Pepperoni Rolls -- West Virginia's state food

Sep. 24—Created by Italian coal miners and their wives, the pepperoni roll has become the staple food of West Virginia.

According to Candace Nelson, author of "The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll," when the Italians migrated to West Virginia to work in the coal mines, they brought many of the foods native to their home country which included different cheeses, salamis, and breads.

The workers would take these foods down into the mines with them for lunches, but over time the wives came up with a way to combine the foods in order to make the lunch more practical.

"It was not until sometime between 1927 and 1938 that Giuseppe Argiro (ARE-jir-oh), a former miner who opened Country Club Bakery in Fairmont, West Virginia, took the concept to a larger scale," said Nelson.

A bakery that is just a few miles away from the country club in Clarksburg, WV, which is the oldest Italian bakery in West Virginia, also developed a pepperoni roll around the same time, so it is often disputed on who was actually the first to start commercializing the snack.

Another was D'Annunzio's Italian Bakery, and although they did not commercialize first, they did follow in suit shortly after the other two.

Wherever the roll originated in commercialization, the miners were finally able to take a "portable, shelf-stable" lunch into the mines, and it was because of the innovation of the wives of coal miners.

While little has changed in the recipe for pepperoni rolls, there are a few minor differences in the way they are enjoyed now compared to the way they were before.

Original pepperoni rolls were made with leftover bread dough and handout sticks of pepperoni, but today bakeries all over the state have small differences between the way they prepare them.

Nelson mentions Abruzzino's Italian Bakery, which is in Gypsy, WV, stopped using traditional Italian bread because it is harder and started using the softer and sweeter bread.

It has since become the most mainstream version of the pepperoni roll, "especially outside of the American-Italian communities."

Another change that can be seen that is able to be found at places like Rogers & Mazza's, according to Nelson, is using the sweet dough with the sliced pepperoni rather than the sticks of pepperoni which has been quite the debate since the beginning of the snack.

There are people who are loyal to the sticks which is the hand-cut, spicy salami, and there are those who have adapted and found that they enjoyed the thinner sliced pepperoni.

Then there is The Donut Shop in Buckhannon that threw out the idea of the sticks versus slices debate completely and started using ground pepperoni.

"The ground pepperoni is fresh and provides a savory mound in the center of the bun — often coated with cheese," said Nelson.

While that debate is very important to the topic of the snack, another is the addition of cheese onto the pepperoni roll.

Home Industry in Clarksburg were the ones to begin adding cheese to the mix, and now there are pepperoni rolls that have all different types of cheese on them from American, to pepper jack, and even gouda.

At bakeries and pizzerias, it is common now to find them available with all different kinds of toppings.

Nelson references Colasessano's World Famous Pizza and Pepperoni Buns that is located in Fairmont where orders of pepperoni rolls can be topped with jalapeños, ramps, marinara sauce, peppers, and so much more.

With the popularity of pepperoni rolls today, they can be found just about anywhere all throughout West Virginia like tailgates, weddings and parties just to name a few.

They are even included in festivals, fairs, bake offs, and eating contests, and as of right now Joey Chestnut holds the world record for most pepperoni rolls eaten.

In 2019, he ate 43 pepperoni rolls in 10 minutes at the West Virginia Three Rivers Festival Pepperoni Roll Eating World Championship, and as of 2021, he is still the world champion with 33 eaten in 10 minutes.

That is not the extent of the snack's reach in the state.

According to Nelson, they have also found their way into military M.R.E.s (Meals Ready to Eat), and they have been written into West Virginia's state legislature twice to try to establish pepperoni rolls as the official state food, but they have not been accepted yet.

The iconic snack has found its way into the all around culture of West Virginia like the Philadelphia cheesesteak or the Chicago hot dogs.

"It is one snack that when a person consumes it, they are also consuming a piece of West Virginia history and a piece of Appalachian culture," said Nelson.

The history pepperoni rolls along with the culture they have brought to West Virginia will be cemented into everyday life within the state, and continue to grow with time.

Maybe they will become the official food of West Virginia too one day.

— Contact Kassidy Brown at kbrown@bdtonline.com.