Cold Cuts Category
These are precooked sausages or meat loaves that are usually served cold in sandwiches or on party trays. You can buy them already sliced in vacuum packs, or have them sliced to order at a deli counter. Most cold cuts are high in fat and sodium.
basturma
This Armenian specialty consists of beef that's marinated in spices and air-dried.
Learn morebierwurst
This is a chunky, tubular German sausage that's usually sliced and served cold in sandwiches. It's made with pork and beef.
Learn moreblockwurst
This is a spicy German pork sausage that's usually served in sandwiches. It comes ready-to-eat.
Learn morebologna
This soft, mild sausage is a sandwich staple. It's made from beef and/or pork and usually smoked. It's usually sold sliced and ready-to-eat.
Learn morecold cuts
These are precooked sausages or meat loaves that are usually served cold in sandwiches or on party trays. You can buy them already sliced in vacuum packs, or have them sliced to order at a deli counter. Most cold cuts are high in fat and sodium.
Learn morecorned beef
This is cut from a beef brisket that's been cured with salt and spices and then simmered in water. It's traditionally served hot on rye bread.
Learn morecsabai
This is a Hungarian smoked sausage that's heavily seasoned with paprika. Rings of it are sold in German delis.
Learn morefoie gras entier
This pricey French delicacy is simply goose or duck liver that's been lightly cooked. When aged, it becomes very rich and flavorful. Goose livers are tastier and more expensive than duck livers. Some people refuse to eat foie gras because the animals are force-fed to enlarge their livers.
Learn moregelbwurst
This pork and veal sausage is very mild and fine-grained. The name means "yellow sausage" in German, but that refers to the color of the casing rather than cream-colored sausage itself. You can put it into sandwiches or pan-fry it. It's called "diet bologna" in Germany since it's relatively low in fat.
Learn moreheadcheese
This is made from parts of the hog's head, which are boiled together with spices and gelatin, then cooled and sliced. The result is a mosaic of meat chunks. It's good in sandwiches.
Learn morejagdwurst
This is a coarse, mild German cold cut that's often served on sandwiches with mustard. It's made of pork, beef, and sometimes garlic.
Learn morekrakauer
This is like bologna, only it's studded with chucks of ham. You can serve it cold in sandwiches, or fry it for breakfast.
Learn moreLebanon bologna
This is a highly seasoned smoked beef sausage based on a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe.
Learn moreleberkäse
Despite its name ("liver cheese" in German), this Bavarian specialty contains neither liver nor cheese. It's a pork, beef, and veal meatloaf with the color and consistency of bologna. Germans like to fry thick slices of it and serve them with potatoes.
Learn moreliverwurst
This is a family of pork liver sausages that are creamy enough to spread. One variety is braunschweiger, which is smoked liverwurst.
Learn moremortadella
This exquisite smoked pork sausage is similar to bologna, only it's flavored with garlic and has bits of fat and sometimes pistachios in it. It's a key ingredient in a muffaletta sandwich. Always serve it cold.
Learn morepastrami
This is beef brisket that's been seasoned and dry-cured. It's often served hot on rye bread.
Learn morepâté
Leave it to the French to come up with this buttery rich delicacy. Goose pâté is pricier and more subtle than duck pâté, and is the best choice if you plan to serve the pâté cold. Duck pâté works best in warm dishes. Some people refuse to eat pâté de foie gras from France because the animals are force-fed to enlarge their livers.
Learn morepepper loaf
This is a pork and beef loaf that's liberally seasoned with cracked peppercorns.
Learn morepickled pork
Louisiana cooks like to add this to bean dishes. It's hard to find outside of Louisiana, but it's fairly easy to make from scratch.
Learn moreringwurst
This pork and beef sausage looks and tastes like bologna. Germans like to heat it up and serve it with potato salad or bread.
Learn moresalami
This is a family of ready-to-eat sausages that are made with beef and/or pork and heavily seasoned with garlic and spices. They're often used in sandwiches or antipasto plates. Many salami, like the popular Genoa salami, are air-dried and somewhat hard. Others, like cotto salami, are cooked, which makes them softer and more perishable. Most salami are made of pork, but all-beef kosher salami are also available. In Italian, salame is the singular form and salami the plural, but Americans often talk of one salami and many salamis.
Learn moreschinkenwurst
This German cold cut consists of ham suspended in a bologna-like emulsion. It's usually served cold on sandwiches.
Learn moresulze
This is made from a mixture of calves' feet or pig snouts, eggs, and other meats that's been cooked and then allowed to gel. There's no need to cook it further; the cold slices are usually served as appetizers.
Learn moresummer sausage
This is a family of spicy, somewhat dry pork and/or beef sausages that are great for sandwiches. They don't need to be cooked. Varieties include landjaeger and thuringer.
Learn moretextured sausages
These have chunks of meat suspended in them that form a mosaic pattern when sliced. Varieties include schinkenwurst, jagdwurst, tyroler, Ansbacher pressack, tongue sausage, and zungenwurst.
Learn moretongue loaf
Delis often stock loaves of pork, lamb, veal, or beef tongues that have been cooked, pressed, jellied, and/or smoked.
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