A Bunch of Baloney (Sandwiches)

When I was growing up in the 1950s, "baloney" sandwiches were common, including "fried baloney" sandwiches, which were a bit fancier than regular baloney sandwiches that were made from slices of baloney taken right from the refrigerator, or "icebox," as many people still called it back then. "Bologna" traces back to mortadella sausage from the northern Italian city of Bologna. It "seems" Germans took the Italian idea and made a similar sausage which was brought to America by German immigrants, and then Italian immigrants brought actual mortadella, and these were given "American" touches to become "bologna." By the 1920s and 1930s, sandwiches had become highly popular in the U.S., as they were quick and simple to make and they could be easily transported to jobs in bags or lunch boxes, and a common meat used was "baloney," the more typical Americanized pronunciation of "bologna." It wasn't fancy, but it wasn't expensive either, and that was important to every day American working people, and especially so when these "working people" didn't always have a steady job in the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s. It seems baloney was originally made from pork, but then also came beef, then chicken, then turkey, and even mixtures of meat products.

 

"A bunch of baloney" is a slang expression that means "a bunch of nonsense," and the expression seems to have developed in the 1920s in the U.S., in New York City, likely from the idea of baloney then being made from cheap cuts or remnants of meat, thus being of little worth, with nonsense seen the same way.
 

You can use beef baloney, or baloney made with chicken or turkey, if you don't eat pork.

My "Regular" Baloney Sandwich; totally simple:

2 slices white sandwich bread (you can certainly use whole wheat or multigrain bread)

1/2 to 1 tablespoon butter

2 slices baloney

thick ketchup, with more in reserve, if needed; okay, WHEN needed

Spread one slice of bread with butter. Place the 2 slices of baloney on either slice of bread, squeeze a "good" amount of thick ketchup onto the baloney, then place the other slice of bread on top of the ketchup covered baloney. Keep more ketchup nearby, and dip the sandwich into it before every bite. 

 

 

Is This the Typical Baloney Sandwich? 

 

Is this simple sandwich the "typical" baloney sandwich? There's really no way to prove or disprove it.

 

2 slices white bread

1 or 2 teaspoons mayonnaise

1 or 2 leaves of lettuce

2 or 3 slices of baloney

1 slice of American cheese

Spread one slice bread with mayonnaise, to the other slice of bread, add the lettuce, 2 or 3 slices of baloney and then top with the slice of cheese.

 

Variation: yellow or brown mustard supplements, or replaces, the mayonnaise, or try a good honey mustard on this sandwich (with no mayonnaise). 

"Regular" Fried Baloney Sandwich

 

You can cut slits around the edge of the baloney slices to help prevent curling of the meat when frying. 

 

2 slices white bread

2 to 3 slices baloney

1/2 tablespoon of butter

2 teaspoons mustard (more if you choose to put mustard on both slices of bread), or 2 teaspoons ketchup, or 2 teaspoons mayonnaise

1 pickle on the side, or 3 or 4 pickle slices

 

 

  

 

"Deluxe" Fried Baloney Sandwich

 

2 slices white bread

2 to 3 slices baloney

1/2 tablespoon butter (another 1/2 tablespoon butter, if needed)

1 slice Swiss cheese (or white or yellow American cheese)

1 or 2 slices onion, separated into rings

3 to 5 slices of bread 'n butter pickles (the slices are sometimes referred to as 'chips')

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

(optional) 2 teaspoons mustard or honey mustard

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, add the rings of onion and saute. Move the onion rings to the side of the skillet and add the baloney (add more butter, if needed). Fry the baloney on both sides until lightly browned. Keep mixing the onions around to brown them, as the baloney fries. Add the baloney to one slice of bread, top with the fried onions, then the pickles and then the Swiss cheese. Add mayonnaise to the top slice of bread, or if using mustard, spread the top slice with mustard first, then spread on the mayonnaise and add the bread to the top of the sandwich.

 

 

Fried Mortadella Sandwich

 

Mortadella is Italian bologna; actually, THE original bologna.

Ingredients (per sandwich):

2 slices bread (white, whole wheat or multigrain)

2 or 3 slices of mortadella

1 tablespoon butter + 1 teaspoon olive oil (or other oil of your choice)

1 or 2 slices of American cheese (or you can substitute white or yellow cheddar, or Colby)

2 to 3 teaspoons mayonnaise

1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 or 3 tomato slices (I tend to use Roma tomatoes, which are usually smaller, so 3 slices)

3 or 4 pickle slices (dill or sweet and sour chips)

Spread the Dijon mustard onto one slice of bread, followed by the mayonnaise. Add the tomato slices, then turn to preparing the mortadella. Add the butter and oil to a skillet over low heat (the oil will help keep the butter from browning quickly). Add the mortadella; brown the meat on both sides, then add the cheese on top of the meat for only about 20 to 30 seconds. Put the mortadella/cheese on top of the tomato covered bread slice and then top the meat/cheese with the pickle slices, and cover with the other plain slice of bread. In the photos below, the bottom photo shows building the sandwich, then the second photo shows completing the sandwich. I didn't add the cheese to the mortadella in the skillet so that the meat could be seen. This is a really good sandwich. 

Mustard followed by mayonnaise, then tomato slices, then mortadella

Fried Onion & Garlic Baloney Sandwich

 

2 slices white bread

2 slices baloney

2 to 4 cloves of garlic, sliced or finely chopped

1 green onion, white and green, chopped

1/2 tablespoon butter 

ketchup, mustard or mayonnaise, your preference, or some combo (I used mayo and ketchup in the photos below)

 

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat then add the green onion and garlic; saute about one minute, then move the onion and garlic to the side of the skillet and add the baloney slices. Fry on both sides until lightly browned. If the onion and garlic begin getting too dark (especially the garlic, it will become bitter) remove from the skillet until the baloney is done. I put some mayonnaise on the bottom slice of bread, then I add the meat, followed by the green onion and garlic and then some ketchup.

  

  

WORD HISTORY:

Weasel-The ultimate origin of the noun "weasel" is difficult, but it "seems" to go back to Indo European "weys," with the notion "to flow, to melt, to run," and the extended noun form "weselos/wiselos," which was the name for the animal, and this gave Old Germanic "wisulon," which meant the same thing. This gave Old English "weosule" then "wesle," which then became "wesele," before the modern form. Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "Wiesel," Low German "Wes(s)el," West Frisian and Dutch "wezel," Icelandic "vesla" (but it also has an unrelated word for the animal), Danish "væsel," Norwegian "vesle/væsel," Swedish "vessla."