[Sca-cooks] bologna

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Alban commented:
>
>>for example: the American standard sliced-diced-and-steamed lunch meat isn't
>>anywhere near the One True Italian sausage; and if you try to give the latter
>>to your typical American kid, he'll say "oh, gross!".
>><grin>
>>
>
> Yep. I've detested "bologna" for years. To me, it was to good sausage
> what Wonderbread was to good bread. All pulverized and ground up to a
> fine grained, homogenous mush. However, a few months ago, I tried a
> Lebanese bologna and loved it. Much closer to a salami in texture with
> a smoky taste. Does it really match something from Lebanon? I don't
> know, but I like it. Makes a good taste contrast in a sandwich with
> a mild havarti cheese or even a sharp cheddar. With spicy mustard of
> course. :-)


Of course, you may be criticizing stylistic differences which may not actually be issues of quality. Witness the discussion (now quite a while ago) between Elysant and myself regarding bangers: she of the opinion that American-type sage or plain breakfast link sausage was gristly, and I of the opinion that bangers resembled modelling clay for their homogeneity, and adding that you can actually conceal far more gristle and fat with such a fine, repeated grind, than you can by simply grinding meat once or twice and stuffing it into casings. The products are probably comparable in actual quality (overall we tend to lean away from a lot of breadcrumbs in our sausage, but we don't necessarily use that much more meat, and then there are various hygienic and better-living-through-chemistry issues)


Similarly, it's fine if you don't like a fine grind, but one shouldn't just assume that that's not how it's supposed to be, anywhere. The granddaddy of all bologna, a.k.a. Mortadella di Bologna, is a bolognese sausage with a substrate not too dissimilar in basic appearance to Oscar Mayer, but it also has little bits of fat to keep it moist, peppercorns and, usually, pistacchios mixed in. There's cheese in there as well, although most modern manufacturers (unless you go to some farm where it's hand-made) include or substitute some kind of milk solids for some or all of the cheese: it gives the finished product a pale, smooth, richness it would otherwise lack. The whole thing comes in a casing some seven inches across, and is lightly smoked, and eaten, frequently, either plain (paper-thin slices) with good bread, or wrapped around grissini (breadsticks), or with figs or melon like prosciutto. For all its homogeneous smoothness (fat chunks, peppercorns and nuts notwithstanding),
 it really isn't bad at all. Bu then, eating it on poufy white bread with French's mustard would kill it as much as it does anything else.


For myself, I never could stand Lebanon bologna-- if it's going to be
cotto salami it should be called that ;  )

Adamantius

--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

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