Pork Roll...had to try it!

[bill ace 350]

I've been on a Taylor Ham fest for 3-days now after seeing this thread! They sell the real McCoy in our local HEB (I wonder who thought that one up?) so I bought some but had to skip the wonder-bread sponge rolls that HEB calls Kaiser rolls and just cook the Taylor ham with a couple of eggs and enjoy! Beside - my doc would blow a gasket if I ate any wonder-bread of any kind. Nevertheless that Taylor ham is good stuff - reminds me of home!

Goes great with a good rye bread or bagel. i agree though, the authentic Kaiser Roll can't be beat.

 

[Retired Spook]

Goes great with a good rye bread or bagel. i agree though, the authentic Kaiser Roll can't be beat.

Unfortunately for me I am off all bread for the foreseeable future.

 

[SmokyMose]

I haven't been on the forum much the last few days and totally missed this!
I've never heard of a ham press, but there are still a lot of things I've never heard of ;-)
I need to check this out....

 

[bill ace 350]

Unfortunately for me I am off all bread for the foreseeable future.

Sorry to hear that... it does go great with eggs, like you did

 

[DougE]

They sell the real McCoy in our local HEB

I can get it at Kroger for $11.99/lb. Ouch! That's what motivated to make it myself. I did a side by side comparison of the real deal next to mine and it's pretty close ....... close enough to satisfy that occasional Taylor ham craving I get from time to time. If I fried you up a piece and you didn't know it was what I made, you might just think you were eating the real stuff.

 

[Retired Spook]

I can get it at Kroger for $11.99/lb. Ouch! That's what motivated to make it myself. I did a side by side comparison of the real deal next to mine and it's pretty close ....... close enough to satisfy that occasional Taylor ham craving I get from time to time. If I fried you up a piece and you didn't know it was what I made, you might just think you were eating the real stuff.

$12.35/lb here at HEB - I am such a stupid shopper I had to dig the receipt out of the trash - I never check prices though I know I should. I just figure if I have money in the bank I can shop - within reason of course.

 

[Burlymanchef]

I'll preface this by saying I've never tasted Taylor Pork Roll/Taylor Ham, so I have NO IDEA what it's "supposed" to taste like...but I figured it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of Spam and as I love Spam, why not (don't be offended, Jersey folks...it's the only thing I have to compare it to!)?

Anyway, the recipe I used was from wedlinydomowe.pl forum (but I "think" it's Cougar78's...???).

I didn't smoke it, but chose to cook it in the little ham press I got from Amazon using my SV.

My thoughts...I liked it! It's a bit salty and I "think" it could use a bit more "tang", so I'll tweak another small batch and see what I end up with. I'm also going to order some 3" fibrous casings so I can smoke it.

Anyway, the pics...

Out of the fridge, sliced about 3/16" thick:

View attachment 648810

Fried 2 slices and slapped on a toasted bun (no Kaiser roll, so burger bun it is!) with a little mustard and cheese (forgot to take a pic of the sammie...sorry!):

View attachment 648811

Here's the ham press (of course I ditched the thermometer than came with it and used my probe after drilling out the hole in the handle so it would fit):

View attachment 648812

Thanks for looking!

Sherry T Interesting that in North Jersey where I grew up I remember it was called Taylor ham and in South Jersey near the shore it was called pork roll. Go figure. I grew up eating it for breakfast on an Kaiser roll and onion bagels as numerous bagel shops serve it as a breakfast sammy with fried egg, american cheese and a couple slices of pork roll. I just picked some on the east side of Florida last week during Thanksgiving and was 13.99 a pound for the mini 6 inch cotton cloth roll. I will start making some shortly as I can't afford that price. Will chime in when it's done in the next couple of weeks. Great Post!

 

[DougE]

I will start making some shortly as I can't afford that price.

What I make isn't 100% perfect, but close enough that you'd call it Taylor ham, or pork roll. Whichever you prefer.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Looks tasty from here.

 

[bill ace 350]

Sherry T Interesting that in North Jersey where I grew up I remember it was called Taylor ham and in South Jersey near the shore it was called pork roll. Go figure. I grew up eating it for breakfast on an Kaiser roll and onion bagels as numerous bagel shops serve it as a breakfast sammy with fried egg, american cheese and a couple slices of pork roll. I just picked some on the east side of Florida last week during Thanksgiving and was 13.99 a pound for the mini 6 inch cotton cloth roll. I will start making some shortly as I can't afford that price. Will chime in when it's done in the next couple of weeks. Great Post!

No matter what you call it, it is good stuff!

Call it by either name, anywhere in NJ and they know what you're talking about!

It is getting expensive, paid $10.99 a pound last week.

 

[Fueling Around]

How would you compare Spam to a pork roll?
My wife loves Spam but cannot take enough hbp med to counteract the 2 days of sodium intake in a single serving
If I could concoct an ultra-low sodium version it would be brownie points.

...
It is getting expensive, paid $10.99 a pound last week.

Comparable to Spam?

 

[Retired Spook]

How would you compare Spam to a pork roll?
My wife loves Spam but cannot take enough hbp med to counteract the 2 days of sodium intake in a single serving
If I could concoct an ultra-low sodium version it would be brownie points.


