10 Bologna Pairings You've Never Thought Of (But Absolutely Need To Try)

Deli meats, as a whole, gets a lot of flak. While stopping at the grocery store deli (and devouring the "sample" piece of cheese or cold cuts from the nice person at the counter like a hungry raccoon) used to be a tradition for many, the meats, as a whole, have fallen out of favor. Some of this can be traced to health concerns, including over food-borne illness and potentially even cancer, but we think part of the problem is that people just don't know how to pair deli meats with different ingredients to boost their flavor and turn a grocery store staple into something gourmet — especially when it comes to the humble bologna.

Bologna, which is typically made from some combination of beef, turkey, pork, and chicken, has a lot of utility in different recipes because of its salty, fatty, and rich mouthfeel. While you can just slap a slice between two pieces of bread and call it a day, the smarter way to use it is to think about what flavors it already has and which ones it craves. We won't let you go alone on this one; instead, we've rounded up some of our favorite ingredient pairings for this classic deli meat, along with some creative ways to enjoy them.

Kimchi is one of our favorite condiments because of how versatile it is. Pack it full of whatever veggies you have in your garden (or stick with the classic napa cabbage recipe), add a little bit of Korean chili flakes, fish sauce for umami, and spices, and let it sit for a few days. The result is a slightly crunchy, super funky topping for everything from breakfast sandwiches to, you guessed it, bologna.

There are several reasons why this pairing works. For one, kimchi is crunchy — thanks to ingredients like carrots, cabbage, and (our personal favorite), zucchini — which contrasts the soft and squishy deli meat well. The flavor of the bologna is very salty and fatty, so having a little bit of a vegetable-forward complement is more than fitting. If you're making your own batch of kimchi at home, you can tailor the spice level to meet your preference, and the fattiness of the bologna will certainly mellow its piquancy.

One creative combination for kimchi and bologna could be on a Korean-inspired grilled cheese sandwich. The melty cheese and fatty meat would be the perfect foil for the spicy kimchi. You can also fry the bologna to offer an extra level of crunch.

What can't hot honey do? This chili pepper-infused honey can elevate almost any food, but it's an especially tasty pairing for meats like bologna. Its spiciness is prickly, rather than overwhelming, and the sweet honey helps to keep its flavor in check. Sweetness and heat are two flavors that bologna doesn't really have, making this the definition of a dynamic duo. Hot honey would be an especially tasty drizzle for a slice of fried bologna, as the honey would seep into the meat and infuse it with flavor. It would also be excellent on a sandwich with cheese. Another fun way to use it would be to make little sliders with grilled pineapple (for extra sweetness and acidity), bologna, and a dollop of hot honey.

You can try making your own hot honey recipe or pick up a reputable brand from your grocery store for this flavorful pairing. A little goes a long way, so be sure to just start with a drizzle and add more if your palate can handle it.

If you have spent any length of time in the South, chances are that you're well acquainted with pimento cheese. This rich spread includes its namesake, pimento peppers, alongside cream cheese (sometimes, but not always), shredded cheddar cheese, bacon, mayonnaise, and spices. You'll often see it eaten in a sandwich or as a dip.

Pimento cheese is an excellent addition to ham sandwiches, so it's easy to see how it could elevate one made with bologna. The richness of the cream cheese and the cheddar can help soften the salty bite of the meat, while the pimentos add a subtly spicy, bright pop of flavor. Although pimento cheese is often made with bacon, this meat is not overpowering — in either flavor or quantity — that it distracts from the bologna.

One easy way to enjoy this duo is in a sandwich. Frying the bologna will give you the perfect textural contrast against the soft, creamy, and cheesy spread. You can also jazz it up by adding a couple pieces of lettuce for crunch and tomato for a juicy, subtly sweet flavor.

We're always looking for ways to perk up our scrambled eggs. This versatile breakfast protein can be eaten on its own, stuffed into a sandwich or a wrap, and more. Adding a salty, fatty meat like bologna is an easy way to increase its volume and improve its flavor. If you've ever eaten ham and eggs, or are partial to a Denver omelet, this is a pairing you may want to try yourself.

The best way to prepare this dish is to chop up your bologna into small pieces and cook it in the pan so that it crisps up nicely. If you cooked the eggs and the bologna together, you'd risk your meat coming out flabby while your eggs would be dry and overcooked. Giving the bologna a head start will offer the perfect textural contrast against the soft eggs.

Once it's plated, douse the whole thing in ketchup or serve it with some peppers and onions for a hearty breakfast. You won't even miss the ham! You can also pair eggs and bologna on a breakfast sandwich. Fried bologna, scrambled eggs, and a little drizzle of hot sauce sandwiched between bagel halves or inside a wrap makes for a hearty and tasty breakfast you won't want to miss.

One of the easiest ways to pair two foods is via side dishes. Fried green tomatoes are an excellent pairing for bologna because they offer a unique, juicy flavor and slight crunch from the seasonings. The tangy and juicy flavor of the tomatoes are an excellent foil to the fatty, salty bologna, and the crispy coating on the outside of the tomatoes can be enhanced with an array of seasonings that help them better complement the bologna. When you stick your fried green tomatoes into a sandwich with bologna, you'll get the perfect mouthfeel: crispy, fried coating, soft tomato, and salty lunch meat. You could also serve the fried bologna on a plate with a side of fried green tomatoes if you prefer a greater separation of church and state.

