Eats So Sweet

In honor of New Jersey (YES…..It’s being played in New Jersey, NOT New York) hosting the Super Bowl tomorrow, I decided to post a recipe that’s popular here.  And just because everyone’s asking and talking about it……This Jersey Girl and JETS fan will be sporting my Seahawks shirt (#25)!!!  Go Seahawks!!!

This is a great thing to make after a night of drinking…so maybe Monday morning after the big game!  

Here in NJ we have one of the most delicious things you’ll ever lay your mouth on.  In North Jersey we call it taylor ham, egg and cheese in South Jersey they call it pork roll, egg and cheese.  It’s also popularly known as “TEC” because this is what is written on the wrapper after it’s wrapped up to go with your coffee, iced tea, 1/2 & 1/2 (known around the world as an Arnold Palmer, but in my parts a 1/2 & 1/2).  You can’t even get taylor ham/pork roll in many parts of the USA….shocking that some people have never had the pleasure of enjoying this NJ delicacy.

So what IS taylor ham and pork roll, you ask????   Well Taylor Ham is actually a brand of pork roll…..just like Q-Tip is a brand of cotton swab or Band-Aid is a brand of adhesive bandage.  Pork roll is a breakfast meat…similar to ham, but when pan-fried in a skillet or on a griddle, tastes much different.   It gets sliced (sometimes it comes sliced already) into a circle and then gets 3 or 4 slits around the circle…to prevent the finished product from curling around the edges.  

Once cut up, you put the pieces onto a hot, buttered griddle or frying pan and cook it for about 5 minutes on each side…or until it’s browned.  On the other side of the pan or griddle crack open your eggs….right on the hot pan!  Cook the eggs however you like them cooked….they are usually served fully fried or over medium (yolk harder), BUT some like it a over-easy and more runny.  You can cook it however you’d like.  

Once it’s almost cooked to your liking you add the American cheese and let it cook until it’s melted on top of the eggs!

Next you simply layer it all on top of a hard roll, a bagel, a croissant..I prefer mine on a hard roll and add some salt, pepper and ketchup (SPK).   When you order one of these sandwiches in NJ…..they will always ask “saltpepperketchup?”   3 words, mumbled into 1, but that any New Jerseyian understands. 

I eat mine with just ketchup…no salt or pepper!  So that’d be “TEC K” in Jersey terms!  I’d say most people get “TEC SPK”. Make sense???  

There really isn’t a specific recipe for this breakfast sandwich…it’s really how you like it!  All you need is

Taylor Ham (pork roll) sliced

Eggs

American Cheese (sliced)

saltpepperketchup

Rolls, bagels….

And voila……THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER!

~gianna~