625490 Fri Jun 05 13:37:36 -0700 2009 30 31 Home Cooking 0 4746281 If your response to the above title was "Yay!" instead of "Yuck!", you'll be glad to know that I've followed a notion I had about making this stuff to a very satisfactory conclusion. My flash was that scrapple is roughly a cross between cornmeal mush and headcheese, and so perhaps it could be made like that. An Armenian market I visit frequently has 1-lb. chub packs of headcheese from a Russian sausage company in North Hollywood, so I got some of that. The only seriously inauthentic feature of the result was due to the meat-packer's using the same seasonings they use in their mortadella and bologna; one of the Southern-style brands of headcheese or souse would be more downhome. Here's the recipe: 1 lb pkg of headcheese fresh sausage meat water 1 cup cornmeal Penzey's Bavarian seasoning, Aleppo pepper Break up headcheese in a pan. Add about 1 cup water, cover and put on low heat until you have meat in simmering broth. Strain meat out, set aside to cool. Measure liquid and add enough water to make 2 1/2 cups. When meat is cool enough to handle, chop larger pieces into chunks no larger than about 1/4". Weigh meat, add enough sausage meat to make 12 oz. Re-combine meats and liquid, season to taste with the spice/herb items. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and add the cornmeal slowly, stirring constantly. When it becomes a thick mush and the cornmeal is cooked, remove from heat. Line a 1 1/2 liter loaf pan with wax paper (or simply grease pan), spoon scrapple into this, levelling top. Cover and refrigerate overnight or until needed. Cut into slices and fry in hot fat; serve with honey, syrup or molasses, or as a starch/meat with eggs. I notice that many posters to other scrapple threads say the traditional frying method is to flour it (or not) and lay it into a cold, dry pan, which you then heat up gradually until the scrapple is nice and crisp. I will try that, though this scrapple is much lower in fat than any commercial brand I've tried. Fri Jun 05 13:37:36 -0700 2009 11478 Will Owen 1 4747005 Sounds like some good stuff. What type/brand of cornmeal did you use? Fri Jun 05 17:43:58 -0700 2009 4746281 17562 FoodFuser 2 4748493 Albers was the brand I used, since that's the easiest to find here. I think I'd like to find a coarser grind, since Albers is so fine it cooked to mush immediately, and there's not much corn-y flavor to it. Maybe a medium-grind polenta will be easier to locate (and cheaper!) than the stone-ground meal I'd look for in Tennessee. This morning's breakfast was the first time Mrs. O had tasted scrapple - or even really known exactly what it was - and she enjoyed it a lot. I cooked today's slices on a lightly greased iron griddle. Sat Jun 06 13:08:36 -0700 2009 4747005 11478 Will Owen 3 4750254 Glad to hear that Mrs. O liked it so easily. It's just that simple, and it's just that good. Too many people are offput by the concept of offal without ever trying it. Also pertinent is your report that scrapple is not a high fat food, when compared to prepared meats like hot dogs and cold cuts. As to the cornmeal grind... wouldn't it be nice if they labeled it according to the micron mesh so we could determine the coarseness before purchase? (Fat chance in a labeling environment where millions in salaries for FDA negotiators resulted in the "less than 0.5 grams transfat = zero" for labeling purposes). For the more homogenized scrapple that I've made (livermush), I've used the local generic milled degerminated "yellow corn meal" with good result. Its graininess adds texture to the matrix. In households of 4,5, 6 people, I've seen many mornings where scrapple was heated in the oven to save stovetop space. The slices crisp nicely. I've since used my toaster convection oven to duplicate that effect. Makes great slices for the lunchbox scrapple sandwich. Thanks for the ingredient ratios on your post. Sun Jun 07 10:14:23 -0700 2009 4748493 17562 FoodFuser 4 4751787 Toaster oven - of course! I always finish my pots of cheese grits in there, and slices of scrapple ought to work equally well. I have just enough left over to experiment with for a couple of lunches this week. Needless to say, I'm relishing the prospect... Sun Jun 07 21:48:30 -0700 2009 4750254 11478 Will Owen 5 4755123 Curious to hear how it goes, as yours from headcheese has a higher gelatin content and larger particulates, compared to the cornmeal-firmed slurry of livermush. Mon Jun 08 20:26:17 -0700 2009 4751787 17562 FoodFuser 6 4756735 As noted on another thread, there are several differences between livermush and what's