheese and bologna with mayo on rye bread sandwiches. I'm glad to say we can now get the ingredients in supermarkets here.
Saturday lunch at my house in the 1970’s. Simply wonderful.
I enjoyed this! I don’t eat it anymore, but have fond memories as a child….bologna and butter (oleo) on white bread, a treat of fried bologna (don’t forget to make a slash, or it bubbles up in the middle!).
My grandmother always referred to margarine as "oleo".
She also called the fridge an "icebox".
🎶My bologna has a first name...🎶
Evel Knievel lunchbox!! YES!!! I had one! History is, indeed, a beautiful and wonderful thing!
My husband can't stand bologna, but my children love it! They eat it on a weekly basis with cheeses individually, or in sandwiches. My mom used to serve me bologna sandwiches for school when I was little, loved them with limeade!
My favorite breakfast is a fried bologna, egg and cheese sandwich, with mayonnaise and a dab of hot sauce, on toast. And , there is nothing quite as simple and satisfying in one's lunch box as a bologna & American cheese sandwich.
Darn it, now I want a bologna sandwich.
I watch many of your episodes, I would like you to do one on the sons of Teddy Roosevelt. Most Americans do not realize the path these spoiled rich boys choose to follow and the price they paid for their sense of patriotism.
When I moved to the south and saw barbequed bologna, I felt as if I had arrived home. I love bologna! Oh and mustard is the correct condiment. 😉
Actually, mayo is, but we can't all be right. LOL. Mustard is, however, acceptable in a pinch.
Yes, I was shocked when he first said mayo and bologna, but eventually he said he liked mustard. Always mustard, bologna, and cheese.
While in high school my favorite was bologna and pimento cheese sandwiches. The first three years of my military career was aboard an icebreaker and we had breakfast, lunch, dinner and "mid-rats" (middle of the night rations for those coming off or going on watch at midnight) mid-rats just always included bologna cold cuts.
It's 6 :00 AM and I am watching this video getting hungry for a sandwich that was a childhood favorite,
Wonder bread,balogna,mayo and lettuce. Growing up in the fifties my mother would wrap it up in wax paper
(no baggies back then) and a brown paper bag. By the time lunch came around the sandwich sat around long enough for the perfect blend of flavors that I loved so much.
Another underrated meat that helped humans push through some crappy times. And even started its own trend and market. Taking things for granted is humanity's specialty.
I unapologetically love bologna. My favorite sandwich in the world is bologna on wonder bread with Swiss cheese and ketchup! 😋
I just threw up....
It is best with white bread (not Wonder though. I use Orowheat Buttermilk) but adding cheese and, especially ketchup, is disgusting. Bread, bologna and mayo. That's all you need. Of course, tastes do vary.
Hey, that seems like a tasty combo ... especially the Swiss (perhaps a nice Lorraine) .
Being older, (I'm 76), I have mixed feelings about "bologna/baloney" but I must admit my favorite of the style is, as I grew up knowing it, is "Olive Loaf". It use to be in stores everywhere but I can hardly find it now. I keep an eye out for it but I haven't seen it anywhere now for several years. A bologna type meat interlaced with green and pimento olives. Love the mixing of flavors.
@Webb Trekker
I remember olive loaf! I loved it! If it's any help, I know Albertsons (a grocery chain, along with its sister store Safeway) sold it around 2015 in the Deli department (not out on the store floor - you have to go to the Deli department and look for it behind the case, and have someone slice it for you). I don't shop at Albertsons anymore so I am not sure if they still sell it.
I hope you can find it! :-)
@@lisahinton9682 Last place I was able to get it was a local Mom & Pop that has now closed. That was like 3 years ago. We have Safeway and Albertsons all around me and I don't find it there either. I've tried WinCo, Thriftway, Fred Myer, and even PCC. No luck.
I loved olive loaf but have to settle for pickle loaf now
There's a reason you can't find it anymore. Very few people like it enough to buy it. Supply and demand.
I'm with you! I always enjoyed olive loaf. Maybe I'll put some sliced olives on a baloney sandwich (rye bread and mayo) to see if it brings back memories.
