Fried Bologna & Other Southern Sandwiches

Southern Plate is more than just me typing and chatting away. In fact, YOU are the most important part of SouthernPlate.com. With that in mind, I hope you’ll take time to leave a comment and share your favorite sandwich from your childhood. See bottom of this post for more details! Gratefully, Christy 🙂 bologna 003

When my mama was a girl they had a tradition of going out riding through the countryside on Sunday afternoons. They’d stop off at a little store to have thick slices of bologna cut off and made into bologna and cheese sandwiches. Pair that with a bottled drink and they were living high on the hog! “There just wasn’t anything like getting to ride in that car and look out the window while you ate a bologna sandwich!”.

This treat was passed down to my generation when we often sat down for lunch with a big loaf of bread and a stack of cheese slices in the middle of the table while Mama fried up bologna in a skillet. We’d each make our own sandwich and I’d make mine just like my brother did: Fried bologna, cheese, and potato chips settled in between two pieces of “loaf bread”.

Bologna sandwiches, sometimes referred to as “the poor man’s steak”, are such a part of our culture, they’re even used to gauge a person’s character. On the day we got married, my husband’s best man, Jim, had driven in a ways and was planning on staying overnight before heading back. He stayed with my Grandmother, who lived across the road from what was to be our new home. It had been quite a day with the wedding and reception and that evening Grandmama and Jim went out on her porch to relax and look out over the river.

For supper, Grandmama made the two of them bologna sandwiches.

To Grandmama, Jim and my husband represented a new generation, with a huge divide between folks her age and them. Grandmama had grown up dirt poor and picking cotton all of her life and here was this young man newly graduated from college with an engineering degree whose experience with her world had been nothing more than glancing at the cotton as the car went by. Its sometimes a little intimidating for folks who come from such humble backgrounds in situations like this, but when Jim accepted that bologna sandwich, it spoke volumes to Grandmama about the type of person he was at heart. Even now whenever he is mentioned she always chimes, in,

“That Jim is just a real good boy, he sat out there on the porch and ate a bologna sandwich with me”.

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To make the sandwich from my childhood you’ll need: Bread, cheese, mayo…

bologna 007and potato chips 🙂

My brother taught me the wonders of a potato chip sandwich over thirty years ago.

I think it almost made up for him cutting the entire side of my hair off a few years later.

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Now we have to fry out bologna. I always cut a slit halfway through to keep it from curling up into a bowl as it fries.

I prefer Zeigler bologna because it is made in Alabama. I try to buy as close to home as I can because last thing we want is to end up relying on a company halfway across the country for our food supplies. I think it’s best to support local suppliers to ensure that you have local suppliers. Zeigler’s has been around for over seventy five years. Their main plant is in Tuscaloosa and our own highly respected Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was once an owner of the company as well.

Reminder to all: I am not into football but Alabamians take their football very seriously.

So whatever team you are for, GO THEM!

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You don’t need to spray your pan or anything, just put your bologna in it and cook it on medium, turning after it browns on one side. Some folks like there is just barely heated but I actually like a wee bit of black on mine 🙂

Note to myself: You use the word “actually” too much, stop it. Now. Seriously.

~sighs~

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Oh lawd, that’s some good eatin’!

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I always smoosh it a bit to crunch the chips down some 🙂

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Grandmama, I’m a real good girl because I still eat bologna sandwiches!

A few posts back we got into a comment discussion on strange sandwich combinations we grew up on. It was a fascinating comment section and we all really got a hoot out of reading it. I’d like to devote this comment section to those sandwiches. What did you grow up on? What brands do you insist on and why?

Mayonaise sandwich? Mustard sandwich? PB and banana? Tell us all about it! Also, why do you think Southerners eat such strange sandwich combinations-ketchup sandwich, anyone?

I think it is due to lack of food. When food was scarce, you could put something between two slices of bread, call it a sandwich and then it suddenly seemed like a meal. What do you think?

If there is anything else you wanna talk about in the comments section, feel free to do that, too.

See someone else’s comment you wanna reply to? Go right ahead!

I consider this to be my big old porch and we’re all just a standing around visiting with each other.

