I lived there for 8 years and my wife was from there. She (and I) knew it as pork roll. We couldn’t find it out here and I finally did a search on alternate names for it. Taylor ham came up.
I told my wife. “You didn’t need to do a search, I could have told you that! But it’s pork roll, not Taylor ham!”
In my searches I found out that it was invented back in the late 1800’s. They first called it Taylor Ham, but seeing as it was processed meat the government told them they couldn’t call it ham! (Not sure when that happened - hard to believe the government was already concerned with stuff like that in 1890 or whenever.)
Taylor ham is used primarily in North Jersey, and pork roll in south.
Whatever name it is yummy.
I think it also has something to do with the original company’s trade mark. Other companies using “Taylor” would get nailed.
This is a very good comprehensive on this whole thing:
https://jerseyporkroll.com/pork-roll-history/
“Taylor is the brand name for pork roll made by Taylor Provisions, Inc., of Trenton.”
“The name debate seems to be between North Jersey locals calling it Taylor Ham, and South Jersey and Philadelphians calling it “Pork Roll.”
Maybe Middletown, NJ is the dividing line? “