I am laughing a bit at myself as I think back on something I said earlier today – yea, I crack myself up. I am sure many of you will agree, you can call it what you will but Taylor Ham is still pork roll.

As in, pork based meat mixed up and made round like bologna.

Growing up in northern New Jersey, having a Taylor Ham and cheese sandwich on a hard roll was something you just did. You didn’t think about it, you didn’t ask where it came from (you knew it was from some city called Trenton that also happened to be the capital) and you certainly didn’t ask how it was made.

The Food Network did that to us, although they called it Unwrapped – which started all the way back in 1993. We probably didn’t need to know where Taylor Ham was made, or how it was made…maybe that was when the really healthy movement started – not in the 1970s as we are led to believe.

I mean how can you eat a Twinkie or Twizzlers if you know how much sugar is really in there or what it looks like before it is wrapped in plastic and labeled with a brand name?

I guess. No, I know – you can call it what you will call it based on where you grew up, but – I can only eat it if I think of it as Taylor Ham. This, by happenstance or choice, is definitely less often since I live closer to Philly. They insist on using that other name; but then again, they also like Scrapple.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl

PS Now, when is my next Hello Fresh box arriving?