![\"Pig](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/pig-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTrue confession: The Savvy Yinzer didn\u2019t grow up in Pittsburgh. But he is married to a native Pittsburgher who grew up on chipped chopped ham. If you ever try to order it at a deli counter outside western Pennsylvania, the baffled person behind the counter will likely offer you regular sliced ham instead, genuinely unsure what you\u2019re asking for. Chipped chopped ham isn\u2019t a generic deli product \u2014 it\u2019s paper-thin, almost feathery shavings of goodness that cascade softly on your sammich when properly prepared. So consider \u2026<\/p>\n
1: It all started when an Isaly\u2019s employee named Claire Hatch joined the company in the early 1930s. He looked at a ham sandwich and thought, \u201cHey, why not try slicing it super thin?\u201d Isaly\u2019s began as a farm-fresh dairy operation in Mansfield, Ohio, before expanding to across Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania, selling deli meats, cheeses and ice cream.<\/p>\n
2: The meat is a combination of ham, ham trimmings and seasonings, ground together and molded into a loaf. That loaf is then sliced thinner than paper \u2014 \u201cchipped\u201d \u2014 creating a fine texture that often falls apart when handled. The sammiches and ice cream were wildly popular; the Oakland Isaly\u2019s location alone had up to 30 clerks working the counter.<\/p>\n
3: Isaly\u2019s stores functioned as common ground throughout Pittsburgh\u2019s ethnic working-class neighborhoods. Families from Polish Hill, Bloomfield, Lawrenceville, Homewood and more all had their own Isaly\u2019s, all serving the same ham barbecues and Skyscraper cones. Isaly\u2019s heyday ran from the 1930s to the 1980s.<\/p>\n
4: Craving chipped chopped ham today? A handful of standalone Isaly\u2019s locations still operate in the Pittsburgh area, or just go to the Giant Eagle deli counter and ask them
to \u201cchip it.\u201d<\/p>\n
5: A common preparation was to \u201cfrizzle fry\u201d the ham in a pan, then mix it with a thin barbecue sauce and serve it on toasted buns. \u201cThe Slammer\u201d was frizzle-fried chipped chopped ham topped with American cheese and grilled onions. Isaly\u2019s official suggested toppings were pickles or relish and shredded cheese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeet jet? The Savvy Yinzer explores the history of a Pittsburgh classic. True confession: The Savvy Yinzer didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[97620,1515,91164,111316,73,75,74,111317],"class_list":["post-263375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-chipped-chopped-ham","tag-food","tag-from-the-magazine","tag-islays","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-the-savvy-yinzer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}