School’s back in session, and kids are boarding the bus with lunchboxes in tow. Many of them contain sandwiches stuffed with turkey and ham slices, bologna, even salami—but where did these staples of the lunch break, not to mention the charcuterie platter, come from? Long before the 1900s meat-cute that birthed the deli sandwich, preserved meats were a standby in human diets: from dried yak cured in salt in the Himalayas, to pork fermented into salami in Italy, to beef pressed in the saddle and pickled in horse sweat in Central Asia, people all over the world invented ways to make meat inhospitable to microbes, more portable—and even more delicious! But, in recent years, these meats have gotten a bad name: in 2015, the World Health Organization even labeled them a carcinogen. So should you chuck the corned beef for the sake of your health? This episode, join us for a deep dive on the science behind whether your charcuterie could kill you—plus, the story of how cured meats became a staple of American diet and culture, thanks to German immigrants and Jewish delis, military-manufactured meat glue, and some truly orgasmic sliced pastrami on rye. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The alarming warning from the World Health Organization's cancer research arm that goes like processed meats cause cancer, and red meat probably does, too.
Of course, the potential risks of processed meat has been suggested before, but never in such blunt terms.
Processed meats are defined as any meat.
Like ham or bologna that's altered by salting, curing or some other method.
Most have beef or pork, but can contain poultry.
The report says such meats cause cancer.
It's back to school season across the land, lunchboxes are being packed and sandwiches are being made, and many of them will contain deli meats, bologna, turkey or ham slices, even salami, which sounds as though it's kind of a problem if in fact, deli meats cause cancer.
And deli meats are just what we're exploring this episode.
We, of course, are gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history.
I'm Cynthia Graeber.
And I'm Nicola Twilley.
And this episode we are all about the deli meats.
Cold cuts, charcuterie, salumi, deli meats.
Theyre all more or less the same thing.
But what the heck are they?
I mean, really, what is that pink, square or round substance known as deli sliced ham?
And dont even get me started on that iconic american sandwich filling.
Bologna.
Spelled like bologna the italian city.
Nikki, you are not alone in your confusion.