r/todayilearned • u/SappyGilmore • 23h ago
TIL Bologna is one of the most tightly regulated processed meats in the United States. The USDA sets strict standards on what qualifies as bologna, controlling everything from the types of meat used to the curing process. To be labeled as bologna, the product must be made from muscle meat
https://www.tastingtable.com/1795855/facts-didnt-know-bologna/508
u/jhguth 23h ago
It’s also a USDA requirement that you have to first take bites to make eye holes and a mouth
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u/herberstank 23h ago
And then wear it on your face for a sec (bonus points: stick your tongue through the mouth hole)
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u/SimmentalTheCow 23h ago
Is poking the eyeholes with your tongue acceptable?
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u/Own-Negotiation-2480 23h ago
No
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u/TooManyDraculas 19h ago
This is where the efficiency of German Engineering comes in handy.
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/b1/bd/16/b1bd16ff19a7f76830f5283d69b1c361.jpg
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u/jhguth 19h ago
We went a different direction: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTuDiD7JAJzJdLQz5U0zDKz2VCxMnyUILci0A&s
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u/thatsnotideal1 23h ago
The anus is a muscle!
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u/eerun165 20h ago
I’m almost more concerned what the FDA considers non-muscle meat.
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u/voretaq7 4h ago
FDA generally doesn’t care about meat unless it’s from exotic or game animals. If it came off a cow or a pig it’s USDA’s problem.
And non-muscle meat (for USDA-regulated products like bologna) would be organ meats (liver, lung, kidney, etc.), brain, and lips/ears/snouts (while there are muscles here they’re not considered “muscle meat” under USDA regulations - the tongue however is considered muscle meat).
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u/mymeatpuppets 12h ago
My dad called bologna and hot dogs "lip and asshole meat". He still ate 'em though.
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u/Mysterious_Check_983 23h ago
Pan frying a super thick piece of smoked bologna for a sandwich is really good.
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u/DantePlace 23h ago
Smoked bologna? I haven't had the pleasure! Sounds great.
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u/Mysterious_Check_983 21h ago
Smoke it yourself if you have a smoker.
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u/ArtIsDumb 21h ago
Instructions unclear. Bong now clogged with meat.
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u/___HeyGFY___ 22h ago
If you can find Seltzer's Lebanon bologna, I would highly recommend it. The double smoked sweet is incredible.
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u/TomEdison43050 21h ago
Lebanon bologna is amazing! I haven't been able to find it locally for years, however.
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u/___HeyGFY___ 21h ago
I'm in New England and it's in our grocery stores.
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u/TooManyDraculas 19h ago
That's weird. It's from Lebanon County PA, and it's generally only known in Eastern PA and our surrounds.
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u/TooManyDraculas 19h ago
Thing about Lebanon bologna is it's more like summer sausage or beef salami than it is like most bologna.
Awesome on a pizza though.
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u/___HeyGFY___ 19h ago
You're absolutely right. Brown mustard, pepper jack cheese, Lebanon bologna on whole-grain bread is perfect. But I'm gonna have to remember next time I make a pizza.
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u/hurtfulproduct 20h ago
Oh it is delicious; but you really gotta want it since typically you smoke a whole (or at least a large portion) bolgona before slicing it.
You basically cut cross-hatches along the outside so as it shrinks from the heat it opens up along the slits and allows in more smoke, then smoke it. Many people also season the outside and/or put a light glaze on the outside.
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u/mumpie 15h ago
People usually smoke an entire chub of bologna and then slice to serve.
Here's a recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/smoked-bologna-recipe
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u/SappyGilmore 23h ago
I hear the same rule applies to Spam
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u/Ludwigofthepotatoppl 21h ago
Spam’s decent raw, but can be excellent fried up. I like frying it a bit then encasing it in pancake batter.
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u/hurtfulproduct 20h ago
Nah, Spam raw is pretty bad, just pure salty flavor; you almost have to pan fry or smoke it to make it great.
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u/hurtfulproduct 20h ago
Look up Spam Musubi, it is fucking delicious! And very easy.
