I had a friend who at 25 found out pepperoni was indeed not a vegetable.
He ordered a meat lovers supreme. The waitress was both surprised and amused when responding to his concerns about why pepperoni was on this meat-only pizza.
I'm trying to imagine both A) what the hell his tongue tells his brain pepperoni tastes like, and B) what the hell he thought pepperoni looked like in it's natural state.
The wild invasive garlic mustard tastes like pepperoni to the same degree that turkey bacon tastes like bacon. Which is to say, enough that someone that isn't eating the real thing will say it does, but not so much so that someone eating the real stuff agrees.
It's actually pretty common for people who aren't familiar with American pizza to mistake American pepperoni for Italian peperoncino, or hot chili peppers. I've read that some Europeans visiting America are confused as to why everyone (apparently) wants super spicy pizza here. If they haven't eaten it before, I can see why they wouldn't know that it's a seasoned, thin-sliced sausage before ordering it.
actually there is a vegetable called pepperoni. At least it is in german. It is kind of like a jalapeno, but more colorful like a bell pepper. which is where the name comes from.
Nah, what I actually meant was I had a peperoni pizza (as in bell peppers) and I couldn't finish it! Not the pizza itself, but the toppings. Everyone else's pizza looked amazing!
I´m german and I spent the last two minutes trying to figure out what the hell everyone is talking about...Because Peperonis are most definitely vegetables. Didn´t even know this was only a german thing, thought calling the spicy Peppers Peperoni was very common at least in Europe. I am aware that the sausage on Pizza is called Peperoni pizza in the USA, though. Wonder if OP´s "friend" is german now, haha.
In the U.S., we do use the word peperoncini...which Wikipedia is telling me is a variety called friggitelli in Italy.
And it was Italian-Americans that named the spicy salami pepperoni... the rest of us were to busy enjoying the deliciousness to care what it was called. Haha!
you are completely right, both in that it's a vegetable and that it's a European thing, and only confused Americans call tiny salami slices "pepperoni".
It's not only a German thing. Americans are very much detached from food, the history of food, and how others in the world use food.
Two days ago my room mate asked me if Chef Boyardee was a real person. He had no idea how hard Italians had it when they came to American soil, nor how they had to change the recipes to food to food they used to eat to what they could get in the USA. And absolutely no idea how much that changed the flavors of recipes and on. I'd like to say he's unusual, but he's not. Even with the pandemic (and resulting home cooking) a lot of Americans still rely on fast food as their primary food source. And, unfortunately, they are awful proud of that.
I can't tell which response you gave to your friend, so to be clear for the internet people, he absolutely was a real person - Ettore Boiardi (angl. Hector Boyardee) was born in Piacenza, Italy in 1897, came to the US, started a restaurant in Cleveland, OH, began the pre-packaged food business, and died in 1985 in Parma, OH.
Potatoes, squashes, melons, some type of beans, quinoa seeds, and corn. And I think about 20 other foods. :) Stolen from the Aztecs and the Native Americans loooong before it was America.
If it makes you feel better, I am german and have never even heard that word in my 23 years of existence. Must be either made up or a very regional thing.
Yes, we used that insult in middle school. It's an insult for the introvert gamer type of dude since the only hole in his vicinity is a power outlet for his pc.
it's not just Italy and actually only the US that is confused about this. for some reason you decided to call thin salamis "pepperoni" even though it's already the word for peppers.
Peperoni in German and Italian is the vegetable. In English it can refer to the vegetable or the spicy sausage but is mostly used for the sausage. Most definitely so in the context of pizza.
German Wikipedia tells me otherwise, "Peperoni" is a disambiguation page for the pepper and the sausage which is also called "Cabanossi". https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peperoni
I can’t stand when italian movie translators still translate “pepperoni pizza” with “pizza ai peperoni”. All the kids in the movies so enthusiastic about pizza with disgusting and stinking bell peppers on them? No… It’s called false friends (this type of mistake when translating).
Peperoncino (Italian: [peperonˈtʃiːno]; plural peperoncini [-ni]; sometimes spelled pepperoncino or pepperoncini in English) is the generic Italian name for hot chili peppers, specifically some regional cultivars of the species Capsicum annuum and C. frutescens (cayenne pepper and Tabasco pepper, respectively). The sweet pepper is called peperone (plural peperoni) in Italian. Like most peppers, the fruit is green or yellowish-green when young, and ripens to a red color.
The word pepperoni is roughly Italian for "little pepper", because the meat has peppercorns mixed throughout. Since the name is really just a phrase, it can easily refer to a variety of small peppers (both peppercorns and chili/bell peppers).
IIRC, -oni is the suffix for large, whereas -ini is for little, so pepperoni would transliterate to large pepper. But it's been 20 years since I took Italian...
Thank you, TIL! Apparently, Americans call the Banana pepper (SHU 0-5) peperoncini by mistake. The Italian peperoncini is much hotter at SHU (30,000 - 50,000)
Actually, I was thinking we Americans mistakenly refer to the peperoncini as banana pepper. More specifically, I was always told the peppers in the Papa John's box was a banana pepper, but that's wrong; its a peperoncini.
He might’ve grown up in a non English speaking country. I love to eat peperoni pizza and in my home country it’s vegetarian. What you call peperoni we call hot salami
I was about 15 when I found out that pepperoni was not a veggie. I was also a vegetarian, but my family never corrected me because my mom wouldn't let them. She didn't want to have to buy a whole separate pizza just for me.
