Bologna & onions in Poland?

Dunno about the hominy-grit South or corn-fed Plains but the real blue-collar America -- Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, etc. -- is bologna & onions and wieners & baked beans country.

Is that where 'windy city' comes from?

Polonius3.

We are close, I live in Utica. :-)

Do you shop at BoŻek, Środek or the one on 15 mile?

Good one! (LOL) I once got chided on PF for saying never enter a lift with a Heinz-baked-bean-loving Brit!


Mostly at Polish Market on Maple Rd & Dequindre, but I have shopped at Bożek's and Środek's as well.

Ok, my great aunts who were Polish would make Usinger's beef ring bologna and onions and this was also made at our house. I HATED IT but my great aunts as well as my parents had that policy of eat what we serve or you go hungry! By the time I turned ten - early 1970's - I decided that this stuff wasn't to bad.

Simple recipe... throw some butter into a large pan with the heat on medium, add two or three medium onion's, cut into slices, layer them in the pan, cut the ring bologna into half inch slices, layer them on top of that heap of onions, put the cover on, leave it on medium heat for 30 minutes and then turn the heat down to low and wait another hour.

No measuring, no pinch of this and a tablespoon of that - a little butter, a bunch on onion's sliced into rings and a cut up Usinger's beef bologna ring. When the onions start to saute and release that beautiful liquid and the chunks of bologna turn red all that is left is to slice the black Russian rye bread. Scoop out the bologna and onions into a bowl and dip that Russian rye bread into the juices while you are eating the bologna and onions!

I never know where this recipe had come from but my Mom was a mix German and Polish and my Dad was a mix of Welsh and Irish so I am thinking that this came more from my Mom's side.

Either way, enjoy!

Mortadela is called bologna?? Funny.
Last time I had mortadela was in communist times. It was the cheapest "sausage", always available. I must admit the taste wasn`t so tragic after all. But when better sausages were in stock, mortadela was ignored.

What they call bologna (or baloney) in the US is mortadela in Poland (the Polish name comes from the Italian "mortadella" which is not exactly the same thing)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortadella

Of course. Communist tea or coffee weren`t exactly the same things as their counterparts in democratic countries, either. hahaha

In that same period there was some sort of shortage in the UK and they started adding ground chicory to coffee. Nasty stuff.


I have a friend here who uses the word 'mortadela' as an insult.

I can't even begin to imagine frying it, especially not in butter or margarine.

Since this has been opened up again...

For anyone with experience in ex-Soviet countries... how similar is Doctor's Sausage (Докторская колбаса) to Polish mortadela...

Given the Polish tendency to rename dishes from Russia (Russian Olivier salad as sałatka jarzynowa or wiosenna, Chicken Kiev as "De volaille") could mortadela just be Doctor's Sausage given a non-Russian name?

Does anyone know when/how it was introduced to Poland?

There's a lot of mentions online of how it was breaded and fried in the PRL, so I wonder if it isn't exactly as you say. It seems that real mortadella was made pre-war (and before?), but then in the PRL, it was promoted as a typical Gomułka-era dish where calories mattered more than anything else.

I thought that was the DDR.... where it was called Jägerschnitzel (Hunter's schnitzel) and an iconic part of DDR food

I didn't like the egg and flour fried version but the breaded and fried version is okay...

I ran my 'renamed doctor's sausage' hypothesis by a friend (and mortadela fan) and they thought it was possible (this person recognizes that it's not that much like Italian mortadella).

My mother taught me how to make ring bologna and onions. We use Kogel and yellow onions. Extra onions. 3 large per half ring. Sliced thin, cooked way down and carmelized in the pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Man that's good Polish eating. Can't wait to serve it to my grandkids. Lol.