Pepperoni, what's that?

This post is in English for Max Vishnev from CityRover Waking Tours in New York. We discussed the thing I like to call the  .....

The Peperoni Confusion

When you use the word Pep(p)eroni in a multicultural environment there is a good chance that everybody think on something different without being aware that there could be a misunderstanding. The confusion rises about sausage, vegetable and spicy things.

Here a table listing three items with the different names depending from the region:

Item	US	Germany	Switzerland	Italy
	Bell Pepper	Paprika	Peperoni	Peperone pl. Peperoni
	Hot pepper	Peperoni Chili Pfefferoni	Peperoncini Chili	Peperoncini Peperone picante
	Pepperoni	Salami	Scharfe Salami	Salame Piccante

As we see the word Pep(p)eroni stays for all items shown on the left side, depending where you are. Ok, in US a p was added, but this is not too much of a difference.

Bell pepper and hot pepper both belong to the plant species Capsicum which originate from South America and was brought by the Spaniards to Europe. Italian migrants brought the vegetable to the European countries North of the Alps and to North America. The fact that Bell Pepper was at the beginning not ready available in the local market in Switzerland and Germany made the immigrants bringing large amounts of the vegetable from their home leaves. Therefore Italian immigrants were often nicknamed as Peperoni Eaters in Switzerland.

The American Pepperoni most probably got its name from the hot sauce which is used to season spicy salami in Italy, which is made from peperone calabrese (hot pepper from Calabria). As the most things get shortened in US it may have become Pepperoni. The invention of this type of sausage is clearly American since the Italian versions are normally made much spicier and named Salsiccia Napoletana Piccante or in another way, but never Peperoni or Pepperoni.

Driven by the confusion above there is another confusion about pizza, which I like to name ...


The Transatlantic Pizza Topic Confusion


Here again a table listing pizzas and their names in different regions:

Item	US	Germany		Italy Switzerland
	Pizza Pepperoni	Pizza Salami		Pizza Diavolo (en. devil pizza)
	Pizza w/ Sausage	Pizza mit Hackfleisch		Pizza con carne macinata
	Pizza w/ Bell Pepper	Pizza mit Paprika		Pizza con peperoni

From above we see that there are two confusions:

• Those Europeans who think that Salami is a sausage and think that they get a Pizza Pepperoni are disappointed by getting a pie with meat crumbles. 
  
• Those Europeans who think that Pepperoni is bell pepper like in Peperoni in Italy and order a Pizza Pepperoni get disappointed since they find a pizza with meat instead of vegetable. This is especially disappointing for a vegetarian.