TAYLOR HAM/PORK ROLL

Whatever You Call It, It is New Jersey’s Favorite Breakfast Sandwich

From Wikipedia

Pork roll is a processed meat commonly available in New Jersey and neighboring states. It was developed in 1856 by John Taylor of Trenton, and sold as “Taylor’s Prepared Ham” until 1906. Though since then food labeling regulations require Taylor and all other manufacturers to label it “pork roll”, people in northern New Jersey still call it “Taylor ham”. The “Is it pork roll or Taylor ham?” question is a notable element of New Jersey culture and the division over what name one uses divides the state along roughly north-south geographic lines.

Taylor originally called his product “Taylor’s Prepared Ham”, but was forced to change the name after it failed to meet the new legal definition of “ham” established by the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Marketed as both “Taylor’s Pork Roll” and “Trenton Pork Roll”, it saw competition from products with similar names like “Rolled Pork” and “Trenton style Pork Roll”. Adolph Gobel, the “Sausage King” of Brooklyn, produced “Roll of Pork”. Gobel was sued by Taylor in 1910, but the court ruled that the words “Pork Roll” and “Roll of Pork” could not be trademarked.

New Jersey split over the name

Although it says “John Taylor’s Pork Roll” on the wrapper of the product of the Taylor Provisions Company, a century later, many in North Jersey (and parts of Central Jersey) continue to use the term “Taylor ham”. The debate over the name, which splits New Jersey along a line between the north and the south, is a perennial one in the state. It has become a shibboleth for identity within the state, and is an argument that New Jersey people, whose lives are influenced by out of state factors, can consider their own.

In the words of Lew Bryson and Mark Haynie, magazine editor and magazine writer, “The north calls it ‘Taylor ham’ and eats it with mustard; the south calls it ‘pork roll’ and eats it with ketchup.” going on to observe for their home state that “[o]ver here in Philadelphia […] it’s pork roll; hey, Trenton’s right across the river and that’s what it says on the wrap!”

On May 15, 2016, President Barack Obama gave a commencement speech at Rutgers University’s 250th graduation ceremony in which he referenced the “Taylor Ham vs. pork roll debate”, saying, “I come here for a simple reason – to finally settle this pork roll vs. Taylor Ham question...I’m just kidding... There’s not much I’m afraid to take on in my final year of office, but I know better than to get in the middle of that debate.”