I couldn't stand the stuff (though I liked salami), but my brother loved it. Mom got tired of making two different sandwiches, and worrying that each kid got the "right" paper lunch bag. So bologna was responsible for us being required to fix our own lunches. He stuck with bologna. I rotated between pb&j and tuna.
for a treat my dad would fry the bologna up in a pan then put cheese and mustard on it before toasting the bread in the pan much like a grilled cheese sandwich. its a comfort food for me even now many years later. when i get lazy and cant think of something to eat ill sometimes fry up some bologna and cheese in a pan.
Ahh the memories... It's been years now since I left New York where I was born and raised during the 60s. I miss that N.Y. state of mind, and the food that you just can't find anywhere else in the country. If I could turn back time...✌
I hated getting the ubiquitous bologna, cheese and butter sandwich in my lunch box. A little mustard would have been better. Thanks Mom! One of the best selling sandwiches (for lunch and breakfast) is the fried bologna sandwich sold at the cafe I manage. Here in the South it is a nostalgic offering.
@zemquoi
Your mom did her best. Perhaps you could've requested a bit of mustard - I have a feeling she'd have happily supplied it.
You can still get that old school “sweet” bologna (sometimes called Lebanon bologna) in southeast PA, particularly in the greater Lancaster region where the German “Dutch” presence is quite strong.
I sometimes get Lebanon bologna in northern virginia. I alsp like "German bologna" as well!
It's been about 55 years since I ate any bologna, but what I recall is that frying it in a pan **changed** the flavor a great deal, and was a huge improvement over the flavor of the product as it came from a supermarket. I always assumed it was just because frying melted much of the fat and allowed it to drain away from the product.
The sugars in the bologna melt and basically caramelize, giving it a sweeter, smoky taste, with a little crust to it
@@OhJodi69 thank you for the info !
When you said with a straight face..."you may think I'm full of bologna "...I literally couldn't contain myself. I was taking a sip of water and it all came out my nose. Of which now I have a frontal headache till the pain subsides. But my god..that was classic.👍👍
The more you know, the more you know you don’t know. Another fascinating episode!
A full on bologna festival close by in Yale Michigan! I had no idea, but now find myself strangely interested. THG has done it again.
It's like the comment from the video on the history of ketchup: Why do I need to know the history of ketchup? Wait, what is the history of ketchup?
Who hasn't had a Fried Bologna sandwich?
Variations included: Fried Bologna with fried egg sandwich or other egg dishes.
Even used a home made pizza topping on occasion.
Not to mention the oscar mayer song that literally every kid knew the words.
My grandmother and my mom both used to make us dinner out of what they called "ring bologna". Bought from a local butcher in Michigan. It was baked in the oven with a ketchup glaze on top and served cut into thick slices. I recall it was pretty tasty.
When I lived in rural Pennsylvania, steamed or baked ring bologna served with horseradish and potatoes was very common.
Oh man, the Usinger's Sausage company in Milwaukee makes some of the best Mortadella and Yachtwurst in the world! That and their ring beef bologna cut up, simmered in pan full of onions and served with a thick slice of Russian black rye bread is to die for!!
Back in the early 1980's, I spent the night in jail for - get this - an EXPIRED driver's license! Crazy, I know but I digress, this is where I learned about the infamous bologna and cheese sandwich. It wasn't the worst thing in the world but then again, I was only in there for some 12 hours, until my folks came down and slipped me a gun made out of soap, I mean posted my $75 bail so it's not like I was eating them three times a day for months on end. Every now and then, I get a urge to make a "jail" sandwich but then I remembered the two drunks in jail with me who were digging moldy bologna and cheese sandwiches out of the garage can and eating them and that urge fades away. Never forgot to renew my drivers license after that either!
When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's we would go to Usinger's in downtown Milwaukee. I recall severe German women in starched white uniforms slicing up our liverwurst and wrapping it in white deli paper. You toed the line back then in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Downtown Milwaukee cops wore polished jackboots (really) and rode Harley trikes.
I just had to look up their page, funny that they renamed Jagdwurst to Yachtwurst, Yacht with a German ch actually sounds like one of the slang pronounciations for Jagd
Reference paragraph 1: From Martin Crane on "Frasier": Your Family and your Country are to die for, food is to eat. No quotes, because I and not sure it is exact, but that is the sense of it.