Y’all keep the conversation going and I’ll keep the tea glasses filled!

We’re all family here anyways. 🙂

“The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.”

Submitted by Rebecca Hall. To submit your quote or read more, please click here.

I just love getting new positive quotes so thank you in advance!



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580 Comments

  1. Born in 1944 in WVa and grew up eating mayonnaise because Mom said that only poor people ate Miracle Whip. Back then, Miracle Whip cost a lot less than mayonnaise- but today that is not the case. Cold thick bologna with mustard, or fried bologna with tomato or onion or both with mayonnaise was the way we did it then. As I spend time caring for my 94 year young Dad, we have fried bologna and garlic sandwiches every week. This article made me remember us three boys and bread and Lay’s plain potato chips in the back of a pickup on our way to Camden Park. No seat belts in those days or restrictions of riding in the back of a pickup truck….I wonder sometimes how we made it. Thanks again for a wonderful article.

  2. I just got done eating a potted meat and mayo sandwich, my grandma use to make for me all the time when I was little. Now it was my mom who introduced me to another fav of mine , a sliced pineapple and mayo sandwich! Man we sure eat good down here in LA (lower Alabama) !

  3. I LOVE fried bologne sandwiches! But my absolute favorite way was the way my daddy did them for breakfast, He would dice up that bologne and fry it till it was crispy then scramble an egg with it. We would toast some bread put a bit of mayo and a slice of cheese, wrap it in a paper towel and munch all the way to the bus stop! I still make them for my kids even though they are grown, can’t wait to make them for my new grandson when he’s ready!

  4. My grandpa used to make a sandwich called the super duper. White bread, miracle whip, Jiff peanut butter, grape jelly, bologna, and American cheese. I like my fried bologna with cheese and peanut butter grilled like a grilled cheese. If I don’t fry the bologna I eat it with mayo mustard cheese and potato chips.
    My bologna must be Kahns and my chips must be Mikesells, I too believe in supporting local business. I am from north of Dayton Ohio and you just don’t get any more Dayton than Mikesells! I love this blog, I have enjoyed reading through the stories and comments!

  5. I read this the other day and it brought back so many memories. I had to wait until last Wednesday to run out and get some bologna and white bread so I could make a sandwich. You see, I had to go to the doctor last Wednesday and check in. I am tryig to lose some weight and I didn;t want t mess things up. I told myself that if I had lost some weight, I would reward myself with a Bologna Sandwich. Not the best thing to do but that is what I did. I had lost 11 pounds and that was my reward. It tasted sooooooo goooood! I madeit just like Christy did with the exception that I added mustard and onions. I used Merita Old Fashioned bread. You know, the kind that sticks to the roof of your mouth. Well, today is Friday, the Bologna is gone, half of the bread is gone, a bag of potato chips is gone and I have to go back on my diet. It was so worth it though. Thanks Christy. I had forgotten all about Bologna and fried Bologna sandwiches. What a treat. If you all haven’t had one, you have missed out on one of the Southern great lunches.

  6. All of these sound good to me. One of my favorites as a child was peanut butter and Miracle Whip on light bread. I also liked bologna with potato salad wrapped up in it.(a wrap before its time) I liked to dip it in catsup. Aren’t we all glad we are from the South.

  7. I love bologna sandwiches. In elementary school, my best friend always brought lunch – bologna sandwich. She quickly grew tired of them so we would always swap lunches. YUM-O! We used to fry bologna and put some garlic powder on it. So good! I love BBQ sauce on white bread. Also, mayo sandwich – with a little bit of salt and some black pepper. Pineapple (slice) sandwich and if I was lucky, I could put a slice of ham on it. Pimento cheese (oh gosh, I love it) sandwich. Tomato sandwiches. Banana sandwich with mayo. Is there anything you can’t put between two pieces of bread? 😉 Oh, and I put chips on my ham sandwiches. I put Doritos on my hamburger, if I have some available.

    Bobby Flay has a hamburger on his menu at his burger place (Bobby’s Burger Palace) with chips on it and he calls it “crunchified”. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/crunchburger-aka-the-signature-burger-recipe/index.html

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