Accompaniments to scrapple include ketchup, apple butter, apple sauce and maple syrup. As I wrote above, it is usually served at breakfast with fried eggs but is also eaten as a sandwich ( a Delaware tradition). It is a cross between breakfast sausage(herbs), bacon (salt) and polenta (cornmeal). Now, if you’re still with me, let me tell you what it tastes like. The proportions and seasoning are very much a matter of the region and the cook's taste.' The mush is cast into loaves, and allowed to cool thoroughly until gelled. The meat, finely minced, is returned, and seasonings, typically sage, thyme, savory, and others are added. Once cooked, bones and fat are discarded, the meat is reserved, and (dry) cornmeal is boiled in the broth to make a mush. 'Scrapple is typically made of hog offal, such as the head, heart, liver and other scraps which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head), to make a broth. If you don’t care to know what’s in scrapple, just skip on ahead. Today, scrapple can commonly be found throughout the Mid-Atlantic states. George Washington’s Pennsylvania Dutch chef introduced him to this dish which he enjoyed all of his life.

Scrapple also enjoys a strong local connection.

In either scenario, scrapple is a product made by Old World German settlers (who made a related loaf called panhus) with New World ingredients. The epicenter of scrapple’s origin is reported to be in Eastern Pennsylvania, with either Dutch settlers who lived in Chester County (just outside of Philadelphia) or the Pennsylvania Dutch who settled in Lancaster County. were made, and what was leftover at the very end was made into scrapple. Relating to scrapple, the pig was butchered, the blood sausage and liverwurst etc. It was a revelation and something that many people are missing out on but would probably enjoy immensely (particularly when tendered by a chef like Cathal Armstrong) if they would embrace more parts of the animal.īefore it became foodie de rigueur and chic to eat organ meat, or before the movement which I like to call WWFD? (what would Fergus do?), frugal farmers had been using “nose to tail” practices to utilize all of the animal which they raised to produce food. The kidney had the most intense lamb flavor I’d ever tasted. Not too long ago, I would not think to eat organ meat, until I had lamb kidney in Restaurant Eve’s Tasting Room. Where once I thought fillet mignon was the king of steaks, I now prefer hangar or flatiron cuts. Well, maybe I still don’t, but I’m willing to be more secure in my quest for (not main stream) food choices which use the parts you won‘t see lining the cases of your local supermarket. Later, like hot dogs, I would still eat scrapple but would not want to see it made. It’s also pretty good with just a puddle of ketchup to dip it in. It marries well with fried or poached eggs and a piece of toast. Scrapple, when fried, is crispy on the outside and creamy in the middle. I was introduced to the pig “scrap” product as a youngster and I grew to like it long before I knew what was in it. Having grown up in Philadelphia, I am no stranger to scrapple. I did last Sunday during a visit to Cedarbrook Farm at the Dupont Farmers Market. Whether you view scrapple as a humble use of otherwise “throw-away” leftover scraps or a culinary abomination, I hope you will consider this modest loaf of porky goodness.

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