How To Make Bologna Salad (A Classic Cooking Recipe) An Inexpensive Meal
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This Bologna Salad features just four ingredients and is perfect for a snack with crackers, spread on toast or as a sandwich with a slice of cheese and some lettuce.
Bologna Salad Recipe
Sometimes, the simplest, most humble ingredients combine to make the tastiest recipes. This ham salad recipe with bologna is just that.
Bologna from Rihm Foods outside of Cambridge City, Ind. is a favorite treat at Barbara’s house. To say it simply, her husband and girls love Rihm’s bologna. They snack on it by itself, make sandwiches with it or put it on crackers with cheese.
Our Uncle Sam and Aunt Peggy live JUST down the road from Rihm Foods, and they often combine a trip to visit them with a stop at Rihm Foods. They stock up on not only their bologna but also their bacon (it is the bomb) and State Fair pork burgers (think pork burgers with bacon in them).
Last time Barbara stocked up at Rihm Foods, a lady shared this recipe for what was claimed to be the “best bologna/ham salad”. If you aren’t familiar, then you might not know that ham salad made with bologna is a common thing around these parts.
It did not disappoint. Barbara modified the original recipe a bit for the perfect ratio of bologna and hard boiled eggs. This recipe is old-fashioned or vintage; it seems to be one of those recipes that takes you back to your childhood. Check out our other Old-Fashioned Bologna Salad too!
Ingredient List
- Bologna
- Hard Boiled Eggs
- Sweet Pickle Relish
- Mayonnaise
How to Make Bologna Salad Recipe
Step by Step Instructions
- Pulse bologna and hard boiled eggs in a food processor. Scrape down the sides of the food processor to the desired consistency.
- Add relish and mayonnaise and stir.
Storage Instructions
Store in an airtight container or a covered container in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
For the full sandwich spread recipe, scroll to the bottom of this post.
Looking for other old-fashioned salad recipes? Try our Old-Fashioned Pea Salad, Classic Macaroni Salad, and Old-Fashioned Fruit Salad.
Recipe FAQs
- Use a food processor in order to make this ham salad with Bologna. Next, add pickle relish and mayonnaise and mix.
- Taste test and add more pickle relish or mayo to suit your taste if needed.
- Most importantly, grab some crackers or toast some bread and enjoy.
- Old Recipe Bologna Salad can be eaten as an appetizer or a main course.
Interested in some of our other vintage recipes? Try our Cheesy Squash Casserole, Old-Fashioned Boiled Raisin Cake, Old-Fashioned Apple Cake and Vintage Barbecue Burgers.
Recipe Variations
- Add cheddar cheese to the mixture.
- Finely minced celery or onions are a great addition.
- Season with salt and black pepper.
- Add a dash of yellow mustard.
Serve up Old Recipe Bologna Salad along side these other vintage salad recipes:
Bologna Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb. bologna (Rihm's is our favorite brand)
- 6 hard boiled eggs
- 10 oz. pickle relish
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise
Instructions
- Add bologna and hard boiled eggs to food processor; pulse until roughly chopped.
- Pour bologna/egg mixture into a bowl and add relish and mayonnaise. Stir until combined.
- Cheese lovers can add shredded cheddar cheese.
- Serve on bread or toast or with crackers.
Notes
- To make this ham salad with Bologna, you will need a food processor to combine the bologna and hard boiled eggs until they are roughly chopped. Add pickle relish and mayonnaise and mix.
- Once the ingredients are combined, do a taste test and add more pickle relish or mayo to suit your taste.
- Cheese lovers can add shredded cheddar cheese to taste.
- Then just grab some crackers or toast some bread and enjoy, and be prepared for a blast from the past.
Linking up to the Weekend Potluck, go check out all the great recipes!
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This is a sponsored post by Rihm Foods, but the content and opinions are most definitely our own.