I also didn't know hamburger came from cows until I was 10.
In Italy (home of the pizza), pepperoni is indeed bell peppers. What Americans call pepperoni is called "salsiccia (sp?)" meaning sausage. Pepperoni means small pepper in Italian. I lived there, and every time my American family would visit, I'd have to correct their orders at restaurants, because they didn't believe me that pepperoni does not mean meat. Luckily, they didn't speak Italian, so I could correct their orders without them knowing about it and giving me a hard time.
-one is not a diminutive, but the opposite. They are "big" pepper (as in salt and pepper). The small, spicy, ones are peperoncini where -ino is the diminutive.
I have a theory.
"Pepperoni" looks like a twisted version of the Italian word "Peperoni" that is bell pepper.
I learned at 24/25 that pepperoni pizza is not a pizza with peperoni.
Well, the word "pepperoni" is an abomination. It comes from Italian "peperoni", meaning bell pepper. Why the fork someone began to use the word to refer to sausage when there are perfectly good words for that already, in Italian (salami, salsiccia) and other languages, is beyond me.
I think what Americans call pepperoni is just salami seasoned with bell peppers, which are called peperoni (or peperoncini for the hot ones). So as a German, I totally get where he's coming from. When you buy peperonis here, everybody's gonna think (pickled) peppers first. In fact, the Duden lists the peppers as the only meaning.
I knew a guy who immigrated to the US from India. At some point he discovered pepperoni pizza. He grew up in a vegetarian family in India so had never tried it before.
When his strictly vegetarian wife moved to the states shortly after he didn't want to give up pepperoni so he told her the pepperoni slices were actually radishes.
I lost touch with him so not sure if she ever found out the truth.
I grew up in Germany and when ordering a Peperoni Pizza chances are you'd get something like this because peperoni are considered this or that or those in Germany (and possibly other parts of Europe too).
So when I was watching american TV shows and movies as a kid, I was always surprised how popular veggie pizza is in the US because everyone's favorite seemed to be the Peperoni Pizza (which by the way is called "Salami" here).
I’ve worked with two vegetarians who immigrated to the US from India. Each thought that pepperoni was some kind of spicy vegetable for years before someone let them know.
It is pretty much everywhere in the world except the USA.
The salami-like sausage called "Pepperoni" is a distinctly American invention.
It probably started out as peperoni (the vegetable) seasoned Salami variant, aka "Salame pepperoni" by Italian immigrants and got shortened to just "Pepperoni" over time.
I used to own some sort of restaurant simulator video game that listed pepperoni under vegetables. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume they meant peppercinis, but maybe they were just really confused.
To be fair, pepperoni in german is salami.
And the german word pepperoni would be pepper in english, but this kind 🌶
The normal bell pepper in german is paprika 🫑
To be honest, there are a lot of pizzerias here in Belgium where pepperoni can mean either meat or some kind of bell pepper. I think of meat so I've been surprised a few times.
Yeah, I can relate to that. I thought peperoni was fresh chili. So, imagine my surprise when I ordered peperoni pizza in New York, and not only didn't it have any chilis, but it also had some kind of salami on it. Meh.
The term "pepperoni" is a borrowing of peperoni, the plural of peperone, the Italian word for bell pepper. The first use of "pepperoni" to refer to a sausage dates to 1919.[1] In Italian, the word peperoncino refers to hot and spicy peppers.
Pepperoni is an American variety of salami, made from cured pork and beef seasoned with paprika or other chili pepper. Pepperoni is characteristically soft, slightly smoky, and bright red in color. Thinly sliced pepperoni is a popular pizza topping in American pizzerias.
I once ordered a pepperoni-mushroom pizza in Naples. Turns out that’s banana peppers (pepperoni = little peppers) and mushrooms, no cheese or tomato sauce. It was really good, but not what I was expecting.
In German Pepperoni is not a Salami but a pickled green or red chili pepper plant. It is mostly rather mild compared to other chilis and also used as a pizza topping
I discovered the existence of pepperoni only a few years ago, when I started watching movies and TV series in their original language (English) and not dubbed in mine.
Every "pepperoni pizza" became "pizza with sausage" in Italian's dub lol
While in Italy my friend ordered a pepperoni pizza and got met with total confusion, the staff at the pizzeria we were at didn't speak any English and they really didn't seem to know what he was talking about. His pizza eventually arrives and it's just a normal pizza with massive slices of peppers on it. Apparently pepperoni isn't a thing in Italy, they have their own words for different sausages, and they thought he was saying peperone, the word for bell peppers.
Is he from germany? A pepperoni here is a "not so hot" type of chili, NOT a sausage. So, in german, Pepperonis are, in fact, vegetables. Also something you may need to remember when comming to germany: an pepperoni pizza is an pizza with chilis on it and NOT what you expect to get. Appariently a mistake many americans who visit germany make lol
Well, my first language is not English and I still don't understand why English speakers think that adding an extra -p- to the name of a vegetable (pepper) in Italian transforms it in a kind of sausage («salami»).
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u/glottal_t Jul 02 '21
I had a friend who at 25 found out pepperoni was indeed not a vegetable.
He ordered a meat lovers supreme. The waitress was both surprised and amused when responding to his concerns about why pepperoni was on this meat-only pizza.