more widely known as scrapple. A Pennsylvania Dutch cookbook I have, in fact, has two scrapple recipes: one, called simply "Scrapple", calls for ground liver, while the "Philadelphia Scrapple" recipe uses chopped pork shoulder. I was concerned that the gelatin content of mine would cause it to disintegrate when heated, but that's not been the case - the cornmeal is definitely holding everything together very well. I still haven't gotten around to trying the toaster oven experiment. I'll have to try that tomorrow. Tue Jun 09 10:41:28 -0700 2009 4755123 11478 Will Owen 1 4748197 YAY! I Love Scrapple - When I lived on the West Coast I had friends bring it out since it is so hard to find there. Thanks for the recipe, will give that one a try! Sat Jun 06 10:05:25 -0700 2009 4746281 286249 tommyskitchen 2 4785733 tommyskitchen: I know what you mean about Scrapple being hard to find out here on the Left Coast. My father, although born and raised in Los Angeles, started feeding us Scrapple at an early age for weekend breakfasts, along with eggs and broiled tomatoes. I imagine it used to be easily found in the supermarket because we always had it on hand. We all loved it. These days, now living in the SFBayarea, I don't see it in any stores, but it is on the breakfast menu of a local cafe in a chic section of Berkeley - Bette's Diner. You've given me the impetus to make my own now! Thanks. Another of my father's breakfast dishes which isn't from any particular part of the country or famous was canned corned beef hash with wells made in the middle into which eggs were placed and the pan covered. Served with tomato ketchup with green onions sprinkled on top. Sounds gross, but I've made it in the past couple of years and it tastes wonderful to me. Thu Jun 18 15:59:21 -0700 2009 4748197 10245 oakjoan 3 4785756 One of my favorite suppers as a lad was that CB hash with eggs in the dimples. Mom made it exactly that way, on the stovetop, and we invariably had spinach with it. No ketchup, though. We weren't big ketchup eaters; it was mostly kept as a cooking ingredient. Thu Jun 18 16:07:37 -0700 2009 4785733 11478 Will Owen 1 4750294 That sounds really good! I've always lived in the south, but as a kid I remember traveling to Pennsylvania and being told very pointedly by my older brother and sister to *not* eat scrapple because of "all the guts in it"! Consequently, I've never tasted it! I have access to some great head cheese and some great corn meal, so I think it might be worth giving it a shot for breakfast next weekend! Today I had something that I would bet might taste similar- in kind of a "north meets south" moment, I cooked up some smoked boudin in a frying pan, added a can of hominy (drained), added some salt and a lot of pepper, and ate like a King! Sun Jun 07 10:31:38 -0700 2009 4746281 96658 Clarkafella 2 4784319 Check this out - it is very good! (and I love regular Phila Scrapple!) http://www.sarahsavories.com/HOME.html Thu Jun 18 09:05:33 -0700 2009 4750294 76938 Bigley9 3 4786985 I've heard great things about the "Vrapple" from vegetarians and non-vegetarians...maybe I will wander down to Milkboy and get some this weekend... Fri Jun 19 06:59:51 -0700 2009 4784319 69452 jzerocsk 1 4750354 Very good idea, and one I may try. My grandmother's scrapple was more homogeneous than what you describe here. The corn meal was worked into the meat paste, but I have no idea how typical that is. Hers is the only scrapple I've ever had. Sun Jun 07 11:00:52 -0700 2009 4746281 130151 dmd_kc 1 4756856 sounds good... but I (or dear departed Mom) have never done better than Rapa Brand original from Delaware. I just slice it up in 1/4-3/8" slices no flour, just fry it in cold dry pan. Tue Jun 09 11:17:29 -0700 2009 4746281 154386 JRCann 1 4780266 Here's a link from the goetta thread, Goetta is a scrapple endemic to the Cincinnati area, characterized by steel cut oats instead of cornmeal, and a mix of pork and beef rather than headcheese or liver. It's a good article, with links to further goetta stuff. http://cincinnatimagazine.com/article.aspx?id=76866 Wed Jun 17 01:43:28 -0700 2009 4746281 17562 FoodFuser 2 4782453 That is a wonderful and inspiring article. And I just happen to have a couple of pounds of those oats lying around... Thank you so much! Wed Jun 17 15:25:23 -0700 2009 4780266 11478 Will Owen 3 4783248 Yes. I like the author's openness to say that there's a wide range of acceptable recipes for this humble food. I didn't know about goetta (with oats) until a few years ago, but it fits nicely with my assessment that oats are indeed the best overall grain. (I often do a 50/50 oat groat