Childhood Memory Kicked Up A Notch!

My maternal ancestors grew up as somewhat poor country folk.  Whether it was the dust of the Red River basin in East Texas or the farms of Northern Alabama they were people who struggled to feed families through the 1800′s.  The simple comfort country foods they ate, to make ends meet, made their way to Southern California where I enjoyed them, not because we had to, but because they just tasted great.

One of my favorite lunches was a simple fried bologna sandwich.  Bologna, fried on the stove, slathered in mayo on Wonder Bread it was my “go to” after school sandwich whenever I had a chance.  I’m not a huge fan of bologna normally.  The flavor just doesn’t appeal to me.  But fried, bologna takes on a whole different flavor.

This “enhanced” fried flavor is complimented by mayo, and makes even the cheapest, plain white bread edible.  So when I got the craving for a fried bologna sandwich this week I decided that I needed to go a little over the top.  Of course it has to be done on the grill.  And in this case, the smoker and the grill.

I started with 2.5 lbs of bologna that I rubbed down with olive oil and seasoned with “Simply Marvelous Season All.”  Besides the olive oil and seasoning rub down I used a knife and cut slits all the way around the bologna.  This allows the seasoning and smoke to get a better penetration, thus improving the flavor.

Here's the chub seasoned and rubbed and on the Traeger ready to start the smoke. The chub was smoked at 250 degrees until the internal temperature reached 155 degrees.

The chub at about 90 minutes. You can now see the slits starting to appear.

All done! 155 degrees internal. Ready to rest and then slice.

A nice slab of smoked bologna on the Char-Broil RED Grill.

Some simple "Country Style" potato bread and mayo makes a great sandwich! Nothing better than making a childhood memory into a kicked-up adult memory.