imponderables and other silliness

[bob.e]

Here's a thread to ask those questions that we could easily go through life without knowing the answers too, but we have to ask them anyway.

So here is my first question . . . I've worked the deli counter in our grocery store as a teenager and have eaten Balogna all my life. Here is my imponderable question, I've noticed that every chub of Balogna I've ever seen has a red skin, why does Balogna have red skin???

 

[bob.e]

I've done some research and all the balogna casings that are not natural appear to be colored red by all the manufactures I checked.

Synthetic Casing
This casing is made from alginates, and requires no refrigeration. It is used by mass producers and can be made in different colors. Red for bologna, clear for some salami’s and white for liverwurst. Much like the cellulosic casing it is uniform and strong.

So now lets let other people add their imponderable and silly questions to this thread and see what we can learn

 

[pz93c]

Claus-trophobia.

Fear of Santa?

Angoraphobia?

Fear of sweaters?

 

[kg4ghn]

I've done some research and all the balogna casings that are not natural appear to be colored red by all the manufactures I checked.

Synthetic Casing
This casing is made from alginates, and requires no refrigeration. It is used by mass producers and can be made in different colors. Red for bologna, clear for some salami’s and white for liverwurst. Much like the cellulosic casing it is uniform and strong.

So now lets let other people add their imponderable and silly questions to this thread and see what we can learn

Hmmmm, I've never pulled any casing off of salami... Was I supposed to? Always pulled the red stuff off of balogna.

 

[Swampfox]

What about the casing on sausage?

 

[bob.e]

many sausages use sheep intestine as their casing and there are several clear casings made from what I found

 

[Swampfox]

many sausages use sheep intestine as their casing and there are several clear casings made from what I found

Huh.

 

[Iakona]

many sausages use sheep intestine as their casing and there are several clear casings made from what I found

That is probably just man's research into creating a killer man eating mutant sheep... they want to make sure that the intestine holds up when packed with chopped up (chewed up) meat rather than grass and hay.

Ok I realize that is really lame, but I already typed it out so chalk up another post for me!

 

[Chimensch]

I live near Bologna, which is where Mortadella (the Italian name of bologna) comes from. Here is a more exact answer to your question from Practically Edible:

The casings can be natural or synthetic. Natural casings allows product inside to breath and age better, but such casing is more expensive. Artificial casings are made from cellulose, or two layers of cellophane. These artificial ones are given an orange mattone colouring, because the mortadella within won't develop the coloration that the consumer would expect were the casing natural. Both casings are often tied with cord.

(Copyright 2010 Practically Edible. All rights reserved and enforced.) Read more of this snippet here : http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/mortadella#ixzz0nvc8zoRO