Pepperoni is a joke

[WelshBloke]

Eh its only some states that don't know good cheese... my state produces some of best in the world.

What is your state and what groovy cheese does it make, I'm always up for a new lactose based food adventure.

 

[Gibsons]

In New York the smart shoppers buy Sopresata...

Don't know about NY specifically, but calabrese is probably an option for a spicy salami in most places.

like this:
http://www.creminelli.com/our-products/calabrese-italian-salami-1.html

 

[MagickMan]

First pic, awesome. Second is regular mass-produced garbage, filled with MSG, HFC, and heavily processed animal by-products.

 

[Fayd]

That looks like chorizo.

I'm so glad the stuff i buy from the butcher is ground. if it looked like that, i wouldn't buy it.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

verified.

the other option I got was a pizza with a hot-dog sliced lengthwise and laid in the center folded open.

neither looked anything like a pepperoni. it became quite clear to me that italians don't get pizza.

Margherita con prosciutto. Mmmm

There's a lot of things we call Italian here but its basically American-Italian. Spaghetti and meat balls does not really exist in Italy except for tourist zones. Alfredo sauce does not exist and peperoni are bell bell peppers.

 

[Sea Moose]

You guys havent lived... I made a pizza using kangaroo meat... BEST PIZZA EVER

 

[IronWing]

You guys havent lived... I made a pizza using kangaroo meat... BEST PIZZA EVER

Pizza Pockets aren't that good.

 

[dabuddha]

100% of the pepperoni in the United States is an artificially colored beef and turkey abomination that I wouldn't use to stuff a mattress, let alone a natural casing. Even a "fancy" pizza restaurant will feed you the Hormel crap.

Pepperoni should look like this:

Not like this:

This times eleventy billion

 

[PottedMeat]

First pic, awesome. Second is regular mass-produced garbage, filled with MSG, HFC, and heavily processed animal by-products.

yeah the top pic looks delicious

but

HORMEL® Pepperoni
INGREDIENTS
BHA, BHT with Citric Acid Added to Help Protect Flavor Ingredients: Pork and Beef, Salt, Contains 2% or less of Water, Dextrose, Spices, Lactic Acid Starter Culture, Oleoresin of Paprika, Garlic Powder, Sodium Nitrite, BHA, BHT, Citric Acid.

has meat processed to hell but no msg/hfc

 

[HumblePie]

OP,

Your first pic isn't italian pepperoni at all. It is Spanish Chorizo. I have some sitting right in my fridge right now. Being married to a Spanish girl kind of puts more spanish type foods in my fridge. Although it is pretty good to put on pizza, it is better to just cut and eat. It gets a bit too chewy when cooked.

American pepperoni was designed specifically for pizza as a cured meat. Since pizza was invented in the US, the US pepperoni invented for US pizza technically is as authentic as you can get.

Also, as another poster mentioned, what you are ranting about in talking about turkey or some other stuff in the American pepperoni is pure bullshit. It's naturally cured beef and pork, with quite a bit less fat, than the chorizo you put in the first pic. It is also spiced differently. It's still all natural. It is ground differently for the casing which is why it looks different.

But try to put on airs of looking like an European snob if it floats your boat. As some from Europe, with many family members still living there and being originally citizens from Europe, most of them actually love American style pepperoni. It is just damn good on pizza.

 

[NetWareHead]

Since pizza was invented in the US

ummm what

 

[ioni]

verified.

the other option I got was a pizza with a hot-dog sliced lengthwise and laid in the center folded open.

neither looked anything like a pepperoni. it became quite clear to me that italians don't get pizza.

It's funny how the US does other countries food better than that country. American Chinese > Authentic Chinese, American Mexican > Authentic Mexican, American Italian > Authentic Italian. Come on other countries! Get your shit together!

 

[KMFJD]

You guys havent lived... I made a pizza using kangaroo meat... BEST PIZZA EVER

Nah, the coat of arms pizza with emu and kangaroo is where it is at

 

[CZroe]

ummm what

While it came from Italy, it wasn't an "Italian" food in the sense that only those in a particular community/neighborhood enjoyed it and it was completely different from what their immigrants popularized here (no sauce, very different presentation, etc).

 

[Muse]

at first I wanted to flame the OP for being mad about this
then I realized that I would really want to try real pepperoni
then I got mad because there is NO place local where I could
then I got sad because the only meat market that was close to me closed down

Now I need a hug

Well, you've got the Internet! Yup, you can no doubt order it from your computer and it will be placed at your front door. :awe:

However, if I wanted a pizza I would not go out, wouldn't order it, but make it in my own kitchen. I've already got all the stuff I'd need, including several cheeses, Italian sauce from home grown tomatoes and my home made chorizo (very lean and spicy).

 

[NetWareHead]

While it came from Italy, it wasn't an "Italian" food in the sense that only those in a particular community/neighborhood enjoyed it and it was completely different from what their immigrants popularized here (no sauce, very different presentation, etc).

There is room for all kinds of interpretation and generally Italian/European pizza is sometimes different than American pizza. But it generally recognized that pizza was invented in Italy and then widely accepted in US later.

 

[HumblePie]

ummm what

Depends on what you draw the line as pizza. It's kind of like sandwiches and their origin. It's a bit muddied. Some call modern pizza origins as done by the flatbread style of dough done in Naples Italy. Some as the traditional dough, as a rising flat bread, used in America first and then spread throughout the world as the "modern" style. Meh, it's all subjective when it really comes to this. Some state it as the greeks that used to cover a slice of bread with honey, herbs, oil, and cheese. Really do you call that a pizza? Or some say even older.

