Johnny Cash Enjoyed Eating This Affordable Meat For Breakfast

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Johnny Cash was a country music legend with a career that spanned nearly 50 years. He's remembered for classic hits like "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Ring of Fire" and for his penchant for wearing black. But beyond music and his fashion sense, Cash had a love for Southern food, both eating it and cooking it. He snacked on such down-home treats as fried chicken skin and had a signature chili recipe that used steak instead of ground beef. One of his go-to breakfasts included another unpretentious choice.

No, it's not bacon, but rather fried bologna. Although bologna is an inexpensive processed meat, and Cash definitely could have afforded something pricier (he'd amassed an estimated fortune in the range of $60 million), he loved the food he had grown up with. He was born and raised in Arkansas where fried bologna is a standby, whether for lunch or dinner, as part of a sandwich or as a breakfast side. Bologna is full of umami and when fried has a rich smoky taste reminiscent of a grilled hot dog. Cash preferred his fried bologna with scrambled eggs and biscuits.

John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, had vivid memories of the smell of his father frying bologna in the mornings at the family's ranch in Bon Aqua, Tennessee. In "The Cash and Carter Family Cookbook," the younger Cash shared that The Man in Black preferred his bologna crispy — nearly burned. "He always loved crispy and well-done food," he wrote in the 2018 book, which included recipes and recollections of his parents and grandparents. 

The 107-acre ranch was a place where Johnny Cash could relax away from the limelight, do some gardening, and cook his own meals, whether it was breakfast or other old-school dishes such as pinto beans with ham hocks. But the breakfast that included fried bologna was one of his favorites to prepare. Cash would first fry up the bologna, then scramble the eggs in the pan he'd used for the meat. He'd also make canned biscuits. He'd serve up this breakfast meal with sliced tomatoes, and the biscuits slathered in butter and honey. Johnny Cash may have been a superstar, but that didn't mean he was highfalutin. He loved a hearty simple breakfast as much as anyone.