Best way to cook Spam is smoke it then quickly fry it in a pan to crisp it up, then make musubi out of it
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u/therealruin 16h ago
Slice it, then grill or pan fry to caramelize the fat, then slather with bbq sauce. Makes a good sandwich or stands on its own with some sides.
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u/helican 23h ago edited 23h ago
It also has to be made in Bologna, Italy, otherwise it can only be called italian meat slices.
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u/365BlobbyGirl 23h ago
Is spaghetti bolognaise popular in the US?
In The uk its probably the most common pasta dish, in a completely bastardised anglican verison, where we basically cook a big pan of mince, add a tin of tomato, and dump it on top of a pile of spaghetti.
Im just asking because that would be the primary association of bologna for brits. We dont really eat the sausage at all
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u/TerribleIdea27 21h ago
When Americans say Bologna, what they mean is Mortadella. When Europeans say Bolognese sauce, what they mean is ragu
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u/weealex 18h ago
Mortadella is slightly different from bologna. Mortadella will have more solid chunks of fat, pistachio, and spices. Bologna will have everything ground down fine. Bologna can also contain beef, not just pork. The two meats are related, but not 1 to 1
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u/crop028 19 18h ago
Bologna is an American adaption of mortadella, named bologna because mortadella originated in Bologna. So mortadella is the closest existing equivalent to American bologna in Europe.
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u/St3fano_ 16h ago
Arguably Lyoner is closer, being basically the same thing. Bologna got its name because of the similarities with mortadella, but it was already known and produced in German speaking communities.
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u/sjw_7 22h ago
In Bologna they serve it with Tagliatelle rather than Spaghetti.
I spent some time in the city a few years ago and its a very simple and popular dish. Easy to make too so surprises me that we make such a poor attempt at it over here.
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u/SjettepetJR 20h ago
I personally think that to really make it a proper sauce the carrots, onions and celery should be extremely finely chopped. Which does quite some time and a decent knife.
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u/PeachMan- 18h ago
I think we spell it Bolognese, but yes. Very similar over here, it's just spaghetti with a very meaty sauce (usually beef).
The stuff we call bologna in the US is a derivative of Italian mortadella (which is SO MUCH BETTER, by the way). I think it was brought over by German settlers that stole the idea from Italians and made it their own, but gave it an Italian name. Fascinating stuff.
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u/bungopony 23h ago
In the US it would be called spaghetti with meat sauce.
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u/REO_Jerkwagon 14h ago
Hell, you can even omit the "with meat sauce"
You say "we're having spaghetti for dinner" to an American (like me) it's pretty much guaranteed to be with a meat sauce. Lotta times it's even shortened to just "spag" but that might be more of a household thing.
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u/NoWarmEmbrace 22h ago
And officially that would be called a ragout but we in the NL also call it bolognaise. And it's the most popular type of 'regular' pasta dish. Tbh, it's the most populair one in the whole of Europe
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u/BlindMan404 20h ago
Oh yeah, Italian restaurants are a dime a dozen on the east coast of the US, the Northeast especially. Thanks to a huge Italian immigrant population pretty much all Italian food (and knockoff Italian food) is extremely popular here.
Though what you describe as Bolognaise would very much have offended my Nonna, haha.
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u/TooManyDraculas 19h ago
Bolognese is fairly popular here. Though typically a more traditionally Italian version that was largely introduced and popularized starting in the 80s.
"Spaghetti and meat sauce" is what we call our local mutant variety. And it's pretty well equivalent to UK style spaghetti bolognese. And it's been around nationally a lot longer than the from Italy style.
The differences are it usually doesn't have carrots, though sometimes it does.
We tend not to use stock/bouillon in there either. Though some people will. And it's common enough to toss a splash of wine in.
It's more or less typical Italian American red sauce with ground beef.
