Pepperoni is not Italian...

Pepperoni Pizza (c) NYTimes.com

My Twitter stream delivered a surprise today. I realized after reading a New York Times article that pepperoni in not Italian. In fact Italians don't make smoked pork salumi! I quickly went the Google way and discovered interesting things. For example:

• Salumi 'is a family of Italian cured meat products, similar to the French charcuterie. Some people confuse salumi withsalami, a specific type of dry-cured meat produced in Italy.'
  (Further reading on this topic...)
• Salami 'is cured sausage, fermented and air-dried meat, originating from one of a variety of animals. Historically, salami has been popular among Southern Europeanpeasants because it can be stored at room temperature for periods of up to 10 years'
  (Further reading on this topic...)
• Charcuterie ' is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham,sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork.'
  
• Pepperoni is:
  •  An air-dried spicy sausage with a few distinctive characteristics: it is fine-grained, lightly smoky, bright red and relatively soft.
  • Is not Italian (It was 'invented') in America. Hence it American-Italian.
  (Further reading on this topic...)

I also found a few recipes for home made pepperoni :) [http://www.google.co.in/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=pepperoni#sclient=psy&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=homemade+pepperoni&aq=2s&aqi=g1g-s3g-o1&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=ba3e4d0f2e757e41]