I will be 70 in Sept. I can’t remember not eating bologna salad. I make it pretty much the same way. Bologna, hard boiled eggs, home canned dill pickles, mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, & a couple of pinches of onoin powder. Love it on bread or crackers. Made 2 pound worth last week and gave half to my brother, I was informed that he wants half every time I make it. I retired near him. He said he couldn’t tell the difference between mine and what Mom use to make. I reminded him who taught me to make it. I live in a retired complex made some last month for a get together, put out different crackers. No one knew what it was, but it was praised by all. I still pretty much cook the way my Mother taught me. My brother loves it. Thank you for your recipe I have never seen it in print before.☺?
Charma – Thanks for the kinds words and we’ll definitely have to try your tweaks to our recipe! We LOVE sharing recipes that bring back memories for folks. Take care!
I make it using Bologna, cheese , sweet pickle and Miracle Whip. I’ll add eggs the next time. The problem is I eat too much of it! Thanks for the recipes.
You are welcome! Love hearing how you make your version too!
Love this oldie but goodie recipe, Barbara & Megan! Thank you so much for sharing your bologna salad recipe with all of us at Weekend Potluck! We hope you stop by to share more recipes this Friday! Have a fun and safe 4th of July!
Growing up, we called it ham salad. Didn’t know for a long time that it was just bologna. Love it. Thank you.
Us too! Now that people get confused about it, we call it “Hoosier Ham Salad.”
My dad used to make this, but he left out the eggs and added a little bit of finely chopped onion and a dash or two of Texas Pete. Good stuff!
Question – not related to recipe – well, sort of….why are most of the recipes and other items like the comments being written in such light type? For instance, what I’m typing out now I can barely see without squinting, and if I go to print out a recipe, it’s either so light I can barely read it, or there’s nothing on the page at all?
Thanks for the comment. It’s something we are working on. It’s part of the template that we are having a hard time to changing!
My mom made this back in the 1950’s–long before anybody had heard of a food processor!! My job was to grind the bologna, eggs, and pickles in the heavy metal grinder that attached to the edge of a cupboard or tabletop! The texture was totally different from what a processor gives! Much better the old way!!
I haven’t made this for a long time, but this week-end sounds just right for some “ham salad” sandwiches!!!
I also use a meat grinder to make this. I just use bologna, relish and mayo.
That is how my mom made it too, with a meat grinder! She never used eggs but I think it is a brilliant idea! We had a family of 9 so this salad and a couple of bags of white bread was a favorite picnic food. My mom would load us all and a cousin or two in the station wagon and off to one of the several PA State parks near us for a day of fun!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. You brought back some wonderful memories.
Nancy –
Thanks for sharing your memories with us. We love that our recipes bring back such fond thoughts!
Yes, I still use the old grinder. Also add 1/4 cup of sugar, onion and calls for cheese but I don’t add it. A little salt and pepper. Delish!
I grew up in Greenwood, Indiana, 70 years ago and my mom used to fix this for us – it was a “treat” to have it instead of just plain bologna. We always called it ham salad – never really knew why, though. Sure brings back lots of good memories!! Thank you!
Just became familiar with the website and love it-we were very poor but as kids we didn’t know it because everyone around was the same. My folks used vienna sausage and did the same thing and we loved it. I sometimes make it and still enjoy it and I love bologna and will have to try it. Has anyone ever heard of vinegar dumplings? My mother used to make them and we kids (5) loved them. They were a sweet/sour dish and I would love to get a recipe. Being from Arkansas and poor we had a lot of made up recipes and loved them all. Thank you
We haven’t heard of vinegar dumplings but we’ll have to look through Grandma’s recipes and see if she made them! Thanks for sharing!
OOH, yum! This recipe sounds delicious! We love bologna just about any way it can be fixed around our house, but unfortunately live way too far to try the Rihm’s bologna as suggested. (I live in Texas.) So I’ll just have to settle for what I can get around here! What a bummer! My question is this, you don’t specify what kind of pickle relish to use. Do you use sweet pickle relish or dill pickle relish? Or can you just chop up some dill or sweet pickles along with the ingredients? And do you use a whole 10 ounce jar of the relish? Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Thanks for the comments. We used a 10 oz. jar of sweet pickle relish. Hope that helps. We are sure you can tweak it to your individual taste!
