What Type Of Meat Is Bologna?

Similar to the common misconceptions about what exactly hot dogs are made of or the mystery of the ingredients of gelatin, bologna is one of the more confusing lunch meat options. While slices of turkey or chicken breast are fairly self-explanatory in name, bologna is ... well, actually, what is it?

The aforementioned bologna, as well as hot dogs, bratwurst, and various other types of sausages, is featured on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's list of cooked and/or smoked sausages. The department states that the products that fall under this category "are made of one or more different kinds of chopped or ground meats which have been seasoned, cooked and/or smoked." Bologna's most common meat mixtures include beef, pork, turkey, and chicken. It is then ground together or blended, then filled into a casing and subsequently cooked for consumption. This concoction of several types of meat scraps is then often sliced into thin pieces that complete a lunchtime sandwich (though there are different ways to make a better bologna sandwich besides placing it between two slices of bread).

You might have noticed that Bologna shares a name with a major Italian city –– this is not a coincidence. Bologna technically hails from its Italian namesake. However, its popularity in North America is often attributed to German immigrants, especially because the lunch meat is adored in areas heavily associated with German immigration, including the Midwest and the state of Pennsylvania, It is obvious that the Americanized version of bologna is not exactly the same as its original from Italy, though, because Italian bologna was actually very similar to a different meat called mortadella. The most obvious difference is that large chunks of pork fat can be seen in slices of mortadella. Bologna, on the other hand, often appears uniform and pink because of the United States Government's regulation on visible fat in bologna meat.

Thanks to bologna's travels from Italy to North America, it is now an extremely popular meat option for lunchtime sandwiches. It even earned the coveted spot next to cheese, crackers, and chocolate chip cookies in various Lunchables combinations in order to push for more bologna sales from meat producer Oscar Mayer. Next time a slice of bologna finds its way to your plate, remember its history and the steps that led it there.