and brown rice when I want a "best" carb). Samuel Johnson's definition of oats as "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." has seasoned a few hundred years as we still fill the feedbuckets of our thoroughbreds with this grand grain, for good reason. I see a focal point in FoodFuser's future where oat groats and flint corn are ground in the Vitamix to yield the coarse meal for boiling with the meat/offal ingredients. But, at that point, we won't know just what to call it, or how to classify it. That's just fine with me. Wed Jun 17 20:40:19 -0700 2009 4782453 17562 FoodFuser 4 4784880 essentially scrapple is Haggis in pig's clothing as any good Scot wud know. Just a different animal and grains involved. Use a sheep and pin oaks it's Haggis, use a pig and corn it's scrapple. No doubt it came across the North Sea with the Celts from the Netherlands and Germany. A good way to use up the "pluck" -- organs one would not normally consume on their own, but too valuable for its protein. Being from Baltimore much of my life, scrapple was a regular Sunday morning thing in my family. Thu Jun 18 11:27:18 -0700 2009 4783248 154386 JRCann 2 5011065 I have made this. have heard it pronounced 'ghetta'. It is delicious. I must make this for my husband, thank you for posting, although it is in our churches cookbook also, as added by me, forgot about it tho. :( Mon Sep 07 10:31:49 -0700 2009 4780266 23096 iL Divo 1 4789582 Will -- you use 2-1/2 cups liquid to one cup cornmeal. Isn't the usual ratio four to one? Sat Jun 20 03:49:35 -0700 2009 4746281 13619 Sharuf 2 4791123 I was following an existing recipe here, but I'm glad you brought that up, because I was forgetting that the mush cooked up way too thick too fast and needed liquid added. I think it's funny how errors in traditional recipes so often have to do with grain-to-liquid ratios. I have a box of grits from a small mill whose box label instructs me to use a 2 to 1 ratio, which is totally wrong. Maybe them folks jes' likes'em chewy... Sat Jun 20 18:08:48 -0700 2009 4789582 11478 Will Owen 1 5011046 I am on here looking for scrapple recipes. I googled scrapple and came up with boring sounding recipes, nothing like my MIL made. Altho I have her recipe, and have never attempted making it, it's time. It's overdue, it's something my husband craves and our sons adore. I need to see a recipe, printed out, here in front of me, so I can read and follow. I know for sure, hers contained liver and parts. Mon Sep 07 10:25:04 -0700 2009 4746281 23096 iL Divo 2 5011982 I grew up in Allentown and we always bought it from the Amish from Lancaster and Reading. I love it with maple syrup. Living in Calif I cant find anything like it. So I researched thinking I could easily do myself. Well many many years ago I went out to an amish farm and asked the farmers questions. They start with the hogs head and braise many hours ,with other scraps . The liver gets tossed in also. When its falling apart they scrape out head and add herbs, lots of sage for sure. Where I came from we always had buckwheat scrapple, I never saw the golden color scrapple till I had once in Ca. I gave up, as the hogs head was available but wasnt sure what to put the damn thing into. I used to mail order or pick up when back east...but havent recently now I am getting hungry again for good old buckwheat scrapple. Mon Sep 07 17:23:24 -0700 2009 5011046 171209 celeryroot 2 5012215 iL Divo, since scrapple can run a pretty wide gamut of ingredients, and you're trying to recreate the beauty of your MIL's version, may I suggest the following: Post her recipe, verbatim. Then, once we have her list of ingreds and proportions, some of us with home scrappling experience can help you tweak it to fill in any parts of the technique. DH may be helpful in recalling any personal touches she added. Also pertinent: what part of the country did she get it from?. Mon Sep 07 19:18:45 -0700 2009 5011046 17562 FoodFuser 3 5019849 Smart idea FoodFuser. My husband did some spring cleaning while I was away for work a couple of weeks ago. MUCH I mean MUCH, went to the dumpster before I was the wiser. Still furious and trying to remember all of what was in the covered cabinets in the patio area, as they're now all gone so all in them is gone too, he rescued a little of the gems contained in them. One being his moms recipe. I knew I had it, but didn't know I'd stored it along with many cookbooks in those cabinets. Thankfully, I'm holding it and reading it now. It's dated Jan. 1977 guess that's about the time I asked for her to write it down for me. It's handwritten on notebook paper. She was from Monongahela Pa. She just passed in July and I need to do this for him, he's grieving... about 20 good sized thickish pork chops. about 2 1/2 lb 7 bone chuck roast pigs feet in a jar. 1 heart. 