I’ve never heard of bologna salad, but we do eat bologna, so I’m going to make this. It looks good. I will add a few extra ingredients like the comment above – a little mustard and onion powder. Love to try new recipes. Glad I saw this!
We are all about making a recipe your own! Let us know how your version turns out!
My mother made this using a old fashion sausage grinder. She used it to grind the bologna then the eggs and then the pickles. She called it ham salad. I loved it. I make it today using a food processor and pickle relish. My granddaughter loves it I am giving her the recipe so she can make it herself. I hate to see these old recipes from days gone by to be lost.
We hate to see them lost too which is why we are trying to share all we can on here! Thanks for the note!
I make this sandwich spread often. I use the same, but add some mustard, diced onion, and eggs to it as well. Grew up with my grandmother, mother making it and it has been passed down from there. My family always ask for it, in fact I will be making it today.
Isn’t it a great classic recipe!
I love this salad, and grew up eating alot of it. I make mine with 1 pkg. thick sliced bologna, 3 hard boiled eggs, 1/4 of a onion, ( to your taste), 3 to 4 baby sweet pickles, salt, pepper, and mayo (around 1 cup). I put everything but the mayo in my hand grinder, then mix all together. Needs to refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor.
Your version sounds great too! Thanks for sharing.
At our house we call this “dopey”. Don’t know why! My 94 year old mother has made this forever and it is a real treat for us. Don’t use quite so many eggs as your recipe calls for. Made it for years with the old grinder that attaches to the counter until she got a Kitchenaid mixer with attachment!
Love all the memories attached to the dish for you! I’m sure her world was changed with that Kitchenaid mixer!
My grandmother used to make this 50 years ago. Please remember use good bologna.
We would always make this when my grandmother came to visit. Mom used an attachment on her
Mixer like a sausage grinder. She would let me
Put the ingredients in. I loved putting whole eggs
And pushing them through with the wooden utensil.
We used bologna, American cheese slices, hard boiled
Eggs, homemade sweet pickles and stirred in Miracle
Whip. We also called Ham Salad. ???
My Dad always made this sandwich spread and called it ham salad. Was ground bologna, sweet pickle relish, ground carrots and miracle whip. He alway used mayonnaise on everything but this. This has to have miracle whip. Gave it a nice crunch.
What a great memory. Love that he broke his mayo rule for this!
My mom always made hers with ground bologna, ground carrots, relish and Miracle Whip. Still make it when bologna goes on sale. $1.99 a pound this week, SOOOO…… :-)))
Way to take advantage of a sale! It’s so great to have recipes that remind us of childhood!
My mother made this using a meat grinder – before the days of food processors. She usually used whole sweet pickles and ground them in the grinder too. My husband won’t eat bologna, so I make ham salad out of leftover ham, but I love the bologna salad myself!
My daddy, was allowed in the kitchen to make this only. Old fashioned hand grinder (why i bought one) with onion, mayo, sweet and sour pickles ground and toasted bread. Never knew anybody else made this. Kinda like shit on a shingle. Also great. The generation of dealing with what cha got”. I truly miss those days but everybody in my house loves it when I make his special treat.
I do love this recipe. I did add a small drained bottle of diced pimento. My mother made this recipe more than 50 years ago. A wonderful memory growing up.
Diced pimento makes everything a bit better!
I’m 67 and remember my mom making this when she couldn’t afford ham. She added diced pimiento which made it even more delicious!
I love this site! I’m a lover and collector of vintage cookbooks and recipes.
Deborah – Thanks for the kind words, we love sharing recipes that bring back good memories…and adding pimentos sounds amazing!
My mom used spam. Only way dad would eat it he was in the navy ww2. He said they ate it everyday.
I would like to make this for 150 people how much bologna would you suggest? Graduation open house happening soon!
Oh man, we’ve never made a big batch of this salad. You can probably stretch it a bit if you are making it for that many people.
I also make it with spam or treat. I like sweet pickles. Good thing about using spam is you can always have a can of it in the pantry and you can mash it with a fork. Love it!