West Virginia
There’s a good chance the only thing you know of West Virginia is the chorus to John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’. It’s a tree-covered eastern state that has a reputation for certain less-than savoury traits (obesity, decades-long family feuds) — but that’s not a fair portrayal. It’s a down-home kind of place that’s steeped in a long history of local coal mining, which is where the pepperoni roll comes from. Lisa Strader of visitwv.com says that Thanksgiving pepperoni rolls ‘are great as before or after snacks especially if you have family sticking around to watch the post-turkey football games.’
The roll — a soft bread wrapped around pepperoni which locals will tell you is deceptively delicious — was to the West Virginian coal miners what the Cornish pasty was to the tin miners of Cornwall. Italian immigrant Giuseppe Argiro invented it in the early 20th century to feed fellow miners (many from Argiro’s native Calabria) something that wouldn’t spoil (but would taste good) down in the local Fairmont mines. It’s now the ubiquitous — and official — state food of West Virginia.