8 Ways To Serve Bologna As An Appetizer At Your Next Party

You can do a lot more with bologna than slapping it between two slices of bread. It's an affordable ingredient for party appetizers and can be used in just about any bite-sized dish that calls for meat, as well as so much more. Bologna is not only available in slices but in chub and ring form, too. Regional variations such as Lebanon bologna (a spiced, all-beef version) can also make those appetizers even more interesting.

Bologna really does originate from the city of Bologna in Italy. It's a relative of mortadella, which has to follow strict regulations to legally be called mortadella. "Bologna" became a common name for similar meats that didn't meet those regulations. Although it's not quite clear how "bologna" picked up the name "baloney" in the U.S., the meat quickly garnered attention when people needed inexpensive protein during the Great Depression. The meat's sales continue to fluctuate, with more purchases made during times when people needed to economize. For example, when supermarket chain A&P looked at its sales between 2007 and 2009, it found bologna purchases were up by 124%. Regardless of economic issues, bologna is an underrated ingredient in party food. Forget about the bologna-and-cheese sandwiches you ate as a kid. These eight ways to serve bologna as an appetizer take the humble lunch meat to a new level.

A charcuterie board can be all meat or a mix of meats, cheeses, crackers, and other easy-to-eat foods; the one requirement is that there be meat. Bologna fits neatly into this concept. Take the typical round bologna slices and cut them into quarters, or even into strips, or find a chub of bologna and cut out cubes for your guests to nibble on. Some delis will cut bologna slices for you, and you can ask for them to be cut very thin so you can roll or artfully crumple them into different shapes. Bologna pieces can stand on their own, or you can wrap them around or skewer them with other ingredients.

When creating your charcuterie board, you'll want ingredients that complement each other. For bologna, cheddar, deli-cut American cheese, mustard, mayonnaise, and pickles — essentially, the ingredients of a deconstructed bologna sandwich — could be nice pairings. Or, go the unexpected route and serve that plain lunchtime bologna with a fancier cheese with a sharper flavor. Make sure to provide crackers that have a more neutral taste to serve as a base and ensure the crackers aren't too big or too small for perfect bite-sized nibbles.

Another appetizer you could try goes by a couple of different names. Sometimes they're called sushi-inspired bologna bites. Other times, they're called roll-ups or rollups. You might also call this style of roll a pinwheel. No matter what you call it, the concept is pretty much the same. Take a slice of white bread with the crusts cut off and roll it thin with a rolling pin. (While many recipes for this "sushi" use white bread, there's nothing stopping you from using a flexible tortilla or flatbread if you want to.) Add mayo, mustard, or a spreadable cheese on the bread, layer in the slices of bologna, and roll the whole thing up. You could slice and serve them as is, or wrap them in plastic wrap and chill them before adding a thin layer of mayo to the outside and rolling them in some finely crushed nuts.

There's another roll-up that you might be interested in, too. If you have Lebanon bologna, there's a common type of bread-free pinwheel that uses the bologna as the wrapper. Spread cream cheese straight onto a slice of bologna, then roll the slice up so that a cross-section looks like a spiral. Some variations also include ingredients like gherkins wrapped up in the middle. If you don't have Lebanon bologna, you can still use a regular lunch meat slice and fill it with the ingredients of your choice. If those slices don't roll well, secure the roll with a toothpick.

An absolutely charming appetizer on its own or on a charcuterie board is the salami rose. But this shape doesn't have to be limited to salami. You can make these roses with bologna or mortadella, and all you need is a knife and a glass. These roses are meant to be eaten one "petal" at a time, so you could even mix meats if you want. Just be sure to trim each slice of meat so that they're all of equal size.

The bigger the rose, the bigger the glass you should use. So, use a shot glass for roses with small, tight centers, and a wine glass, for example, for larger roses. Take three to five slices, depending on the size of the glass, and drape them over the rim. The slices should overlap each other going in one direction, and the rim should be under the center of each slice. Take another three to five slices and repeat, but this time, layer the slices on top of the seams of the first layer. Repeat one or two more times, and then flip the glass to deposit the rose on the charcuterie board.