Growing up in NC in the 80's and 90's, it was white bread, baloney, mustard, American cheese, ice berg lettuce, and Ruffles potato chips all under the top piece of white bread. All washed down with either Cheerwine or RC Cola. The rest of the day was watching NASCAR(blah) or college football(Yay).
Dinner was some of the famous NC BBQ, or some fresh caught fish off the coast. Great place to grow up.
I'm with you Lance; mustard, never mayo. And any sliced sandwich cheese rather than American. A favorite here in Buffalo is fried bologna with carmelized onions.
Bologna was one of my choices for lunch today. I had tuna.
Always good, always interesting. Thank you
Growing up in Pittsburgh PA a fried baloney sandwich was a real treat.
Would've been great to see a few seconds on the very specific "dutch bologna" that was so popular for me growing up in my Dutch community of Pella, Iowa.
Lebanon bologna and sweet bologna is great
What you didn’t talk about it whether the bologna should be cold or pan fried. In my southern household growing up, the biggest treat was a fried bologna sandwich topped with peanut butter (I prefer Jif smooth). We were in high cotton when that got served!
Thank you.
As a adult student I ate fried bologna sandwiches for the last two years of engineering school. Almost fourty years later and I still have one occasionally.
My first culinary delight that I learned to cook (unsupervised) and prepare was the fried bologna sandwich!
🤣🤣🤣🤣 same here.
I still enjoy them to this day!
Can you please do a follow up on the history of head cheese? 😂
And maybe Potterville Michigan's Gizzard Fest?
13:35 I feel a Jingle coming up!
Have a pack of bologna in my fridge now. Love the stuff
My. two favorite memories of bologna are first the school lunch version in the 50's and 60's. We could smell the bbq sauce before. we got. to the lunchroom so knew what was in store- good old bologna smothered in sauce. and as it was dished on our plate we had the option of placing it between sliced white bread. It was a government surplus food and likely inexpensive to acquire for our public school. The other memory was. of our large animal veterinarian father proclaiming to we three sons chowing down at lunch on our bologna sandwiches that if we knew where that meat came from we wouldn't be so hungry for it. He know how the regional meatpackers came about this sandwich morsel having inspected some of the meat plants.
I've always thought of bologna as a giant hot dog cut into slices and served cold as a sandwich
Pretty much is.
@@sidgar1That's why I include sweet pickle relish on mine.
Bologna on white bread w/mayo is a perfect flavor combination!!
Try it w/ peanut butter!
And onions................
So many great Bologna stories.
Our mom used to fry slices of it from time to time and it was really tasty with a nice crispy char around the edges. My youngest sister would even request it for her school lunch in about 3rd grade. My mom would fry it up in the morning and cut it into Pacman faces for her lunch. She even loved it cold. Oddly enough after the first time she brought it, she requested more the next day as all the other kids ate all of it. It made her pretty popular at lunch time I guess. LoL
it seems fitting that you used USAToday and NYTimes as a main reference, they are both full of bologna.
Running mutual aid with Arlington County Fire during the 9/11 Terrorist Attack on the Pentagon, we initially were served a single slice of bologna between two slices of white bread and a single slice of processed American cheese between two slices of white bread, all made by the prisoners in the Arlington County (Virginia) jail. You might say bologna had a showing at the 9/11 Pentagon incident. And still not recognized to this day, the Arlington County jail prisoners working in the kitchen had a hand in it.
One of my favorite sandwiches Bologna. But I rarely eat them. It's more of a once in a while treat for me and best from a deli.
This is exactly what I have been looking for! Thank you!
Newfie steak or French River round steak, fried baloney was always a good fallback meal in my house growing up. So expensive now though.
At my favorite supermarket, it's the cheapest of any sandwich meat. Ham, turkey, roast beef and the rest are all $10/lb or more; while bologna is only about $3/lb.
