The Great Garden State Debate

A typical weekend morning for a New Jersey resident involves walking into their local bagel shop and purchasing a breakfast sandwich. Someone who is not from there may look at this routine and think it is just a sandwich preference, but that is wrong. You see, as a kid growing up in North Jersey, I ask for “a Taylor ham, egg and cheese,” but if someone grew up in South Jersey, they would say “a pork roll, egg and cheese.” I firmly stand by my belief that it should be called “Taylor ham.”

South Jersey people love to make the argument that “Taylor Ham” is the brand and not the product, but if that is the case why do I see that on the menu at almost every bagel shop within a 30-mile radius of my house? Could it be for the simple reason that I am from North Jersey or is that the right name for the popular bagel filling?

According to Jerseyporkroll.com, back in 1856, in Trenton, New Jersey, former state senator and entrepreneur, John Taylor, created a pork product while working for Taylor Provisions Company. He decided to call it “Taylor Ham” but was forced to rebrand it as “Taylor Pork Roll” when the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 declared it was not technically ham. Despite the name change, North Jersey residents call it by the original name.

As a kid born and raised in that area, I am surrounded by people who order a bagel with “Taylor ham.” However, when I am at school in Eastern Pennsylvania, I am mostly associating with South Jersey natives that choose to call it “pork roll,” so I decided to put that debate to the test. Across my social media, I do not just have people from North Jersey or South Jersey, but a mixture of both, so I created polls on my Instagram and Snapchat stories. Overall, out of the all the responses, sixty-six percent of them said “Taylor ham” compared to the thirty-four percent that said, “pork roll.”

Meanwhile, as the answers came through, I decided to ask six people who were all born and raised in New Jersey one simple question “What do you say when you want meat on your bagel: Taylor Ham or Pork Roll?” The only difference was that three grew up in South Jersey and three grew up in North Jersey.

“Pork roll all the way” and “Pork roll all day” said Neumann University club ice hockey players, Alex Castells and Nick Pullano.

When I asked my sister and two friends back home, they all said two words, “Taylor Ham.”

My polls on my social media had lopsided results, and I am sure the South Jersey crowd would agree with current Neumann junior communications student, Logan Fogerty, when he reacted with “Tis a shame,” as the polls closed, and Taylor ham won.

Despite my research and determination to get everyone to say “Taylor Ham,” is there really a right or wrong answer when it comes to the meat we put on our bagel with our eggs, cheese, ketchup, salt, and pepper? As I mentioned before, I firmly believe there is, but not everyone agrees. Ultimately, there may never to be a clear-cut answer, unless we are talking about the nonexistence of a Central Jersey, but that is what makes this the great debate that frustrates residents living in the Garden State.