If you can get your hands on a chub of bologna, one of those thick cylinders of unsliced meat, you have even more options. One of these options is to turn cubes of bologna into a version of burnt ends. Typically, burnt ends are from the point cut of brisket, but you can cook other meats to make burnt ends that taste just as delicious.

After cutting the bologna into cubes, season them with a mix of spices and barbecue sauce. You'll find numerous recipes for this, all with different seasoning suggestions, but all of them seem to settle on yellow mustard as the flavor of choice. Once the cubes are ready, toss them in a smoker and cook them for at least one hour, although times do vary depending on the recipe you follow. While some recipes cut the bologna into fairly large chunks, you might want to start with something more bite-sized so that your guests don't have to munch on larger, messier pieces while trying to talk to each other.

Speaking of smaller appetizers, you can also take those same chubs, cut out smaller cubes, pan-fry them, and serve them on handy toothpicks. The process of frying is simple. Just cut out the cubes, season them if you want, add oil to a pan, and lightly sear the cubes on all sides. Stack the cubes with other small pieces of food — like cheese or gherkins — on a toothpick, or pile the cubes into a bowl and let your guests grab as they go.

If you can't find a chub, try frying slices of bologna and then cutting them up into quarters. When you fry the slices, remember to first remove any inedible wrappers; some brands of bologna use edible casing, but others use a plastic casing that you don't want anywhere near a hot pan. Score the center and the edges of each slice so that it doesn't curl up when it cooks and shrinks. If you can find ring bologna, which is a long, thin sausagelike tube that's usually curved into a rough circle and tied together at the ends, you can simply slice off rounds and pan-fry those.

If you'd like an appetizer that's a classic, bologna salad might be your thing. Different recipes produce slightly different variations, with larger or smaller bits of bologna, but the recipes you want to zero in on are those that produce a spreadable salad. Bologna salad is often used as a sandwich filling, but it can also be used as an appetizer when served with crackers. Guests can spread the salad on the crackers or use it as a dip.

Bologna salad is actually a favorite Southern party dish. Note that some recipes say you need to use a food processor, and others say you don't; there's some debate about which technique really produces the right texture. It's safe to say that using a food processor is going to make preparation go a lot faster, however, compared with hand-chopping everything. Like so many recipes that are classics or favorites, you'll find a ton of different versions. However, the general recipe includes bologna, mayonnaise, mustard (often Dijon), onions, pickles, celery, and pepper. Some recipes include hard-boiled eggs and relish instead of pickles. Once the bologna and vegetables are chopped or processed, you mix everything together and serve.

Sometimes simple is better, and one of the simplest appetizers is bologna on crostini. Spread something like ricotta or another soft cheese onto the crostini, maybe add pesto if you prefer, and layer on a thin slice of bologna. This is an appetizer that benefits from deli-sliced bologna that's cut very thin. The crostini serves as a blank slate on which you can mix and match flavors that taste good together.

Technically, you could serve the bologna with bruschetta, which is also a small slice of toasted bread. But crostini is thinner, and that may pair better with bologna, especially if you want to have one slice fanned across each piece of bread. You don't want your appetizers to be so large that you can't eat them in a couple of bites, and the thinner crostini won't take up as much space as thicker bruschetta. Plus, the crispy texture of the crostini provides a very palatable contrast to the softer bologna.

There's one more option if you have access to a smoker. Cut a section that's a few inches thick from a chub of bologna, score one side of it in a checkerboard pattern, making cuts about two-thirds to three-quarters the depth of the piece, then carefully fan out the cut pieces, season, and glaze with barbecue sauce. Smoke it, baste it, smoke it some more, and voila: You now have the bologna version of a blooming onion. You'll find recipes that call this everything from blooming or bloomin' bologna to blooming bologna burnt ends, and as usual, there are a few variations that use different rubs and sauces. Some use olive oil, others use multiple types of sauce, some add the sauces at different points in the cooking process, and so on. You could have a lot of fun experimenting with the different combinations to find the mix you like best.

If you don't have a smoker, there are even recipes out there that use an air fryer. This version doesn't take nearly as long as other versions do, so if you're pressed for time and don't want to fire up a smoker, the air-fryer is a good alternative.