Pepperoni Balls: The Lifebread of Erie

Jessica Hunter

Little is more well-known to Erieites and confusing to out-of-towners than the pepperoni ball. These rounds of fried dough stuffed with the spicy salami had their origins in Erie's Little Italy, initially as fish balls, morphing over the years to the local delicacy we enjoy today.

One summer during my teenage years, I was camping outside of Pennsylvania. I met some other bored teenagers and, for whatever reason, our conversation drifted towards school lunches. I was a fan, I'd said with a shrug. That rectangular oversauced school pizza, while objectively not very good pizza, was still somehow really good. Those chicken patties? My dad would shell out enough money so I could get two of them. Italian dunker days might as well have been a holiday.

And who could forget pepperoni balls? In my opinion, I had argued, they're perfect the way they are, although some dipped them in ranch (misguided), marinara (reasonable), or hot sauce (next level). There was even that one underclassman who always smothered his in ketchup (a travesty).

My new friends looked puzzled. Pepperoni… balls? Similar to the first time that I mentioned the words "Giant Eagle" to a perplexed non-Pennsylvanian, I learned that day that my beloved pep balls weren't everywhere. Our lunchroom delicacy wasn't universally available outside of the Erie area.

"So, like pepperoni rolls?" one kid asked. There are admittedly other variations of dough and pepperoni: rolls, breads, muffins, and even loaves. Yet, the pepperoni ball is something unique: those baseball-sized balls of sweet dough encasing fresh slices of pepperoni I soon realized are distinctly Erie's.

Over the years, pepperoni balls have become intertwined with Erie's cultural identity. "Pepperoni balls, Smith's hot dogs, a Sara's ice cream cone, and Mad Anthony's Ale make up our four basic food groups," joked Erie Times-News reporter John Guerriero in 2006.

Gordon's Butcher and Market sells them as one of four edible Erie staples in their shippable Erie Box. Erie Apparel sells pepperoni ball t-shirts. Two local sports teams have rebranded as the Erie Pepperoni Balls for promotional days: first, the NBA G-League's Erie Bayhawks in 2018 and then the Erie Seawolves in 2023 (both offering plenty of merchandise). Around Erie, one can buy pepperoni ball stickers, hoodies, hats, bobbleheads, greeting cards, and, yes, even baby onesies.

Not everyone in Erie agrees on what makes the perfect pepperoni ball either. They are often linked nostalgically with childhood memories: lunchrooms, but also sporting events, school fundraisers, a favorite neighborhood bakery, or afternoon snacks at a friend's house. Some prefer theirs fried, while others like them baked. Some like them lighter and fluffier, while others like a crisp outside. There are preferences related to the spiciness of the pepperoni or if they should include cheese. Some will even argue that if they don't have those little ridges from the cooking racks, they aren't authentic. However one decides to eat them though, they don't last long when offered at parties.

Undoubtedly, there are similarities with the pepperoni roll, popularized by West Virginia coal miners during the 1930s as an easy, high-calorie meal made from scrap deli meat and dough. In Erie though, the origins are closely connected to fish balls, once a staple offered at bakeries and markets throughout the city. As one might surmise, these were scraps of fish wrapped in small balls of fried or baked dough. These were popular throughout many Italian-American neighborhoods across the country and Erie's Little Italy was no exception. Any fish that didn't sell at market could easily be combined with a bakery's surplus dough and voila! A new product to sell. Some savvy bakers also substituted excess deli meats. Before long, pepperoni had caught on with the public, the spicy salami making for a delicious contrast to the sweet bread.

Pepperoni itself was a relatively new creation. According to most accounts, pepperoni was first created by Italian immigrants around 1919 in New York City. A 1920 bulletin from the Department of Agriculture referred to this new concoction as an "unsmoked dried summer sausage which is stuffed in thin and narrow sheep or hog casings." It had a "special curing mixture" giving it its distinct red coloring and its drying period was significantly faster than other cured meats.

The first mention of pepperoni in the Erie Daily Times wasn't until 1938. Salvatore Pedano, a local grocer, was arrested for selling two cans of tomatoes and a pound of pepperoni (described as a "spicy type of sausage") on a Sunday. It wasn't until after World War II that pepperoni began to be advertised more regularly in the newspaper though. The first to advertise its sale in Erie was the Mohican Market and Bakery in 1947. Located at 1203 State St., they sold it for about 60 cents per pound, roughly the same price as bacon. The arrival of pizza in the city further popularized its use. That same year, Erie's Original Pizza Shop at 710 W. 18th St. began advertising their "sensational" pizzas with pepperoni. Within a decade, it was a regular offering at most grocery stores, delis, and pizza shops, advertised with descriptors such as "zesty," "flavorful," "tempting," "tasty," "very tasty," "extra tasty," and "delicious."

