Bologna Is The Meatball Twist That's Making Italian Grandmas Do A Double Take

Ah, the humble meatball. It's hard to find a meal with more old-fashioned comfort than a heaping plate of spaghetti and meatballs, and though this classic "Italian" dish actually has American origins, the original predecessor to the meatball and the hamburger can be traced all the way back to Ancient Rome. Suffice to say, the meatball is a food that elicits strong opinions on how it should properly be made, especially from families who have been passing down their recipe for generations.

Such recipes generally contain the same basic components: beef (sometimes substituted or mixed with pork or Italian sausage), eggs for binding, breadcrumbs, and additions like onions, garlic, Parmesan, and seasonings. Sometimes, however, a meatball recipe comes along with a twist so ingenious yet unorthodox that it could shock traditionalists, such as one that swaps breadcrumbs for oats or incorporates pre-packaged French onion soup mix. If you're ready to think outside the meatball box, one salty, savory, special ingredient we suggest adding into the mix is bologna.

Bologna may be best known as an inexpensive and ubiquitous lunch meat for sandwiches, but it has a secret power to add crucial elements of salt and fat to your meatballs. The opposite of a lean meat, bologna is high in the fat needed to make moist and tender meatballs, plus lends them a distinctive depth of flavor.

Though meatball recipes are usually pretty straightforward, it's typical for inexperienced chefs to make some common mistakes when cooking them. One such error is only using a single type of meat in your mixture. Mixing meats diversifies the mouthfeel and flavors of your meatballs, resulting in a near restaurant-quality taste.

Of course, buying two types of expensive, high-quality meat for dinner isn't always easy in this economy, which is why using bologna is the perfect way to stretch your recipe and add a contrasting meaty element. Bologna meat doesn't come from one standard animal; rather, it can be made from a mixture of ground beef, pork, chicken, or turkey meat, which is then poured into a casing and cooked. Because of this processing, bologna is usually quite cheap to purchase and lasts longer in the fridge due to preservatives. These qualities make it an appealing choice to combine with other meats, typically ground pork, for meatballs.

Just because bologna is inexpensive and processed, however, doesn't mean that it's got no place in the culinary world. There are plenty of ways to elevate store-bought bologna, from frying it for sandwiches in true Southern fashion to incorporating it into a stir-fry. But blending it into your meatball mixture is a surefire way to enjoy the unique, salty taste without offending anyone who may be put off by its texture. The one caveat to keep in mind, though, is that this is not the way to make particularly healthy meatballs, since processed deli meats have serious health drawbacks.