1 lb liver, says she always had to use beef as she never saw pork but thinks it'd be best if I could find that. rinse meats in lots of water. strain the feet of liquid. put all of them in pressure cooker covering with beef/chicken/vegetable stocks [that she then explains to me how to make] just to cover meat and use salt [sparingly] and pepper. Pressure cook about an hour on low rocking. Render meat from bones. Put broth in sieve to strain, let cool. When all cooled, scrape off and discard fat. when meat is cooled, grind in meat grinder and return to broth. about 3 cups of yellow corn meal and just enough water to barely make it moist so it won't clump. slowly put that into the broth and meat constantly stirring. cook on low about 10 minutes. put into buttered glass loaf pans. cool in frig until set up then take out and slice individual slices and wrap each one in cling or plastic wrap, she mentioned the brand but don't know if I can say it so won't, it's extra good and expensive. at least it was back then. freeze until ready to use. butter in pan, melt, scrapple in, cook until browned, flip to other side, brown just barely and serve. Thu Sep 10 12:07:26 -0700 2009 5012215 23096 iL Divo 4 5021213 I share your pain at the unipartite dumpsterization. But the recipe survived. And like so many of those notebook paper handwritten legacies, there are a few tough spots for perfect duplication. Kudos for wanting to reproduce it. The most important question is the cut of pork that constitutes "a thickish pork chop." DH (dumpster hound) can help you here: were pork chops, on family pork chop night, from the pork butt ( = pork steak/ shoulder steak)? The beef 7 bone cut is the equivalent to the pork butt. So, tentatively, it's my guess that Mom used pork butt steaks, as opposed to loin or rib chops. So, if hubby identifies pork steak as that ingredient, you're home. It's going to be 10-15 lbs of pork. This is a very beefy recipe, vs pork, but it's what you're wanting to recreate. Thus, we can think that the "heart" is a beef heart. Pig's feet in a jar. Gosh, what size? DH might know. size ranges from a gallon jar to a pint. They will add the source of gelatin that helps to homogenize the mixture. Fresh pig trotters, pressure cooked, could sub. It's a lot of meat-pickin' ahead for you. One of those labors of love. One thing I see that could add richness to the scrapple is: While you are picking the meat, drop the picked bones into the simmering un-lidded pressure cooker. Once all the bones are in the p.c. then you can connect the lid and pressure cook those marvelous bones as long as you can while you pick the fat and then grind the meat. (I grind at first at coarse blade, then regrind at fine). Plunge in to this fun project, iLDivo, and get back via this thread. It sounds like a good adventure. PS: as a cultivator of a 15 year old bush of sage, consider a wee bit of this fine scrappling herb. Thu Sep 10 22:01:38 -0700 2009 5019849 17562 FoodFuser 5 5142759 well thanks, that was very interesting reading. ok her son, my husband, was never home to see mom make the stuff. he couldn't tell me hide nor hair of anything you mentioned. no memory, no need, as long as it was on the plate for him to enjoy. so, he's no help. I have 4 kinds of sage in my backyard and I think it's a desired herb as well. one I have that is real pretty is varigated. pink purple white green. I must get busy trying to find time to do this huge ole project. if it's not good, I'd be so sad, from the effort and the lack of authenticity from his moms original. as I said, our sons adore the stuff, daughter and I, nut uh. But it's worth trying, at least once, before I can't find the kitchen anymore....... Fri Oct 30 08:21:39 -0700 2009 5021213 23096 iL Divo 1 5022432 I bought my friend SCRAPPLE for his Birthday, and a week later he had have a stint put in. I do not know if they are realted but..... Fri Sep 11 11:00:10 -0700 2009 4746281 21396 normalheightsfoodie 2 5023496 I'd be willing to bet that was kinda like giving a nice cigar to a lifelong smoker, and then worrying that it had given him his emphysema. You don't get that clogged up with a little scrapple! Fri Sep 11 17:54:00 -0700 2009 5022432 11478 Will Owen 2 5142767 OM gosh.........that's awful, but sure it's not your fault or the fault of the scrapple, but something to consider when making for my irreplaceable husband :( Fri Oct 30 08:23:46 -0700 2009 5022432 23096 iL Divo