Pretty much everyone has tried bologna at some point, but nobody ever really wants to know what it’s made of, or how it’s made. But maybe it’s time that changed. From pig to plate, this is how bologna is actually made.
The name “bologna” comes from Bologna, a large city in northern Italy, where butchers produce a similar meat called mortadella, the ancient ancestor of the sandwich filling we know and love today.
Mortadella has roots that go all the way back to the Roman Empire, as evidenced by certain pieces of Classical Roman art and literature. For example, the Roman author Pliny the Elder once described how the Emperor Augustus, during a visit to the city, found himself particularly impressed with the taste of mortadella. The meat’s main wow-factor for the Romans was its saltiness. In fact, by the Middle Ages, the people who salt-cured meats such as mortadella had formed a powerful guild that had a significant financial backing in the Italian states. The guild even drove up mortadella costs by up to nine times as much as a loaf of bread.
But this meat has come a long way since those days. Although American producers of bologna might also have big bucks in their bank accounts, bologna certainly isn’t the bourgeois meat it once was.
Watch the video for more about How Bologna Is Really Made!
#Bologna #Sandwiches #Meat
Mortadella | 0:15
Pork purity | 1:17
American standards | 2:18
Meat scraps | 3:37
Spices and flavors | 4:54
The oomph factor | 5:51
Chemical additives | 6:57
How the sausage is made | 8:22
Batter vs mince | 9:44
The final stages | 11:02
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