Cold cuts are slices of cooked or cured meat served cold, typically used for making sandwiches. When you open a package of turkey, ham, roast beef, or salami from the deli counter, you're looking at cold cuts. They're called “cuts” because they're sliced thin, and “cold” because unlike a hot meal where meat comes straight from the oven, these meats are meant to be eaten chilled or at room temperature.

Cold cuts make lunch quick and convenient. Instead of cooking a chicken breast or roasting beef, you can simply layer some turkey and cheese on bread with lettuce and mustard, and you've got a sandwich. Delis often have dozens of varieties behind the counter: honey ham, peppered turkey, corned beef, pastrami, bologna, and many others.

The term covers both meats that were cooked and then chilled (like roast beef or turkey breast) and meats that were preserved through curing, smoking, or salting (like salami or prosciutto). Before refrigeration, curing meat was one of the few ways to keep it from spoiling, which is why many traditional cold cuts have such distinctive, salty flavors.