Dundee, MI 1969. Pop was in the military and in Vietnam that year. My brown bag lunch in the 6th grade was white bread, baloney, mayo, and dill pickle slices. Sometimes it was peanut butter and jelly. We got apples and peaches from Grandma's trees outside of town down the way. Dear sweet ma made do with us 5 kids. We didn't have much money and ma never spent any money on herself and pinched pennies to make sure we never went hungry. That was a pretty good lunch back then.
I love fried bologna, where it is crisped up and has such a nice crunch. Mayo, tomato, lettuce, and fried bologna on white was a childhood favorite. Now, when I get a chance, it is still mayo, tomato, and fried bologna, but no lettuce and on gluten-free bread. Fried bologna by itself is so very lovely… and tasty. I think I am going to make some this weekend. 🤤
I am surprised you didn't mention Bolognese sauce. A lot of Italians say that it is *not* from Bologna, which is sort of true. Ragu sauce is from Bologna, and whilst it is quite different to Bolognese sauce the difference is I'd say equivalent to the line of ancestry from mortdella to bolonie that you describe in this video.
Bologna itself has the oldest university in the world, latterly associated with electrical pioneer Luigi Galvani in the 18th century and radio pioneer Marconi in the early 20th.
I have been lucky enough to travel to Newfoundland several times, The Newfies will take a bologna cut it ¾ inch thick, fry it in a pan and serve it with mash potatoes and brown gravy and veg. They call it a Newfie “steak” dinner. Great video.
I love the stuff! ...On good bread with lots of mayo and lots of mustard, please!
I just had a 4pcs Oscar's Meyer Bologna sandwich 🥪 😋 with Helman's Mayo, Iceberg Lettuce and a dash of sea salt on Keto Wheat 🍞. Delicious!!
As a child growing up in a southern West Virginia blue collar home, Bolongna is what we grew up on! Took a many Fried Bologna on white bread with Yellow Mustard in my lunch box to school.
Bologna! From Bologna Italy!
Hi Lance, I had a thought for an episode if you're interested. I understand the outgoing POTUS generally leaves a letter for the income president. I'd be interested in highlights of thos letters if they're Publicly available. Any other viewers interested?
"Bologna is a deli meat for people with eyes." -Mitch Hedberg.
Very interesting and entertaining video thanks for sharing. Here in Australia we have a great mystery meat known as Devon. Personally one of my favourite treats is a decent amount of Devon with ketchup (find our tomato sauce to sweet) on sandwiches or bread rolls. In recent years I tried another popular mystery meat spam 😂🤣😂 don’t shoot me but it was absolutely disgusting and I can see why it’s never been popular with my family.
You're gonna call Spam disgusting, yet you Australians eat Vegemite? 😛
@@LadyAnuB Vegemite is the best and yes spam is disgusting. Just so you know you don’t eat Vegemite straight off a spoon try it with thinly spread with butter on bread. My Auntie Spike is the only Aussie I’ve ever met who’s eaten Vegemite straight off a spoon.
It was a good day, to get a bologna sandwich, with a slice of cheese and some mustard. But I really like Lebanon bologna (summer sausage) with my cheese, mustard and bread.
I outgrew Bologna by the age of 7, preferring salami or summer sausage in my sandwich.
I worked for about a year at a Defense Commissary grocery store in the deli and was quite taken by the clientele who ordered Bologna. They were almost all scruffy old bachelors.
I am a 20plus year chef and my ALLTIME favorite sandwich is a bologna sandwich on white bread with a good mayo, i know the nostalgia plays a part but it is still my number 1 comfort food
Lebanon Bologna, from the Lebanon region of Pennsylvania, is a different treat. It's smoked, beef, and is marbled with fat like a salami. It's the bomb.
There is just somethings that is special about just grabbing a few slices of plain white bread slapping a few slices of Bologna with a squirt of mustard. Or if you want to chef it up doing a fast fry of the Bologna. Grew up eating it for school lunches and as an adult every time I eat one I think about my Dad who use to make sure we always had a lunch for school.
We used to have fried beef bologna egg and cheese sandwiches at the fire station and the 'lony was sliced 1/2 inch thick. Good stuff.
I like ny bologna. Fried. Mmm dark crispy edges, a puffed up circle. Then all the butter grease I dip both pieces of white bread in it, then the Mayo. That’s good! Sunshine ☀️