Ring baloney

A multi-author family blog for recipes and other food related stuff has broken out elsewhere on the internet. I have contributed a couple of things that I remember fairly clearly from my youth. Others are actually making serious contributions. I apologize to all for my apparent inability to take it seriously but I am who I am.

But after I posted the ring baloney recipe a strange thing happened. I started to feel a slight craving for another taste of that old family delicacy. Today was again too cold for riding my bicycle but while I was out on the long walk I took in lieu of bicycling the craving matured into a plan.

So with the original post in mind, it turns out that ring baloney is available not only at Shoemaker's Red Owl but at several other reputable modern retail food outlets. I chose Cub.

There is actually a fairly large selection of baloneys at Cub but I settled on this one for about three reasons. First is the obvious connection that my family has with Wisconsin. Both my mother and father were raised in Wisconsin and I and my siblings spent considerable time there at Grandma's house when we were children. The second reason is that this is the only one of the various ring baloneys for sale at Cub that clearly had visible through the packaging the white string connecting the two ends of the ring. The string was missing or not particularly visible because of the packaging on some of the other baloneys and I personally believe the string is very important from a historical integrity point of view. The baloneys of my youth always, ALWAYS, featured that white cotton string. Third, all of the other baloneys were at least a pound and this one was only 14 ounces. I wasn't positive this was going to be a GOOD experience so I decided that smaller was better, limit your losses and all that.As I remember the family recipe the baloney was floated in a large pot of water for boiling. However, package directions on today's purchase indicated shallow pan, half an inch of water, 5 to 6 minutes of simmer on each side. I went with package directions. I also decided on sauerkraut as a side dish.The vegetable choice was settled by what we had available. For some reason or another it developed that frozen broccoli was the only vegetable in the freezer or cupboard so broccoli it was. We had a couple of tomatoes so TOPWLH sliced one up.

Preparation was straightforward and we ended up with this (note the ketchup present for authenticity):Those who have read the other blog and who are still paying attention will note that the knife in the photo is a SHARP KNIFE, a steak type knife with a serrated edge. It turned out to be completely necessary as those skins are STILL really tough.

TOPWLH also had ring baloney as a child but hers came with a cream sauce and some other variations. If she wants to post that recipe she is welcome to, this is my blog and my recipe.

She asked me what wine I thought went with ring baloney and I replied, "Red, a cheap red." We determined that for each of us it has been about 45 years since we enjoyed this meal but we kept an open mind and sat down to eat. TOPWLH looks as though she is excited to begin.So, how was it?

It was basic, it was actually sort of good. It isn't going to make it into the regular meal rotation but it won't be 45 more years before we try it again.