Exactly who was the first to stuff pepperoni into the dough and sell it isn't entirely clear. According to Stanganelli's Italian Foods, they still have Cosmo Stanganelli's original recipe from 1961. By the time they were popular enough to be advertised in the newspaper a few years later, they were a well-established local treat. The very first mention of pepperoni balls in the Erie Daily Times was in 1964 by Paul's Restaurant and Pizza Palace on West 26th Street. Like many establishments then, they advertised them alongside fish balls, both of which sold for about a nickel each.

A plethora of pizza shops in Erie began advertising pepperoni balls on their menus in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the pizza-adjacent snack began to gain popularity throughout the Erie region. (Erie Daily Times, Nov. 22, 1975)

Joe's Pizza Shop on Cascade Street began advertising them the following year. By 1969, a frozen option by DiSalvo's was being offered in local grocery stores. Art's Bakery started making them around this time too. While many places did not advertise in the newspapers, making it difficult to know when they began offering them, throughout the 1970s many did. These establishments included Pat Crudo's Pizza, Marci's Pizzeria, Alfee's Pizza, Godfather Pizza, Pizza Palace, Pizza Heaven, Presque Isle Pizza, Parmento's Pepperoni Balls and Pizza, Doc's Tavern, Cassano's Pizza and Seafood, Tom Yacobozzi's Best Pizza, Fabrizio's Italian Restaurant, Lombardi's Pizza, Pio's, Arnone's, Dee's, and Corsi's.

Meanwhile, fish balls were disappearing from menus while pepperoni balls were becoming a local culinary star. By the 1980s, pep balls seemed to be everywhere: the Italian Festival, schools, fundraisers, roller rinks, Little League games, grocery chains like Super Duper and Loblaws, as well as most of Erie's markets and bakeries.

With the turn of the century, the pepperoni ball was being mentioned by the Erie Times-News more than lake effect snow. It had, perhaps inexplicably, become a part of Erie's identity, a source of pride, something pined after by those who moved away and wrote home asking for recipes. On Reddit alone, there are multiple threads dedicated to replicating Erie-style pepperoni balls. "I make homemade Erie Pepperoni Balls at least once or twice a month," one Los Angeles resident posted, sharing their recipe and process.

Today, everybody seems to have their favorite pepperoni ball brand, whether it's Stanganelli's, International Bakery, Majestic Bakery, or another neighborhood bakery, market, or restaurant (I could name them all, but I'd surpass my word count pretty quickly). Each place has their own interpretation too. Art's Bakery offers a jalapeño version. Herb & Honey Bakery makes a "pretzelroni" ball. BIGBAR offers a half-pound fried version with a hot pepper cheese option. Beergr Foods, an Erie-based food vlog, even made a YouTube video about a pepperoni ball burger — basically a fried pepperoni ball with hamburger inside.

At one time, there was an annual race at Presque Isle called the Jog 'n Hog, a "gastronomical challenge" that required racers to run two miles, eat six pepperoni balls, and then run the two miles back. There's even a Facebook group dedicated to pepperoni balls, which describes it as a "hot, greased, and fluffy delicacy" that is the "life bread of Erie."

In 2020, pepperoni balls flirted with national attention. Stanganelli's Italian Foods' flagship frozen pepperoni balls were featured on QVC. As described by the Erie Times-News at the time, the 18,000 pepperoni balls sold out before the segment even aired on television. The QVC host described them as "basically, like, your favorite pizza dough on the outside with a sandwich on the inside." Adding that it was neither a stromboli nor a calzone, the segment went on to explain that this "comfort food snack" was "almost like a pizza donut."

"Buffalo has the wing," observed the Erie Times-News in 2010. "Erie has the pepperoni ball." "I'm glad they didn't settle on bologna [back then]," one local baker joked. "Bologna balls. That just doesn't have the same ring to it."

Indeed, bologna balls might have never caught on in the same way. We'll stick with our pepperoni balls, Erie's flavorful, mouthwatering, mythical snack.

Jonathan Burdick runs the public history project Rust & Dirt. He can be reached at jburdick@eriereader.com