Homemade Pork Roll (Taylor Ham) Results

[BobbyMac]

Ok guys I finally got around to making that pork roll a lot of us talked about. Came out what I think is good but will definitely make some adjustments for the next batch.

The ingredients I used:
7 lb. Pork butt
3 lb. Hickory smoked bacon
5 Tsp- Pink salt
3 Tbs- Dextrose
2 TSP- Sure Cure
6 TSP- Fresh black pepper
4 TSP- Maple seasoning
1 TSP- ECA
Splash wine

Mix turned out well in my opinion and for my first try I’d say the taste is pretty close but it’s missing that “Tang” taste you get from pork roll so next time I would up the ECA and Maple seasoning a little bit as I love the maple seasoning and would love to taste a little more of it.

I didn’t do a poach like a lot of people have done instead I put them in the smoker at 8am (165) and pulled them around 7pm. Tossed them in a quick ice bath and in the fridge for the night.

Sliced some up this morning and it taste great, will definitely make small adjustments next time  

[BobbyMac]

This post is deleted!

[BobbyMac]

[BobbyMac]

[BobbyMac]

[Jonathon]

BobbyMac Other than the ECA and Maple is there anything else you would do differently?

[BobbyMac]

Jonathon I think that’s really it, I’m going to make the changes and try again. It taste more like spam or ham then it does pork roll so I think with those 2 small changes it might work better.

I’ll keep you posted! Thanks for your help, had a blast making it that’s for sure

[bleathery]

BobbyMac
I realize I’m on an old post, but curious if you perfected your pork roll recipe? I was going to ask if anyone on here had a recipe even though it’s kind of a New Jersey/Philadelphia thing & went with the search first & came across your post. There’s a few small shops in our area making it, some I like some is too sweet. Trying to line a few meat projects up for when my schedule frees up a bit.

[Dave in AZ]

bleathery
Your post on this thread got me excited to try this, I did some research as I’m going to make this now!

I grew up on the DE Philly border, and mu Dad made Taylor Pork Roll sandwiches every week, usually Sat or Sun lunch. Most recently I bought one about 3 months ago for sandwiches. It is just a formed ham that is fermented then smoked.

BobbyMac recipe looks pretty good to me, except I would weigh everything and use percent of meat block to have accurate repeatable results. I would use lactic acid and target pH of 4.5 or so.

The ingredients are pork, and Taylor Provisions site says pork shoulder. (Fat should be 28%, according to nutrition label, so pork butt is about right.)
Salt, sugar, spices, lactic acid starter culture, sodium ascorbate (cure accelerator), sodium nitrITE, sodium nitrATE.

The tang comes from the lactic acid, and I have never had anything with citric acid that gives the same tang. Additionally because they are using Cure#2, with nitrite and nitrate both, you can expect it is aged for more than 14 days, the normal cutoff for just using cure1 nitrite and going to a cure with both. This also tells you there will be a good strong tang developed. This is basically a salami that is then cooked. The proper rate for cure2 is 0.25%.

Your recipe will completely depend on if you do an authentic fermented meat process with starter culture, or if you try to just mix up a smoked sausage with citric acid for tang.

The salt level is 2.54% according to the nutrition label (650mg sodium per 64g oroduct). All salami needs to be 2.5 to 3.5% salt, the lower end is if you use a starter culture, 2.5 to 3%, so this makes sense. Don’t use less, fermented meat needs 2.5% minimum.

The OP wanted more sugar, and a maple flavor… I have never thought there was any maple flavor at all, so I wouldn’t say that is part of the normal profile. I do Canadian bacon and buckboard bacon on at 2% sugar. I’ve done CB using 100% maple syrup, it almost couldnt be detected, a huge waste. But this is a sausage, so it would be inside and detectable if you wanted to use it. However, with a lactic culture the sugar used is directly tied to the acidity. 1% glucose/dextrose sugar will give 4.08 ph or so, pretty dang low and tangy. Regular sucrose will be 4.1 to 4.2, still more tangy than most salami.
The nutrition label says 1g sugar in 64g serving, so 1.5% residual sugar. This makes me think 2% was the starting amount.

Edit… apparently the grind is more emulsified than I recalled, tweaking here.
I would use the 4.5 mm plate. One video I just watched reground with a 3mm and said it was more emulsified than the Taylor original, so I’d stick with 4.5mm. The bind is tight, a lot of protein extraction, so I would mix hard. It ends up looking like coarse baloney, definitely a strong sausage bind, not a fresh sausage texture.

Moisture is more than CB. I would use the standard 10% of meat weight, maybe a bit less. Unlike most salami which are aged to dry them, pork roll are pretty moist, and they are smoked. Letting it ferment will dry it so I would use the 10% water.

I’d stuff it in summer sausage cellulose, age 15 days, and smoke to an internal temp of 160f. You could lightly smoke 1 or 2 hrs then sous vide, which is what I would do. If you are not going to age at 50-55f for 15 days or more, you should use cure1 instead of cure2 to be sure there isnt nitrate left.

Oh, culture tspx or fl-c either would be fine. No 600 mold.

Non fermented recipe…
Use enough ECA to achieve pH of 4.5 or so. Actually I would use lactic acid not eca or citric, if you can find it. Use cure1 at 0.25% rate, 2.6% salt, 1.5% sugar. I would use a Vitamin C ascorbic acid 1000mg tablet per kg meat, it will give the same acid tang as sodium ascorbate and is the same accelerator.

Spices for either: I would just use black pepper myself, or white pepper if you dont like the specks. I don’t remember tasting any other strong flavors.
Definitely no garlic, nutmeg, mustard, marjoram, thyme, sage, cayenne, or red pepper, IMO.

This one you could stuff and smoke immediately or no more than 12 to 18 hrs with the accelerator.

Hope that helps! I have a meat cave salami aging setup, but don’t love salami that much… mostly pepperoni. So I’m glad you got me looking at this old favorite! I am going to try making this both as an authentic fermented sausage and also as a quick smoked sausage. I will post up my results.

[Dave in AZ]

Ps here is a good article on lactic acid vs direct acidification food safety for various similar sausages like Lebanon baloney and summer sausage

https://porkgateway.org/resource/dry-and-semi-dry-fermented-and-direct-acidified-sausage-validation/

[bocephus]

BobbyMac Very nice.

[bleathery]

Dave in AZ
Thank you for all the info. I’ve got my wife & 3-1/2 year old daughter hooked on this stuff now too. I’m still a newbie at this stuff, so I’ll start off with the non-fermented version & go from there. I definitely like the tang of the Taylor brand which is what I grew up eating & the local versions definitely don’t have as much if any. Thanks again & look forward to your results. Gotta love this place with the wealth of information available.

[cdavis]

Dave in AZ great write up. I’ve never had Taylor pork roll but it sounds pretty good. I may try this after I see your results. Thanks for sharing this.

[Grimpuppy]

I might try BobbyMac’s original recipe. I like spam.

[bleathery]

Grimpuppy
I’m planning on trying both, I like Spam too!

[Jonathon]

I saw a meme from Tropic Thunder where Tom Cruises character is on the phone and telling the Golden Dragon or whatever that groups name is that captured Tucker that he would rain holy fire down on them and it was saying that is how North jersey talks to south jersey about whether it is Pork Rolls or Taylor Ham. Made me laugh, and 2 times this post has popped up into my mind in one day!