How To Choose The Absolute Best Pepperoni For Your Pizza

Ordering a hand-tossed pie from Pizza Hut can fulfill a pizza craving in a pinch, but making it at home is so much more rewarding. It allows you to really make it your own, using high-quality ingredients your local pizzeria might never consider bringing in. If you're like many people, pepperoni is a non-negotiable for any pie worth mentioning, and the owner of Tony's NY Pizza in Newbury Park, California, Luke Jacobellis, recommended that folks purchase a specific kind if they want their pizza to stand out from run-of-the-mill pizza parlors.

"I always look for all beef with no fillers," Jacobellis said. "I like to use a cupping style so that edges get a bit of char all around them. A little grease from cooking is the best for flavor." Cup and char, otherwise known as Old World pepperoni, gets its signature curl when heated due to its use of natural animal casings, smaller size, thicker cut, and uneven fat distribution. It provides a crispy crunch that regular flat pepperoni rarely does, and the little cup it forms also holds the grease released when baked, preventing it from oozing all over the rest of the pizza.

Cup and char pepperoni's thicker cut offers a meatier bite with each curled piece. The taste itself is a bit punchier as well. And if you go with Jacobellis' recommendation for all beef pepperoni, you can expect an even more robust flavor.

More often than not, pepperoni sold in grocery stores contains a mix of beef and pork. But when asked what the number one thing Luke Jacobellis avoids when buying pepperoni is, he said, "Non-beef or mixed with other meats and fillers." The bolder, beefier flavor in all-beef versions appeals to folks who don't eat pork, and even those who do. While choosing pepperoni with or without pork really boils down to personal preference, some people claim that all-beef varieties are more flavorful overall.

With pepperoni, folks have a choice between buying pre-sliced and a whole sausage to prep themselves. While cutting at home lets people slice it to any thickness they desire, Jacobellis noted that he's not a fan. "I like pre-sliced because it eliminates waste and is way more consistent in size," he said. Not to mention the most appealing aspect of pre-sliced — the convenience. After all, making pizza is hungry work. Why wait longer to enjoy a pizza paired with a cold beer than you have to?