If you’ve ever had a sandwich at a deli, you’ve likely eaten cold cuts. In fact anyone who sits down to a bologna, salami, turkey or ham sandwich composed of thinly sliced meats is eating them. Cold cuts are essentially all the sausages, meat loaves, and sometimes even fresh baked meats that are served cold and sliced thin for easy packaging. They’re a principal ingredient in numerous sandwiches, and may also form part of a tray for antipasto. They also make their way into salads like chef salad, and a variety of other dishes.

There’s tremendous variance in the types of cold cuts you’ll find. In supermarkets, you can purchase pre-sliced deli meats, and the usual choices in the US are ham, turkey, roast beef, salami, bologna, and occasionally mortadella. Pre-packaged luncheon meats can offer many different taste varieties. Instead of just ham, you might buy honey ham or turkey ham.

Many prefer to purchase cold cuts straight from a deli, and you’ll probably get more variety and lower fat choices when you do so. Further, most pre-packaged meats are going to have the highest fat content, and often the greatest amount of sodium. A recent trend in preparing meats like turkey, roast beef, and ham is to feature low nitrate and low sodium fresh baked varieties, instead of meat loaves that are packed with extra chemicals. In addition to being lower in sodium and fat, cold cuts from the deli counter often offer much more in the way of taste variety and flavoring. This wisegeek writer confesses a strong leaning toward a rosemary ham, available at a local Italian deli that is reminiscent of prosciutto.

In fact Italian delicatessens may feature some of the greatest variety in cold deli meats, since so many deli meats are Italian in origin. A short list of some Italian meats include:

• Bologna
• Coppa
• Prosciutto
• Sopresatta
• Mortadella
• Capicola
• Bresaola
• Pepperoni
• Pastrami

Of course there are numerous other cold cuts popular in other countries, including ones familiar to Americans like headcheese, liverwurst, and chorizo. Throughout much of Europe, local varieties of different cold cuts are enjoyed, just as Americans have favorites too. Further, when you purchase those that have fewer or no chemicals added, they’re often fairly low in fat, and reasonably good, healthy choices for meals.

People, especially pregnant women and moms of young children, should be aware that pre-sliced cold cuts may harbor a very nasty bacteria called listeria. Though most healthy adults withstand a listeria infection, many doctors recommend that pregnant women and young children not eat luncheon meats unless they are fully heated. So if you can’t do without your pastrami sandwich, consider grilling the meat first to avoid this potential danger. Still, listeria infections from deli meats are relatively rare in the US.