Taylor Ham a.k.a Pork Roll

[mjdeez]

Hard to explain taste but it's got a saltier and tangier flavor than bologna.

I took this a week or two ago and meant to post it here. Here's 1 small slice frying up in some bacon grease. I like mine a little on the crispy side.

[Habanero Smoker]

You might have to wait another day; Tuesday/Wednesday storm has set me back.

Long story short; because of the weather, I could not fully cook them in the Bradley, and had to poach them. Though the water was at 158°F and I only cooked them to 148°F - 152°F, a lot of fat and juices rendered out, and the meat shrunk in diameter. So the texture was somewhat dry, and the meat barely held together.

Mine still had enough fat that no added grease was needed when frying. If I had to describe the flavor, it would be a cross between bologna and Canadian bacon with a tang. The flavor is worth another shot, but I will plan to ferment it and fully cook it in the Bradley.

Len Poli's recipe is not salty. He uses very little added salt. I broke his recipe into two 5 pound batches, and made one batch with added cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes.

[Habanero Smoker]

MJ;

I finally got around to writing this up. I rechecked some notes and I only brought the sausage up to 142° - 145°F.

As mentioned earlier, what could go wrong did, but I still ended with a fairly good product. The first problem was trying to find pork butt. For some reason most of the stores were out of it, so I ended up paying $2.50/lb.

I wasn't able to get the sausage made when I wanted to, but three days later I had to do it then or freeze the butts. So even with the bad snow storm coming in on Tuesday of that week, I ground the meat on Sunday, and seasoned/stuffed it on Monday morning. I made two different batches, one five pound batch following the recipe, and the second batch I added 2 tablespoons of crushed hot red pepper flakes, and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne.  The storm was now about 16 hours from hitting; so I knew it couldn't be finished in the OBS. Oh! I forgot to mention that my grinder attachment broke, while I was grinding the left over butt for ground pork.

With the weather forecast, I would have to ferment them in the OBS, and finish by poaching. Knowing that I didn't have a stock pot deep enough to poach them full length, I made them half lengths. Even with the half lengths I have to put them in horizontally to make sure they would be fully submerged.

Click on photos to enlarge:It was cold that day so I didn't want to mess around hanging them vertically. I found that I could fit 3 half loafs on each tray with plenty of air space. The picture below was taken around mid-night, after 12 hours of fermenting. All the sausage is shown on one tray, but I used two trays, and didn't apply any smoke.



The following picture is not the sausage prepared for storage, but made ready to poach. Len Poli states if your fibrous casings are not water proof, this step is necessary. He recommended poaching at 160°F – 170°F, until an internal temperature of 152°F. I did two halves at a time, and they were crowded in the pot. Rethinking this I should have only poached one at a time.



Using my DigiQ II, I set up the poaching station like I would use it for Sous Vide. I haven't used my Sous Vide set up for some time, so I could not find my second food probe. The clip that is holding the food probe in the water was taken form my Maverick CT-03; a Oil/Candy thermometer. The hot plate is a Proctor Silex 1,000 watt, and it was more then enough to heat the water to 158°F and maintain that temperature. That is an eight quart stock pot.

In the first picture note the steaming basket on the bottom to ensure water circulation underneath the sausage. The second picture you can't read the display, but it is set to 158°F, and it held that temperature to ±1°F. That temperature was confirmed by my Thermapen.

   

Though the recipe indicated it would take about 90 minutes, it took close to 2 hours for the sausage to reach 142° - 145°F (that is the temperature I decided to pulled them out). During that period of poaching, a lot of liquid and fat escaped from the sausage, and the diameter of the sausage shrunk about 1 inch; which was not noticeable during poaching because you could not tell want was going on by looking through the FoodSaver bag and casing. After shocking and refrigerating overnight it had firmed up, and I was able to slice it. I found that a bread knife worked better then a slicer knife. There was still plenty of fat in the sausage, which was evident when I fried it. The texture seemed a little firmer than hamburger, but not dry nor crumbly.

   

Overall, I liked the flavor and it is worth another attempt; and I hope the texture will improve. Next time I will fully cook it in the Bradley. I still may go with the half loaves, so I can put them on trays and rotate them for more even cooking.

I'll have to figure out what cause the sausage to fat out, when the water temperature never got over 160°F. Maybe because the sausage was crowded in the pot, the water did not circulate well enough.

[mjdeez]

Looks really tasty.

What size casing did you use? I typically see around 4-5" casing. Maybe it was a combination of a smaller diameter casing with a longer time in the water causing the fat to render.

Thanks for the write up. Can't wait to make some... but i need to make some  room in the freezer first.

[classicrockgriller]

That was very interesting Habs.

thanks for the pics and write-up.

[Habanero Smoker]

You could be right, but I don't believe the diameter or length of time poaching would be a factor in this case. I used 3.5" synthetic casings as suggested by the recipe (3.5" - 4"). I used a poaching temperature below 160°F. His recipe called for 160°F - 170°F. I also took them out at 142° - 145°F, while the recipe called for 152°F. I feel there was definitely some type of heat buildup that neither the DigiQ II or Thermapen were able to detect.

[jiggerjams]

Great write up. Sounds like a project worth putting on the bucket list.

[OU812]

This Taylor Ham looks and sounds good.

Would you compair the flavor to Thuringer?

I was also wondering if you could replace the starter culture with encapsulated citric acid?

Most starter cultures mess with my gut in a bad way.  ::)

[Habanero Smoker]

I would say you can definitely use encapsulated citric acid. That would cut down on the fermentation time. I was thinking of using Fermento in a small batch.

It's been awhile since I've tasted Thuringer. As you can see form the recipe there is very little seasoning to Taylor Ham, but the bacon gives it a nice flavor boost. If there are any similarities, it would be the tang. The only way I can describe it is that is taste like a cross between bologna and Canadian bacon with a tang.

[OU812]

Thanks Habs

Now I have a use for the bacon end pieces.  ;D

[Habanero Smoker]

You're lucky. I didn't have any homemade ends left. That was the first time I went to a store looking for bacon that had the most fat. If you make some, I hope you post your results.

[OU812]

Will do.

[La Quinta]

Holy Moly...Taylor Ham....haven't heard that since I was a little kid in New Jersey...this is a great thread...gonna have my Mom read it...she has a Bradley too...noone in California knows what Taylor ham is (at least nobody I know)...Sweet  :)

Thanks!

[mjdeez]

You could be right, but I don't believe the diameter or length of time poaching would be a factor in this case. I used 3.5" synthetic casings as suggested by the recipe (3.5" - 4"). I used a poaching temperature below 160°F. His recipe called for 160°F - 170°F. I also took them out at 142° - 145°F, while the recipe called for 152°F. I feel there was definitely some type of heat buildup that neither the DigiQ II or Thermapen were able to detect.

Oh... I had mis-read your post. You said the diameter was 1" smaller but for some reason I mis-read it as the final diameter was 1".

[Ketch22]

HI all
I live in  NJ  and the pork roll is as good as we say. I think NJ sell more pork roll and egg on hard rolls then they sell hamburger's .Here is a sit that will ship pork roll so you can try it http://www.jerseyporkroll.com/


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