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Ask a person to rattle off different kinds of lunch meat, and you’re likely to hear a few standard answers. Ham. Turkey. Chicken. Roast beef. Perhaps one or more of the Italian meats.
And maybe, just maybe, bologna. Technically pronounced “bo-LO-nya” — although most Americans say “ba-LO-nee” — bologna is a sausage based on an Italian sausage known as mortadella. Decades ago it was a popular sandwich meat, and while it is perhaps not quite as popular as it once was, you can still find it on grocery store shelves. It remains a common component for kid lunches, and perhaps for a few adults, too.
Aldi sells its own private label bologna, so I decided to give it a try.
Lunch Mate Bologna is an Aldi Regular Buy. You can find it in the store’s refrigerated section anytime. It comes in a 16-ounce (1-pound) vacuum-sealed, shrink-wrapped container and currently costs $1.48. At 9 cents an ounce, it’s less than the 16 cents an ounce Oscar Mayer goes for at Walmart, and it’s the same price as the budget Bar-S brand.
I’m not going to debate all of the nutritional issues surrounding bologna. Some people like it and others see it as a highly processed food. It definitely has some drawbacks: a single slice has 8 grams of fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, and 400 milligrams of sodium. And the ingredients list, which includes chicken, pork, and beef, doesn’t exactly scream all-natural. All of that, though, is pretty comparable to other bolognas that I looked at, including Oscar Mayer.
I tried it in the way I know bologna best, in a sandwich. I liked it. It tasted like bologna I’ve had from other places. Salty, meaty, good flavor. Complements the rest of the sandwich without overwhelming it.
The Verdict:
I thought that, as far as bologna goes, this Lunch Mate Bologna was a decent version of it. I liked the taste and texture, and I felt like it made for a good sandwich. Like all bolognas, it’s got some caveats in the nutrition and ingredients department, but if this is your kind of lunch meat, the Aldi version might be worth a try.
I use it for ham salad – mayo, bit of onion, pickle relish. Kids love it for sandwiches or on crackers.
Used to eat bologna as a sandwich or sliced thicker and fried and eaten on rye bread. But now due to illness I can’t eat it because it contains corn syrup solids which cause burning and painful tingling. Keep looking for it without and then I can go back to loving it again.