Bologna sausage

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For the city, see Bologna.

Bologna sausage is an American version of the Italian mortadella (a finely hashed/ground pork sausage with lard pieces). The American version can alternatively be made out of chicken, turkey, beef, pork, or soybeans. It is commonly called bologna and often pronounced by hypercorrection)and/or spelled baloney. The "baloney" pronunciation can be used to mean "lies" and/or to express disbelief (a minced oath version of "bullshit"; see below).

This food is usually served in round uniform slices pre-cut in a package or sliced by a butcher, though many brands are sold as large chunks to be sliced by the consumer. Minced bologna is popularly produced and sold by Oscar Mayer, which had a famous advertising campaign in the 1970s with a well-known jingle ("My baloney has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R..."), which was sung by Andy Lambros. There are many other manufacturers as well, including local butcher shops and grocery store meat counters.

Bologna sausage is typically served in a sandwich, often for lunch; hence, it is one of the most common "cold cuts" in the U.S. However, bologna may also be served fried or wrapped around mashed potatoes and baked as a version of "pigs in blankets".

Ring bologna can be found in two inch (5 cm) diameter sausages that are normally about a foot long. These can often be found pickled in a combination of vinegar, salt, sugar and spices.

Bologna sausage is commonly believed to be created from lowly scraps of meat cuts. It is assumed that this food, therefore, is the origin of the slang word baloney, meaning "nonsense" or "BS". An alternative etymology suggests that baloney is a corruption, through the French, of the city of Bologna, Italy. As the university at Bologna was known for its legal education, the French, and later English, came to call legal clap-trap balogna, or baloney.^{[citation needed]}

Bologna is also popular breakfast food in Newfoundland, served fried as a substitute to ham slices. It is also sometimes barbecued as well. In either case, it is referred to as "Newfie Steak".

A similar sausage is known in Australia variably as polony, fritz, devon or strasbourg. Which name is used is dependent on which state one is in.

In Chicago, bologna is often called bosaus, a shortened version of bologna sausage.^[1]

24 October is National Bologna Day' in the US.