I think I mentioned a couple of months ago that our local Safeway was replacing their house brand (Primo Taglio) with Boar’s Head. Since then I have purchased mortadella, cotto salami, ham, and turkey.
I thought the flavor was good… but feel the texture of all of it was too lean/firm. Note that I used to drive down the hill to get their pastrami at a Holiday Market and this wasn’t the case here.
I prefer my deli meat tender and juicy and none of this was (which was a surprise). My first use of it was in a chopped salad and it was good, but my sandwiches with multiple slices felt a little tough/dry.
That doesn’t surprise me. I remember People going on about Boar’s Head, but other than beautiful Trucks and Logo, their Products are lack luster at best!
Boar’s Head is the best of the worst options. In a sea of Primo Taglio and Columbus deli meats that taste of nothing but nitrates and salt, walking into a supermarket and seeing Boar’s Head means “oh, my roast beef sandwich will taste like roast beef, and not a beef boullion cube.”
There are infinitely better choices but also many MANY worse ones. Boar’s Head is at the rung of the quality ladder that crosses the line into “acceptable”.
I mean, which would you rather have? A supermarket deli sandwich w/ Boar’s Head, or Primo Taglio? Or worse, Subway?
I have made this comparison before. Boar’s Head : deli meat :: McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish : fried fish sandwiches.
A convenient, reasonable lower bar in their respective categories
one must be veddy picky . . . . some Boar’s Head stuff is really good
(and there is no accounting for my taste . . . )
and some is really lousy
(and there is no accounting for my taste . . . )
try it, like it, dump it. just that simple.
our supermarket has “Store Brand” and “Boar’s Head” - that’s the extent of your choices . . .
Not really… there is also the pre-packed stuff. I buy Hillshire Farms thin cut pastrami which I use for my creamed chipped beef on toast. It probably has a lot of crap in it but it is always juicy, tender, and flavorful.
I haven’t checked out any other stuff in decades, but I can say from memory that a regular old piece of OM baloney had a superior texture to the BH mortadella I bought (which was like rubber).
This is exactly what I mean. It’s the best possible bad choice.
Also, @ScottinPollock , I have found I like Oscar Meyer baloney more than I like most fancy “good” mortadella because it was one of two sandwiches I was willing to eat as a kid. And it had the advantage that you could bite holes in it and make yourself a baloney mask, much to the amusement of the lunch table and the endless irritation of my teachers.
Our stores all feature the Kretschmar brand now. The few times I have bought their meats, the deli case was either jam packed with pre-sliced product or the trays with the last of the last of yesterday’s meat, the stuff I wanted. Not today, I don’t trust it. I don’t buy the stuff for me, I buy it for the roomate. No turkey pastrami, by any brand name, anywhere for over a year now. Why? I liked the Primo Taglio roast beef that our Safeway had, but no longer. It appears our deli servers in the grocery stores are the latest in the revolving door employee mess. We never have the same server twice. It is difficult to build a relationship with a new server (same in the bakery, butcher or produce departments) each time you shop!
I remember those days! I switched from OM bolonga to the Capri brand which was ‘heftier’ in flavor. I also remember the bolonga sandwich scent when we opened up the metal lunch boxes we had bitd. You knew it was going to be a good sandwich day then because it didn’t have the ‘old tuna’ odor.
If you live in certain areas, you might be able to find packaged kosher cold cuts, which beat Boar’s Head on taste. (You’ll have to stick with BH or OM for ham, though.)
I grew up in the land of Dietz & Watson, but some years ago Boars Head arrived and took over a lot of places. My favorite hoagie shop switched to BH and it was decidedly not a change for the better. Luckily I have a local meat market that roasts its own beef, ham and turkey–the beef is usually very rare, but if you buy a pound they throw in a quart of jus to heat up. Their other products are still D&W.
If I end up getting deli at the supermarket (the meat market is small with limited hours and often long lines) I go for the store brand rather than BH. A trip to Google tells me their store brand come from a NC company named Foodhold–not as good as the local stuff but more to my taste than BH.
Then again, BH has a good rep and seems popular, so I guess someone must prefer it?
I stand corrected! the HF has way less extraneous stuff in it than either the PT or BH brands. Just: Beef, Water, Vinegar*, Contains 2% Or Less: Salt, Sea Salt, Black Pepper, Sodium Phosphate, Sugar, Natural Flavorings (Including Celery Juice Powder*), Dextrose.
Perhaps it is time to give some of their other deli meats a try.
I was introduced to Sandwich Spread during a trip to the ocean as the guest of a large, boisterous family. On white bread, with regular ole baloney bologna. I’d love one right now. Lol. I can’t remember the last time I saw sandwich spread, or the last time I bought bologna, but that was a great vacation.
Today I went on another hunt for a replacement and might have come upon a valid one:
Reviews are good and one of them was from a BFSS user that was very happy with it.
Unfortunately I can’t find it anywhere, but I hear it is available at Kroeger. I know some folks here like/buy Dukes so maybe you can find a jar of this and report back?
