Pork roll is a processed meat commonly available in New Jersey and neighboring states. It was developed in 1856 by John Taylor of Trenton, and sold as "Taylor's Prepared Ham" until 1906. Although since then food labeling regulations require Taylor and all other manufacturers to label it "pork roll", people in northern New Jersey still refer to it as "Taylor ham". The "Is it pork roll or Taylor ham?" question is a notable element of New Jersey culture, and the division over what name one uses divides the state along roughly north–south geographic regions.

Food preservation techniques, such as salting and smoking meat, have been practiced for millennia. Evidence of traditional ham and sausage production dates back more than 2,000 years. An item resembling pork roll, packed minced ham, may have been locally produced in the later 1700s.

John Taylor is credited with creating his secret recipe for the product in 1856. George Washington Case, a farmer and butcher from nearby Belle Mead, created his own recipe for hickory-smoked pork roll in 1870. Case's was reportedly packaged in corn husks.

Following the Civil War, in the later 1800s, the American meat-packing industry experienced dramatic growth, bringing meat products like pork roll to rapidly growing urban areas.

Being both a regional specialty and a processed meat with a unique taste, pork roll has resisted accurate description and is sometimes referred to as a mystery meat. It contains lightly smoked pork, salt, preservative, and spices. The exact recipes, both Taylor's and Case's, have remained trade secrets.

The 1910 legal opinion which established "pork roll" as a generic term described the product as:

a food article made of pork, packed in a cylindrical cotton sack or bag in such form that it could be quickly prepared for cooking by slicing without removal from the bag.

— Chatfield, District Judge