People Can't Agree On What The Best Type Of Cold Cut Is

Cold cuts are the type of thing people don't really get that riled up over. Unless they're taking a stand against them for the (admittedly many) problems with the whole concept of cold-preserved meat slices, cold cuts are just something that's in a sandwich. But done well, they can make even the simplest sandwich a gift straight from the sandwich gods themselves. Choose a lackluster deli meat, and they can add a major ick factor. So Mashed decided to find out which of the meats people around the world considered superior.

Now, we are aware that cold cuts come in all shapes, and sizes. We know they can be cured and smoked and marinated in every which way, but we're not talking brands or preparation methods here. We simply asked 61,000 people what their favorite cold cut was: ham, turkey, salami, beef, or something else. It's mostly about the animal here, folks. And, in a tense moment for cold cuts everywhere, it was a very close call.

We might have all cried when we saw "Babe" for the first time, but when it comes to cold-cuts, how easily we forget. What we have here folks is a group of shameless ham-loving carnivores. Ham got the leading 29 percent vote, solidifying the proof of this salty meat's universal appeal. But turkey was a very close second with 25 percent, and roast beef not far behind with 22 percent. This was by no means a landslide for ham.

Besides our big three faves, and salami, which had a respectable 18 percent, people had some very specific sandwich opinions. It appears the most popular write-in results were pastrami and bologna, with a lot of pastrami-on-rye fans and even a few fans of fried bologna. A small but strong faction of Italian-American aficionados (or maybe just people from Jersey) started a chain of "gabagool" comments — which, for the uninitiated, just means "capicola," a type of cured Italian deli meat — if you're an extra on the Sopranos (via Esquire). Fuhgeddaboudit.