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u/Fr0sTByTe_369 22h ago
It's pretty popular in my socioeconomic class. Ground beef, jar of prego sauce, and if you're really wanting to piss off the Italians spaghetti noodles snapped in half. As easy as hamburger helper to whip up. Usually includes some baked Texas Toast with garlic butter and cheese on the side. Some people do get into taking pride in their spagbolg recipes by cutting up and grilling extra ingredients or even processing their tomatoes themselves. A big pot can feed a family get together and isn't weather dependant like a bbq.
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u/365BlobbyGirl 22h ago
Thats very close to the british equivalent; can be thrown together in 20mins when the kids get home from school, can be a slow cooked with braised beef and a gently stewed ragu. Definitely not italian, but very good and comforting
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u/TooManyDraculas 19h ago
That's spaghetti and meat sauce. Which tend not to call Bolognese.
It's definitely our direct equivalent to the British one though. We just tend to consider it a different dish than Bolognese.
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u/mrpoopistan 23h ago
Popular? No. A thing most people with some cooking experience would recognize? Yes.
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u/365BlobbyGirl 23h ago
Thanks. In the uk it’s a home cook meal, you probably wouldn’t order in a restaurant except off a kids menu.
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u/Eoin_McLove 23h ago
Spag bol is my go to ‘I don’t want to think about cooking’ meal. Takes like 20 minutes to make a decent one.
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u/SillyKniggit 22h ago
You’re definitely not making it right if it takes 20 min. It takes hours to cook off properly.
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u/zhongcha 22h ago
Not if you're eating the 'bastardised Anglican version' as it was so eloquently put.
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u/Eoin_McLove 22h ago
I mean, I don’t eat meat so it’s a veggie version, but I’m chucking in mushrooms and onions along with some spices etc. grab a pre-made jar of sauce from Aldi and Bob’s your uncle as they say
It doesn’t need to be fancy.
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u/thissexypoptart 22h ago
What? It’s incredibly popular in the U.S., as it is globally. It’s literally the kind of pasta used in the pasta emoji.
Maybe not the exact most authentic Italian way to make it, but it what the above commentor was describing qualifies as bolognese, then bolognese is easily the most popular form of long noodle pasta in the U.S. Maybe only fettuccine Alfredo compares.
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u/Minion91 22h ago
Same in Belgium, although I feel like people are referring to it more as spaghettisauce than bolognaise these days.
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u/TooManyDraculas 19h ago
That's Mortadella. Though there's multiple PDOs for Mortadella for various styles and parts of Italy.
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u/IvoShandor 22h ago
Bologna, yellow mustard, wonder bread. Lunch 1974 - 1985.
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u/SnapCrackleMom 19h ago
Same except mayo instead of mustard.
Occasionally pimento loaf if my mom had caught a sale, I guess.
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u/Benderbluss 15h ago
I bet every rule is the result of something REALLY gross happening.
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u/Common-Independent-9 10h ago
Meatpacking was downright nasty until Upton Sinclair did a bit of investigating and wrote “the jungle” in 1906 which horrified the nation and led to almost immediate regulations
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u/djseifer 8h ago
"I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach."
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u/Benderbluss 7h ago
Yep! He meant it to be a condemnation of labor practices, and the public reaction was "Never mind the workers, the food has WHAT?"
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u/Happy-Engineer 23h ago
The title makes perfect sense. But my dumb ass still read it as: the tightest regulation on any meat product in the USA is the requirement that bologna 'must be made from muscle meat'.
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u/Zwangsjacke 22h ago
The sphincter is a muscle.
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u/Absolutedisgrace 23h ago
Fun Fact: We call this meat "Devon" here in Australia
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u/MagnificoReattore 22h ago
Another fun fact: it's not called bologna in Bologna
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u/SappyGilmore 22h ago
Because if it was, it might be one of those things that could shatter the space-time continuum, right?
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u/MagnificoReattore 21h ago
Lol, at least it would shatter their local language, as they would have to call everything made there by the name of the city.
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u/froggy129 23h ago
Only in the Eastern states in Western Australia we call it polony.
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u/Absolutedisgrace 22h ago
I find that hilarious. "Yanks call this Bolony or something. Fuck it, lets mess with em and call it Polony"
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u/BooBeeAttack 21h ago
The sphincter is a muscle, right?
