Today’s post is written by fellow author and friend, Jennifer Allen. I love her mysteries and am looking forward to reading her newest release. Welcome back to Historical Nibbles, Jennifer!

by Jennifer Allen

In the break room at my first “real” job in Zanesville, Ohio, I unpacked my lunch and took out an oblong roll.

A colleague looked at it and asked what it was.

“A pepperoni roll.” I was surprised. I’d grown up on pepperoni rolls. I thought everybody knew about them.

So my colleague asked what exactly is a pepperoni roll.

As I explained, I realized for the first time that pepperoni rolls are a regional food, hardly known outside eastern Ohio and West Virginia.

The History of the Pepperoni Roll

In the early 1900’s, many immigrants, including Italians, flooded into West Virginia to work in the coal mines. According to A Culinary History of West Virginia, a baker named Joseph Argrio noticed that the miners often wrapped bread around meat for their meals in the mine. He baked pepperoni into the bread, making a handy, no mess sandwich with a long shelf life.

Mr. Argrio’s bakery was in Fairmont, West Virginia. My mother’s family lived near there and in neighboring Harrison County. I don’t know when my grandmother began baking pepperoni rolls, but my mom always has and now I do.

Pepperoni rolls are the most convenient lunch I know. They don’t require refrigeration. They last at least 5 days on the counter, and then I put them in the fridge only to preserve the bread. My oldest takes a couple with him on the band bus when he has an away football game. They’re perfect for a meal or snack on a hike.

When I created my fictional family for my cozy mystery series, Rae Riley Mysteries, I had to make the grandparents come from West Virginia. Not only would that give my characters a history common with my own, I could include pepperoni rolls whenever I needed to.

Recipe

1 loaf of frozen dough, such as Rhodes, for a 9×5 pan (If you use homemade bread, use the amount for one loaf pan.)

48 slices of pizza pepperoni or 12-18 slices of deli pepperoni or 12-18 slices of stick pepperoni

      (There are some people who prefer stick over slices. I always use small, sliced pizza pepperoni)

Thaw loaf.

Or

Make your preferred kind of bread. Let rise. Knead down. Then follow the steps below.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or spray 1 cookie sheet.

Cut doubt into 8 roughly equal pieces.

Flatten one piece of dough until it is wide enough to lay 3 pizza pepperoni slices, overlapping.

Roll dough over pepperoni.

Lay 3 more slices.

Roll over dough and seal seams.

Place on cookie sheet. When 8 rolls are made, cover with light cloth and let raise for 2-3 hours.

Bake 10-13 minutes.

Eat when cooled to desired temperature.

Freeze leftovers if desired.

Some people add cheese and other ingredients but the original pepperoni roll was simply pepperoni baked into a roll.

BIO: JPC Allen started her writing career in second grade with an homage to Scooby Doo, and she’s been tracking down mysteries ever since. Her Christmas mystery “A Rose from the Ashes” was the first Rae Riley mystery and her latest Rae Riley novel, A Storm of Doubts released in March 2024. Online, she offers tips and prompts for every kind of writer. Follow her to her next mystery at Facebook, BookBub, and Goodreads.

BLURB: Twenty-year-old Rae Riley’s desire to help people in trouble puts her at odds with her newly-found father, Mal. When she extends that help to her con man uncle and the ex-wife of a family friend, she and Mal clash even more. Then the ex-wife disappears. Rae works to discover what really happened as her uncle makes Rae doubt she’s calling the right Malinowski “Dad”.

BUY LINKS: Amazon and Goodreads