To drive home those Southern flavors even more, try serving your fried green tomato sandwich on a buttermilk biscuit or between two pieces of cornbread. Just make sure that you give the fried green tomatoes a little bit of time to cool down after you pull them from the oil, since you don't want to cause the coating to go limp from the trapped steam.

A crispy piece of fried bologna shoved between two pieces of white sandwich bread? Great. But a piece of fried bologna decked out to the nines with Dijon mustard and crispy apple pieces? Immaculate.

This unique pairing takes inspiration from one of our favorite sandwiches: the Vermonter. Normally, this sandwich combines whole-grain or Dijon mustard with turkey or ham (sometimes both), cheese, and apple slices. It might seem a little weird to add apples to a sandwich, but the fruit provides the perfect pop of flavor and crunch for turkey, ham, and, you guessed it, bologna. The mustard is a must for this pairing, as it offers the perfect sinus-tickling warmth to balance the sweetness of the apples and the saltiness of the bologna.

If you're uniting this trio in a sandwich, it's best to consider the other components of your sandwich as well to ensure that they don't outshine one another. Neutral cheeses, like Swiss and cheddar, are good places to start, seeing as their meltability and even-keeled flavor won't distract from the primary components of the sandwich. Add a drizzle of hot honey — if you like things a little on the warm side — and tuck it between crusty bread or a roll for a sandwich you won't soon forget.

Although it might seem a little weird in theory, ham salad is indeed a thing. Its cheaper cousin, bologna salad, is just like it, but, as expected, is made with bologna rather than ham. To make it at home, all you need to do is combine minced bologna with two tasty additions — mayonnaise and relish — in a food processor until it has a pâté-like consistency. You can also leave it chunky by chopping up your bologna a little larger; this is ideal if you plan on putting it into a sandwich, onto a salad, or mixing it with pasta for an upgraded macaroni salad.

This triad, which is believed to have been invented back in the 1950s, has a terrific interplay of flavors. The mayonnaise not only serves as the binder, it also offers a subtle eggy flavor and richness. The relish (or chopped pickles, depending on your recipe) offers a bright bite of acidity and tartness to balance out the salty, savory bologna. If you want to stick to a classic preparation, try serving it alongside neutral-flavored crackers at your next retro get-together.

Frying bologna may be the Southern way of eating this popular deli meat, but if you want to add an even more down-South twist, try pairing it with another regional favorite: cornbread. Cornbread is everything that bologna is not; it's sweet, crumbly, and buttery — meaning it will act as the perfect complement to the salty meat.

There are many ways to enjoy this combo. Fry up a few pieces of bologna and shove it between a few slices of cornbread. You can alter the profile of your cornbread by adding different ingredients to the batter, like jalapeños, bacon, or cheese — all of which jive with the bologna. You could also add a schmear of honey butter to your cornbread before adding the bologna for an even more pronounced sweet contrast.

Another thing that you can do is add the bologna to the cornbread batter itself. Chop the bologna up like you would bacon or pancetta and stir it into your cornbread mixture before baking it for a savory, salty spin on a classic baked treat.

There are few things better in life than arriving at a barbecue and seeing a Crock-Pot of pulled pork just waiting to be piled high on a bun with slaw. But the next time your bologna sandwich looks uninspired — or you run out of shredded pork or chicken — turn to this fun pairing: bologna, barbecue sauce, and slaw. Is it going to replicate the same, succulent mouthfeel of a pulled pork sando? Of course not, but the popular deli meat is still pretty darn tasty slathered in barbecue sauce. Barbecue sauce can take so many different regional approaches, so there's no shortage of options to explore. A classic bottled sauce like Sweet Baby Ray's, for example, is sweet, with smoky notes and a little hint of umami from the tomato. All of these components will work well with a crispy piece of fried bologna, which will soak up the flavor like a sponge and offer saltiness and savoriness of its own.

Like a good pulled pork sandwich, a slaw topping is only proper. Slaw varies depending on who's making it, but you'll typically get a hint of acidity and creaminess from the dressing, as well as the crunch from the veggies. The three together make for a well-rounded bite that will become a new favorite feature in your lunch rotation.

The idea of adding deli meat to pasta sauce isn't a new thing. After all, carbonara unites pancetta or bacon with cheese, while penne al Baffo marries salty ham or pancetta with a red sauce. You can probably already pick up what we're putting down here: a pasta sauce filled with pieces of bologna. Not only is this a great recipe to clear out your deli drawer, but it also gives the salty meat the opportunity to flavor and enhance the acidic and bright tomato sauce.

You can use the bologna in place of pancetta in a bolognese recipe. The key to pairing pasta sauce with bologna successfully, though, is to always make sure that you're not salting the sauce too much, since the bologna is already well-salted. The aromatics and veggies, including carrots, onions, and celery, as well as other meats, like ground beef or sausage, will play off the flavors in the bologna well — and as long as you chop up the bologna finely and distribute it well, your guests might not even know that it's in there.