Hailey Olson
Jan 26 '21

What is the difference between mortadella and salami?

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Henry Bolzon

Encyclopedia Britannica Editor

Feb 3 '21


“Salami” is actually the plural of “salame,” and the better producers of Italian-style meats in the U.S. usually use the word “salame.” In Italy the word can refer to either dry-aged salami (as it usually does here), or to a fresh sausage (uncooked) or to a fresh sausage that has been pre-cooked. Moreover, in Italy there are hundreds of regional variations in meat content, seasoning, casing selection, aging technique, etc. In the U.S., “salami” (if we’re speaking of Italian-style) usually means a medium-sized dried sausage, made mostly from pork, mildly seasoned, the slices of which often measure about 3″ across. I have seen some American salami from producers that have smaller diameters—but salami is almost never as small in diameter as what is known as “dry sausage”

Genoa Salami is the name most often seen in the U.S. It refers to a salami in which the meat and fat are pretty finely ground, with only tiny flecks of fat visible in the pink/red background. Milano Salami is about the same, though sometimes finer still. This style is among my least favorite in the U.S., because the flavors are usually bland and commercial.

Toscano Salami though not too common in the U.S.—have been decent. What makes it distinctive is the size of the fat in this salami—wide chunks of it, almost as wide as the chunks in mortadella. This usually leads to great porky flavor, and a wonderful chew. The lean part, typically, is not as coarsely cut as the fat. Toscano Salami usually has a fairly wide diameter, 3″ or so.

Abruzzo Salami /Calabrese Salami: these regional names are often applied to American salamis—and can be applied to other pork products as well (sopressata, dry sausage, etc.) The code language is this: if it has those names on it, it’s probably spicy.

Salamini and Salametti have No regional designations here—but these diminutives indicate that you’ve got a smaller salami on your hands. Sometimes they’re even bite-size! “Cacciatori,” or “cacciatorini,” are other names for small salamis.


Most cold-cut aficionados are aware that what we call “bologna” in the U.S. (usually pronounced ba-LOAN-ee) is actually an attenuated, commercialized modern version of what they call “mortadella” in the Italian city of Bologna (pronounced bo-LOAN-ya). They are both emulsified sausages (like hot dogs), in which the fat and meat are puréed into a homogeneous pink mass; it is the genius of mortadella that the mass is broken up by huge chunks of white fat, sitting in the super-wide, 7″ slices; American bologna has no such interest in it. Furthermore, there are big texture differences between the two: mortadella can be terrifically silky, bologna is usually rubbery. Another big difference is flavor: good mortadella has the taste of pork about it, and interesting sub-layers of spice. “Baloney” tastes like, well baloney—very commercial, flat, bland.

Source: https://www.wine4food.com/food/capocollo-mortadella-prosciutto-salami-its-all-salumi-a-salumi-glossary/