But since we are talking the modern pepperoni pizza... yah it's an American invention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperoni

 

[HumblePie]

While it came from Italy, it wasn't an "Italian" food in the sense that only those in a particular community/neighborhood enjoyed it and it was completely different from what their immigrants popularized here (no sauce, very different presentation, etc).

The italian version I wouldn't call the "modern" version either. Especially since the OP specifically brought up Pepperoni for pizza. Pepperoni is an American invention and was made for modern American pizza. Which is tomato sauce, cheese, and a rising flat bread with a crust edge to hold. Some will argue that the "modern" age of pizza started with the Naples Italy flatbread style, but that's not the most common, most popular, nor the more recent form of pizza. Might as well label the old greek way of sprinking honey, oil, and cheese over a hard slice of bread as pizza. Or would that be an open sandwich? Or maybe a chalupa? See how that can all be foods "derived" from that food source?

To put bluntly, pizza that is made using red tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and a meet topping like pepperoni or sausage, with a bit of extra crust at the edge to help hold a slice is an American invention.

 

[yuchai]

The italian version I wouldn't call the "modern" version either. Especially since the OP specifically brought up Pepperoni for pizza. Pepperoni is an American invention and was made for modern American pizza. Which is tomato sauce, cheese, and a rising flat bread with a crust edge to hold. Some will argue that the "modern" age of pizza started with the Naples Italy flatbread style, but that's not the most common, most popular, nor the more recent form of pizza. Might as well label the old greek way of sprinking honey, oil, and cheese over a hard slice of bread as pizza. Or would that be an open sandwich? Or maybe a chalupa? See how that can all be foods "derived" from that food source?

To put bluntly, pizza that is made using red tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and a meet topping like pepperoni or sausage, with a bit of extra crust at the edge to help hold a slice is an American invention.

Well, the greek stuff is obviously very different from what is considered a pizza nowadays, but if you ordered a pizza without stating the American version anywhere and received a Neapolitan pizza, I doubt anyone would be complaining that they didn't get what they wanted.

 

[NetWareHead]

The italian version I wouldn't call the "modern" version either. Especially since the OP specifically brought up Pepperoni for pizza. Pepperoni is an American invention and was made for modern American pizza. Which is tomato sauce, cheese, and a rising flat bread with a crust edge to hold. Some will argue that the "modern" age of pizza started with the Naples Italy flatbread style, but that's not the most common, most popular, nor the more recent form of pizza.

To put bluntly, pizza that is made using red tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and a meet topping like pepperoni or sausage, with a bit of extra crust at the edge to help hold a slice is an American invention.

I'd disagree with you and say that pizza has been made in italy the way you described for much longer than it's been popular in the usa. The only thing I cannot argue in favor of is pepperoni. Whats funny is that many pizzerias have begun offering "authentic" pizzas that are baked on the floor of a hot oven, often wood fired and vastly different than the dominos, pizza hut etc... creations Americans are used to. Complete with toppings that do include meat. These types of pies are how pizzas have been cooked in Italy for hundreds of years. And Italian have been putting meat on pizza for ages and before pizza was a well established part of american cuisine. Americans typically preferred a thicker pizza and thats how Chicago deep dish was invented. Even New York thin crust style is considered typically too thick when compared to napolitano authentic pizza.

If you want to specifically argue pepperoni, then yes that is an american invention, an american contribution to italian pizza and therefore italian-american food.

Might as well label the old greek way of sprinking honey, oil, and cheese over a hard slice of bread as pizza. Or would that be an open sandwich? Or maybe a chalupa? See how that can all be foods "derived" from that food source?

.

That is a good point as well. Even pizza as Americans know it was not originally made with tomatoes. Tomatoes being a new world plant were brought to Europe after Columbus. The populace at first thought tomato was poisonous and did not begin to enter European cuisine until the 1700s. Today it is still common to find pizzas made in italy made with and without tomatoes.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

Your first pic looks like spicy soppressata to me. You need to ask for that by name to get that in the states. The second pic is obvious generic american pepperoni which is just another word for a dry spicy salami that has its origins in southern italy. The word pepperoni means "peppers" in italian as in bell peppers. Peppers are commonly used to give the meat its red coloring and spicyness and the meat came to be known by this name here in the states.

If you go to italy and order a pepperoni pizza, they wont know what that is and you will receive a pizza with bell peppers on top. IMO, the first pic is infinitely more delicious than american pepperoni and can be eaten without heating.

made that mistake in holland, got a pizza with bell peppers, banana peppers & jalapenos. actually quite good.

 

[Rakehellion]

Your first pic isn't italian pepperoni at all. It is Spanish Chorizo.

No, it isn't.

 

[CZroe]

If I share my strange new recipes with some neighbors and one goes off to another country to popularize it in an almost unrecognizable form with many of their own regional variations, it's hard to call it "American cuisine" even though it technically came from here. Why? Because it was popularized worldwide from somewhere else. Pizza is sorta the reverse of that.

 

[HumblePie]

No, it isn't.

Well, considering that pepperoni is an American invention... completely and totally American, then that first pic cannot be considered authentic pepperoni. It looks exactly like Spanish Chorizo I have in my fridge at home. Although it could be another form of cured hamon.

 

[Gibsons]

No, it isn't.

I don't think it's possible to tell from the picture. It's a coarse ground salami with a casing and a red color from a lot of paprika.

Could be a chorizo, calabrese, pepperoni, or a few other things, maybe even a rosette.