RoseAnna Thibeault in her kitchen in Woonsocket.

FAMILY PHOTO

When the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council put out the word that journalist Denise Perreault was researching the origin of “dynamites” for an upcoming cooking contest, four people contacted her to explain about dynamite. One even sent her a biography of Alfred Nobel who invented the explosive.

“My apparent interest in dynamite probably puts me on a Homeland Security watch list, so I hope the Feds have a sense of humor if they ever come calling,” she said in her report.

Rather it was the ground beef sandwiches which are blended with peppers, onions and tomato sauce and served on a torpedo roll that Perreault researched. “Dynamites” are unique to the Woonsocket corner of Rhode Island though others might call a similar sandwich a “torpedo.”

Still, the origin of the “dynamite” remains a mystery.

Perreault’s digging led her further back than previous research had revealed. Through both archival and anecdotal research, she found the earliest version of the sandwich was served in the ’20s by the owner of a long gone luncheon shop. A story in The Providence Journal back in 1986, explored the subject and traced dynamites’ origins to a bakery in ’32. Most people remember enjoying 10 cent dynamites years ago at the former Vermette’s Restaurant in Woonsocket, but Perreault said they started serving them around 1938.

Still, Perreault said she never even came close to finding out why this sandwich got that explosive moniker.

You can still eat a dynamite at a few spots including the Castle Luncheonette on Social Street.

But it looks like it all started with RoseAnna (Jodoin) Thibeault making dynamites at Hamlet Lunch which according to city directories of the time, was in operation at least from 1922 through 1925, Perreault said.

RoseAnna’s daughter, Beatrice Daniels, remembered washing dishes there when she was about 10 years old, according to Margaret McNulty, Daniels’ granddaughter who lives in Woonsocket. McNulty makes dynamites in the same cast iron pan that was used by RoseAnna so long ago. She has no idea where the idea for dynamites came from, but she knows that RoseAnna taught Beatrice how to cook them over the stove and Beatrice showed her daughter Margaret Greenlund and granddaughter.

“Nothing is written down,” said McNulty. “It was taught at the stove in the kitchen.”

Her grandmother told her dynamites were a French dish though with the tomato sauce it seemed more Italian.

“It was considered a ‘poor man’s delight,’ as my grandmother would say.”

“It’s just something we always made,” she said. “I recall that growing up we always had it served for family reunions. The adults would drink Narragansett Beer with it and the children would drink homemade root beer.”

Beatrice died earlier this year at 97 years old. Though she knew her mother ran a restaurant, her grandmother didn’t remember the name, McNulty said. What she knew is that Rosie (as she refers to her great-grandmother) “used to feed a lot of people coming off the train,” said McNulty.

Perreault was able to put together the pieces and the timeline.

Later, cooking for her family on weekends, Rosie used peppers, tomatoes and onions fresh from her garden to make the dynamites. She also made her own bread for the rolls.

Now, so very many years later, McNulty and her 14-year-old son, Daniel, and his friend, Michael Piskunov, 15, have entered the first Blackstone Valley Dynamite Cook-Off Challenge on Saturday and will compete against 57 other entrants at noon. The event is being held in conjunction with the 25th French Farmers’ Market & Woonsocket Art Festival, scheduled for Friday and Saturday at River Island Park, Market Square in Woonsocket.

McNulty’s team will use Rosie’s original recipe as the foundation but they add hot peppers to make the dynamites more explosive. They’ll also be using Rosie’s cast iron pans.

“It doesn’t seem to work as well in other pans,” said McNulty. Years of seasoning have added to the cast iron pans’ flavor. She also won’t make her own rolls for the contest but favors Calise. Her son has a barley allergy so they do make their own when eating dynamites at home.

They’ll be competing in front of eight judges for the $200 prize and the chance to have their winning recipe mass-produced and sold on supermarket shelves.

Another thing that Perreault, a former editor at the Woonsocket Call, learned during her research is that “Everybody thinks they make the best dynamites.”

On Saturday, that question may too be answered.

Recipe: Rosie Thibeault's French Canadian Dynamite