Comparable to Spam?

Much better than Spam, in my humble opinion.

I was mistaken in an earlier post - it is $11.99/lb at HEB - had some with an egg this morning!

 

[Dave in AZ]

How would you compare Spam to a pork roll?
My wife loves Spam but cannot take enough hbp med to counteract the 2 days of sodium intake in a single serving
If I could concoct an ultra-low sodium version it would be brownie points.


Comparable to Spam?

Not gonna be able to do low salt and still be recognizably a pork roll... the classic and 90% of market, Taylor, is 2.5% salt, and that saltiness along with white pepper defines the flavor. You could make something out of pork with low salt, that your wife might like... but calling it a pork roll won't make it one. Without the salt, you approach a coarse baloney, basically.

However, I think you could make a spam thing and be OK. This is like spam but with a bit more sausage texture, less gel.

I don't know what your sodium goal is for your wife, but knowing that would be helpful--tons of folks have sodium or blood pressure issues, and knowing what amount of salt is still OK for them would help all of us who might consider making such a product. Your post is the first I ever heard about a medication to counteract sodium and that it has a known limit.

In any case, you'll need to boost other flavors to counteract low salt. I recently experimented with doing that for pork roll. Here is what I would do, for 1kg block.
Forum owner doesn't want out of forum links, so I just copy pasted a long thread I posted at another forum here.

Taylor Pork Roll (or Taylor Ham)

I posted all this elsewhere on internet. Owner doesn't want links to info outside his forum, making it hard to refer to stuff already written and posted elsewhere. So I'm gonna copy paste my thread here rather than spam it all into someone else's. I've made this 4 or 5 times now, refining...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

I would use that recipe with it's spice profile, but remove MSG and lower salt to what you want. But you need at least 1% salt for the strong protein extraction needed... most sausage is 1.5 to 2% salt.

Here is pic of spices to get you interested enough to open a new tab and go look. I do think you'd have a good spammy pork roll thing still that your wife would recognize and enjoy!

 

[Dave in AZ]

Fueling Around , here is another thread I saw that I think you'd be very interested in, a low salt spam that really looks great! I might try it today myself!

Tocino Spam, version 2

I really enjoyed the first Tocino Spam I made, but I wanted to tone down the salt a little. I'm very happy with the latest batch. Here's the latest version... 1) lbs ground pork, partially emulsified 1/2) pound minced ham 3) tablespoons sugar 2) tablespoons cornstarch 1) tablespoon Morton's...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[zwiller]

Yes, I used ECA...I have quite a bit of learning to do before I'm willing to try incubating/fermenting/drying meats.

I "do" want to try it, though...not on indaswamp's level, but some pepperoni and salami would be nice!

I am dabbling. Not too hard to do actually. I have a "chamber of sorts" but a thought I've had is to use SV the ferment.

I am REALLY impressed with the fermenting I've done and I bet it tastes better than ECA. Never used it as it does not gel with my work flow but tried the other tang hacks and fermenting blows them away.

 

[jkc64]

I am dabbling. Not too hard to do actually. I have a "chamber of sorts" but a thought I've had is to use SV the ferment.

Haven't seen using SV to ferment, sounds interesting.

 

[cutplug]

Just checked my local Fred Meyer and low and behold.
12.99 pound. That would pay for the ham press!

 

[mosparky]

Well Dang, here we F'n go again. You folks are getting into my pockets for something I didn't know I needed.
Gonna put one on my Amazon list along with Maraski's book and see what shows up under the tree. If not, I'll order after Christmas.
On the plus side, I think y'all showed me another use for that SV that doesn't get used near enough.

 

[SherryT]

Well Dang, here we F'n go again. You folks are getting into my pockets for something I didn't know I needed.
Gonna put one on my Amazon list along with Maraski's book and see what shows up under the tree. If not, I'll order after Christmas.
On the plus side, I think y'all showed me another use for that SV that doesn't get used near enough.

LOL! I hear ya!

When I joined this forum (late 2017-ish IIRC), I didn't have a smoker, grinder, stuffer, slicer, press, SV, flat top, or anything other than a grill (and even that got replaced by a Smokey Joe...which meant SJ-sized gadgets and hacks).

AND...as soon as I get this whole flat top-thing squared away, I plan on dipping my toe (my little pinkie-toe, mind you!) into fermenting/dry curing...got a lot more research to do first.

 

[SmokyMose]

LOL! I hear ya!

When I joined this forum (late 2017-ish IIRC), I didn't have a smoker, grinder, stuffer, slicer, press, SV, flat top, or anything other than a grill (and even that got replaced by a Smokey Joe...which meant SJ-sized gadgets and hacks).

AND...as soon as I get this whole flat top-thing squared away, I plan on dipping my toe (my little pinkie-toe, mind you!) into fermenting/dry curing...got a lot more research to do first.

Yeah, same here. When I started with the forum I had no idea you could make your own sausage, but down that rabbit hole I went (we haven't had store bought sausage in 5 years or so). Now, thanks to "someone", I have 2# of balogna with olives chilling in the fridge.....
Have you looked into the UMAi bags/kits?

You don't need a curing chamber, just a fridge or extra closet space.
Might be a way to get that pinkie toe wet...