Taylor Ham or Pork Roll?

T-E-C with S-P-K.  Preferably with a hash brown.  If you know what that means, you're probably from New Jersey. If you aren't from New Jersey, you might as well stop reading.  Just kidding, but go educate yourself on what you've been missing out on your entire life.

Four years ago when I originally started this blog, I wrote about how there were no delis or diners in Boston, where I went to college and lived for 5 years.  If you said "Taylor ham" or "pork roll", people looked at you like you were from another planet.  I soon learned that it was the same story in every other state besides New Jersey, even New York.  I had no idea. You simply can't find it anywhere else.  

Now that I have been back in Jersey for a couple years, I can eat it whenever I want.  But, is it Taylor ham, or is it pork roll?  People from central and south Jersey claim that it is called pork roll, not Taylor ham.  And then everyone with a brain calls it Taylor ham.  Shots fired.

Technically, it's both. Neither are wrong. Taylor is the brand. And, it says pork roll right on the package. And it really is a roll of pork.

Quite simply, it depends where you grew up, just like the vernacular of any geographical region.  This is a map that I found online, which looks pretty accurate. 

Blue = Taylor Ham
Red = Pork Roll

But, I also saw this one.  

Notice the "Learning that it's called pork roll" on there. Is pork roll creeping up to North Jersey?  Warren County seems divided.  Is that the North's weak spot?  Can we get Jon Snow to defend the wall?    Maybe take over Hunterdon county? Always think Game of Thrones.  The North remembers.  


I'll sum it up to "It's a Jersey Thing."