Clearly, Shelsky's does not have a hechsher, is not a Kosher restaurant, and should not be considered "kosher style." There is nothing "kosher" about pork; there is nothing kosher about mixing meat and milk. Their bagels, rolls and bialys should not be considered Kosher. As long as its customers are aware of that, feel free to go there.
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@Steve Harumph!
And for a little afternoon boost, try some fried pork roll covered in chocolate.
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I live in NJ now and still don’t get the obsession with pork roll but there is nothing that reminds me of moms house like fried salami and eggs
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Ha! Nothing strange here. This shiksa was introduced to delicious Chines roast pork by a bunch of Jewish kids when we all worked in the Catskills in the 60s.
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Pork roll on a bagel? A shandeh!
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My father was a master baker. His onion rolls were just as you describe bialys, except the onions were not carmelized. They were also showered with poppy seeds and, as I remember it, had corn meal on the bottom which helped make the crust especially crispy.
There was no sandwich filling that was not more delicious on one of them. I have not seen rolls like that anywhere else since then so I wish I could buy some of those bialys. Maybe with peameal bacon instead of the pork roll, this being Canada. The onion rolls here are soft and entirely different.
Thanks for the memory.
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Bialys are great, at least the ones we have had from Kosar's. And this breakfast sandwich sounds as though it would be excellent. Will have to make a trip to Brooklyn next time I am in town.
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It seems odd that the most extolled dish from a Jewish bakery isn’t kosher. Surely there is a way to replace the ham with a kosher meat?
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@Colleen Dunn Sure, you could use kosher salami or baloney (fried, of course), and it would still be tasty. But it would not matter, because this sandwich has cheese as well, and under kosher law you cannot combine milk products and meat.
I'm more concerned about the "kaiser roll," which looks nothing like the airy-crumbed rolls I grew up on, with thin thin crusts that flaked if you just looked at them. What passes for a kaiser roll these days, marked in swirls by machine rather than hand formed, just isn't one. How can it be that every baker in NYC, if not the USA, lost the recipe for a REAL kaiser roll??
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@Colleen Dunn I don't think you understand kosher rules. As long as there's dairy in the sandwich (cheese), NO meat would be kosher. But yeah, the fact that it's pork seems like an extra no-no :-)
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@Suzanne Fass
My father, a master baker, made kaisers shaped by hand. He thought it was disgusting when in later years they were stamped out by machine.
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When you cook pork roll/Taylor ham don’t forget to cut 3 slits from the outside edge toward the center so it doesn’t curl up when you fry it. It’s also fantastic alone on plain white bread —. Yummmmmm
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@Jeanine I used to do that but I have a glass cover so that when I make it the slices stay flat. Work with bacon too. Lord I'm hungry, that protein shake just isn't cutting it.
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@Jeanine The three slices, a sign of a true Taylor Ham connoisseur!
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My grandfather, a Jewish baker would have been appalled. Actually, it looks disgusting to me, too.
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@MSL - NY
My father is a Jewish baker, and he starts his day with a pork roll + bagel breakfast sandwich almost every morning! Don't knock it til you try it
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@asdfj - My grandfather kept kosher so he never would have tried it. I'm sorry - I've absorbed enough of the culture that I can't imagine trying it. I'll have to take your word for it that it tastes good.
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@MSL - NY Try it, you'll like it!
(Although it's a real salt bomb.)
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I hate eggs but a bialy with a schmear and a slice of well-done grilled pork roll works so well!
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@S. Harchik You really pair cream cheese with pork roll? Not knocking it just asking.
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Laave out the ham, and it sounds great!
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Down the shore here, we often add some hash brown potatoes to the ubiquitous pork roll, egg and cheese . It's known as "the lifeguard special" because in summer you eat one of these first thing in the morning before you climb into your lifeguard perch and you never need to eat again until the afternoon. A hard roll (seeded/or plain), a bagel or even a sandwich sized English muffin are all acceptable receptacles for the combo but unfortunately we don't see a lot of bialy's down here or I'd give it a shot.
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@Jay Amberg A good breakfast of eggs, taylor ham hash browns and coffee kept me warm and satisfied for many a Giants home game in late November. Didn't need to eat anything at the stadium.
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On a good bialy, heaven....but no where can you get a really good one...maybe new/old Kossars...but this sounds great.
Say that ain’t ketchup dripping from it, mercy!
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In our house my mother made Trenton pork roll on a hamburger bum with just cheese and Heinz India relish. If we added an egg and homefries we'd 86 the relish in favor of Heinz ketsup. There was an official Taylor Ham sandwich shop back in the 60s on the Asbury Park, NJ, boardwalk between Madame Marie's, the fortune teller, and the old Howard Johnsons next to Convention Hall. I think there was one in Atlantic City too down from the old Steel Pier.
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Indeed there was one in AC. The pork roll slices were grilled over charcoal on a conveyance that tumbled them in slo mo over the bed of coals. Mmmm.
@Jay Amberg
Didja hear the cop finally busted Madame Marie for telling fortunes better than they'd be?
Fried Taylor Ham and egg is great on a hard roll (Kaiser roll), a bagel or even toast, it’s all great, the best breakfast food.
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Although I abhor any melted cheese on most of sandwiches, I salute Shelsky's Brooklyn Bagles their realizing that all ecclesiatic food prohibitions are not part of the Ten Commandmets.
The latter are a simple monotheistic foundation of any civilized society, on which a superstructure of prohibitions had been created by theocratic theologians.
Best wishes of success to Shelsky's!
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We in the know call it Taylor Ham........it's delicious lightly fried in a pan, I like mine with scrambled eggs and rye toast. I love Taylor Ham on a Kaiser roll too. Nothing beats it. My father grew up in New Jersey so he grew up with it, it's renown there. I like mine on the thin side not too thick. Don't knock it till you've tried it.
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@Margo Channing Correction: you from a specific area of New Jersey know it as Taylor Ham. The rest of us call it pork roll.
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