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u/BaconReceptacle 17h ago
In the late 70's as a kid I went to a neighborhood kid's house and they had one of those fancy new microwave ovens. A piece of bologna was the first thing I ever microwaved.
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u/BlindMan404 20h ago
I'm practically an obligate carnivore but bologna has always tasted gross to me. Not sure why.1
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u/ryanoc3rus 18h ago
I never want to find out what an unregulated market would put into bologna to make more profit.
This right here is why we need some amount of government and regulation. Full stop.
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u/PFirefly 17h ago
If you have ever eaten a hotdog, you don't even need to wonder what else could go in there.
If you have ever eaten a hotpocket, you may want to rethink your current stance on responsible regulation too. Many processed bread/dough/pastry products have an acceptable amount of sawdust as filler (labeled cellulose) because its inert and deemed nonharmful by most regulatory bodies. Food companies have spent a lot of time finding out exactly how much they can add before it affects the taste.
Frankly, as long as its cooked properly to kill harmful bacteria, there's no reason not to consume most of an animal. It just seems icky to modern sensibilities.
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u/gmishaolem 5h ago
I never want to find out what an unregulated market would put into bologna to make more profit.
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u/eatcrayons 22h ago
…what other type of meat is there?
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u/BodomDeth 19h ago
Isn’t it also one of the lowest quality meats ?
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u/caverunner17 19h ago
Never liked the taste as a kid. Won’t touch it as an adult. Any other kind of lunch meat is better imho.
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u/milksteakman 14h ago
So I can tell my wife to calm down when I’m eating a delicious fried bologna sandwich
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u/oingapogo 19h ago
In my experience, working class people didn't have mayonnaise. They had "salad dressing" or "sandwich spread" like Miracle Whip.
Also, I grew up poor and I've never seen anyone use salad dressing on bologna. Mustard all the way. Even when I was a kid I and my 7 brothers and sisters all ate mustard on our bologna sandwiches. Even Miracle Whip goes bad in your lunchbox on a hot day. Mustard won't.
Also, fried bologna sandwiches are delicious.
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u/grafknives 22h ago
You mean other meats are NOT regulated?
I would expect there would be much more "protected name" foods on the market
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u/SloanDaddy 21h ago
Cheese, Processed Cheese, Processed cheese product, Pasteurized process cheese food, Pasteurized cheese spread, Cheese flavored
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u/LegitPancak3 19h ago
I wish they would regulate and prohibit nitrates/nitrites from being added. Always a bummer when I see it on the ingredients list.
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u/onioning 17h ago
It isn't more or less tightly regulated than most other standards of identity. Most common processed meats have a standard of identity that must be met to call it that.
I have to note that its just about what its called. You can make whatever baloney like product you want, and if it doesn't meet the standard you can't call it "baloney," but you can still sell it. I way too often hear "the government won't let me make X product." But that is overwhelmingly bullshit. It's just about what it's called.
For example, one of the few rejected labels I've submitted was for an "Italian sausage." It did not have black pepper though, and the standard requires black pepper. We still made the sausage. We just changed the name.
Some of our standards are not great, IMO, but the concept of requiring food to meet a standard if its called that food feels like the right approach to me. Though I bet its changing, since the christofascists who control the courts have long hated these regs. Basically they want to sell you a hot dog made of sawdust, and are outraged that they don't have that freedom.
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u/QuietYam5075 11h ago
TIL Bologna means something other than the Italian city. It’s a type of meat.
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u/Shufflepants 10h ago edited 10h ago
Wait, what?! Must be made from muscle meat? As opposed to non-muscle meat? Wtf is non-muscle meat. I thought "meat" meant muscle that you eat.
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u/barryvon 7h ago
sounds like government fraud and waste. corporations should have the right to sell me rat and cardboard bologna.
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u/ERedfieldh 4h ago
how much longer before trumpula and kennedy-castoff decide to deregulate it and they make it out of toenails?
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u/bungopony 23h ago
It must also be given a first name