Have you ever walked by the eggs and breakfast section of your grocery store (shoutout Shoprite Shrewsbury) and noticed the many different brands of pork roll available? Oh, you had no idea you could buy pork roll at the grocery store? (I've even seen it available to buy at Harris Teeter in Virginia). Well, this past weekend, my family (this was my mom's idea) and I taste-tested three of the brands at Shoprite; Taylor's, Case's, and Shoprite's own brand pork roll. Each of these sandwiches was made as consistently as possible by my sister in our parents' kitchen using plain bagels from Hole Lotta Bagel, free-range eggs from Whole Foods (didn't realize my family was fancy AF now), and Land O Lakes Yellow American cheese. So with all of those ingredients remaining the same, we were able to really judge how the different brands of pork roll affected the overall taste of the sandwich. So here they are, ranked. The results were a little surprising, to be honest.
PEC #1 featuring Shoprite Brand Pork Roll
I simply could not believe it, but the Shoprite brand pork roll was the best one. A huge blow to the "brand name" shoppers out there. Why spend an extra $3-$4 when the store brand product is just as good, and to be honest likely just repackaged. The cut was just right and allowed for the pork roll to be heated with just enough crisp to keep it's signature salty flavor.
PEC #3 featuring Case's Pork Roll
Case's has been around since 1870, rivaling the original Taylor's pork roll, both based out of Trenton. Rumor has it, Case supplies Shoprite with their pork roll, which makes sense because these were very similar. However, I felt there was more flavor in the Shoprite brand than Case's. It was a little bland, lacking some saltiness that Shoprite had. It's very possible that the seasonings were tweaked just a bit. It's still very good pork roll.
PEC #2 featuring Taylor's Pork Roll
This was surprising since usually, this is the most popular choice of pork roll brand. Taylor's is the original brand, starting in 1856. If you've been following along with me for the last year and a half, you know that the cut seen above is maybe my least favorite kind for pork roll. The extra thickness makes it more challenging to heat through without burning the edges and gives the pork roll more of a meat patty consistency. We theorized that the thicker cut also made the pork roll way saltier than it should have been. So when buying Taylor's in a box, make sure you don't buy the thick-cut unless that's how you like your pork roll. When cut from the tube, Taylor's might have had a better shot at placing in the top 2 here.
So there you have it, if you're looking to DIY some PEC's, Shoprite or Case's are your best "in box" options. I still believe Taylor's got a bad draw in a box, if you have a deli cutter at home, you can never go wrong with getting a tube of pork roll. Just some tips for the kids for our next quarantine session.
Tune in next week, when my mother and I taste test fresh mozzarella from all our local Italian delis.
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