Ohio Proud—Trail Bologna and Swiss Cheese

Do you know what this is? I thought everyone knew, but I understand it's a mystery to some. Or maybe it's just the meat that's in it that is the mystery.

This is Trail bologna. Trail is capitalized because it's named after the little town of Trail, Ohio which is a bit like a smudge on the road. I'm not disparaging the town so much as I am trying to describe the size of it. I've read the town was named for a well-known trail that native Americans had beaten down before the Europeans moved in.

In 1912, the Troyer family started making this bologna in Trail, and the family still has quite a little general store and meat processing business. During hunting season, you can take your deer kill to the store, and they'll butcher it for you. They'll even turn the whole animal into bologna, if that's what you like.

People who serve Trail bologna usually slice it kind of thin and serve it on a platter with cubes of Swiss cheese. Central Ohio is full of all kinds of things, but mostly Swiss cheese.

These photos, by the way, were taken in the refrigerator section of my local grocery store, with the two items side by side. Not only are the two things served together, they're sold together, too.

What do people eat where you live that the rest of us might not know about?