An American classic
Baloney – or balongna as it is sometimes known – is processed meat that has been shaped into a 10cm diameter cylinder and then cut thinly into 1-2mm thick rounds. Americans don’t fuss over baloney – it will come on its own between two sliced of white bread with some mayonnaise, or possibly garnished with some crisp shredded lettuce and a square of mild cheese.
If you examine the texture and constituency of baloney it is rather similar to the processed meat that goes into a hot dog, or frankfurter. Indeed, heated like a hot dog, fried baloney is an important variation on the plain baloney sandwich. Frying baloney is rather surreal. When tossed into a hot pan, the disc of meat immediately reacts by arching rolling and buckling, almost as if it is trying to flip itself out of the heat of the pan. The cook will be required to tame the baloney by holding it down with a spatula to cook through properly. With the similar characteristics of a bacon butty, a fried baloney sandwich is good with just butter on white bread. However, as baloney shares the same textures and tastes of flattened hot dogs, it can also benefit from the addition of mustard and ketchup.