Homemade Sorta-Kinda Scrapple??

[OldHobo]

Warning:

Recipe purists will likely consider this heresy.

This thread was inspired by HungryChris' posts in the breakfast thread this morning and yesterday. I haven't had scrapple in 25 years or so during business visits to Allentown, PA. I thought it was okay at the time but probably wouldn't have ordered it were it not for a desire to fit in with locals who insisted I try it. Since then my appreciation for offal has expanded quite a bit. So has my cooking repertoire. I'm looking at this Wiki page and this Food Network recipe. It looks like a fairly simple recipe for polenta or cornmeal grits made with rich pork stock and pork meat (liver and heart?), which has been cooled, sliced and fried. Not sure how readily available pork hearts and liver are. Would substitutions for either or both still be called Scrapple? Is this a commonly made from scratch, homecooked recipe?

 

Not too many of us are likely to make hogshead broth at home but I routinely set aside some of the liquid from braised pork butt and after skimming the cooled fat it seems like this would work. I also make very rich stock/bone broth from pork neck bones. Any reason either of these wouldn't be acceptable Scrapple ingredients?

 

Pretty sure you wouldn't want to call this Scrapple but the idea of substituting finely chopped pork shoulder should be pretty darn good without offending the squeamish among us.

 

Curious what your thoughts are.

[HungryChris]

I think it would be great! I think of scrapple as fried porcine polenta and find the whole concept of associating scrapple with purists kind of amusing, as I view it as being made with whatever is left over after the good bits have been packaged. I buy it in frozen bricks and the idea of making your own is much more of a purist approach than mine.

HC

[suzilightning]

If you can borrow it from a library you might like to check out William Woys Weaver's book Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking.  He has a recipe that looks do able in it.

 

Or pm me your snail mail address and I'll send a copy of the recipe to you...my library has the book.

[OldHobo]

18 minutes ago, suzilightning said:

If you can borrow it from a library you might like to check out William Woys Weaver's book Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking.  He has a recipe that looks do able in it.

 

Or pm me your snail mail address and I'll send a copy of the recipe to you...my library has the book.

Sent email address via pm. My understanding is that you can list all the ingredients of a recipe without violating copyright law as long as you don't copy the author's instructions or discussion of it.

[suzilightning]

Just now, OldHobo said:

Sent email address via pm. My understanding is that you can list all the ingredients of a recipe without violating copyright law as long as you don't copy the author's instructions or discussion of it.

yup...that's copyright law

spoken as a librarian of almost 40 years

[rustwood]

Thanks for the William Woys Weaver reference.  That may turn out to be a bit of a rabbit hole for me.  I see he also has a book entitled "Country Scrapple: An American Tradition", as well as many others.  Google books appears to have the full text of Thirty-five Receipts from "The Larder Invaded" - including a recipe for scrapple that looks very doable.

 

FWIW, although I grew up as a "native" scrapple eater (with a fondness for pon haus - a related breakfast food from mostly south-central PA and western MD), I recently discovered goetta (rhymes with feta).  Goetta is another variety of fried breakfast loaf that is very popular in Cincinnati.  It contains both ground beef and pork, but the main feature is that it uses pin oats (steel cut oats) as the grain.  I found a number of recipes but have only tried one so far.  I enjoyed it, although it seemed a little too crumbly.  Some of the recipes I found call for adding cornmeal to help bind it.  That seems like a good idea and might also make it a bit more scrapple-like (which is a good thing, at least for some of us).  The recipes I saw vary quite a bit in terms of seasonings, but I went with one that was mostly just sage because that is my preference for scrapple and pon haus.

 

[lindag]

Amazon US has the (used) hardback for $4.00 plus shipping.

Here.    

I just may have to get it myself, I loved my Mom's Pennsylvania Dutch cooking.

Edited November 5, 2017 by lindag (log)

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, rustwood said:

 

FWIW, although I grew up as a "native" scrapple eater (with a fondness for pon haus - a related breakfast food from mostly south-central PA and western MD), I recently discovered goetta (rhymes with feta).  Goetta is another variety of fried breakfast loaf that is very popular in Cincinnati.  It contains both ground beef and pork, but the main feature is that it uses pin oats (steel cut oats) as the grain.  I found a number of recipes but have only tried one so far.  I enjoyed it, although it seemed a little too crumbly.  Some of the recipes I found call for adding cornmeal to help bind it.  That seems like a good idea and might also make it a bit more scrapple-like (which is a good thing, at least for some of us).  The recipes I saw vary quite a bit in terms of seasonings, but I went with one that was mostly just sage because that is my preference for scrapple and pon haus.

 

I've never had scrapple but I like goetta now and then. My grandfather was a fan of it so I ate it occasionally growing up. Making it is the only way I can have it where I live now but I don't do it often. I'm not traditional with the seasoning when I do make it. I basically season it very similar to how I season my homemade breakfast sausage, sage-forward with some heat. I hadn't thought about it in a while, might have to make a batch now that it's on my mind.

[rustwood]

@Tri2Cook, I had been planning to make some goetta anyway so I had started it shortly after I posted.  I guess great minds think alike   You inspired me to throw some Aleppo pepper in the pot just now though.  I am doing it in a slow cooker and will be adding some cornmeal a half hour before it finishes cooking.

[Anna N]

Just saying...

 

Click.

[OldHobo]

Never heard of Goetta but like the idea. I make steel cut oats a few times a week and occasionally leave out the fruit and add stuff like sauteed onion, peppers, garlic, and bullion. Didn't know there were actually popular traditional recipes for savory oats.

I'll shop tomorrow with this thread in mind. Will definitely pick up pork stock fixins. Maybe neckbones, more likely pig feet. I'll look at organ meat, heart and liver, but will probably use sausage in the first scrapple attempt. In future maybe set aside some braised pork butt for the purpose. I make grits a few times a week and always use Bob's Red Mill corn grits/polenta . Will stick with that even though, judging by the pictures, white corn is more common in the prepared packages. Noticed one of the NYT scrapple recipes recommended using a double boiler. That how I always make grits and it makes a lot of sense. Polenta recipes always stress stirring every few seconds to prevent scorching. With a double boiler, I can get it started and go take a shower. Will start the grits with good stock, the kind that's like hard set jello in the fridge, and precooked meat, expecting it to be done in 45 minutes to an hour.

[chappie]

On 11/5/2017 at 7:48 AM, rustwood said:

Thanks for the William Woys Weaver reference.  That may turn out to be a bit of a rabbit hole for me.  I see he also has a book entitled "Country Scrapple: An American Tradition", as well as many others. 

 

As a lifelong fan of scrapple, I bought this book on a whim last year -- it turned out to be one of the best food/food history books I've ever read. I cannot recommend it enough! Hoping to try some of the old recipes this winter.

[suzilightning]

7 hours ago, chappie said:

 

As a lifelong fan of scrapple, I bought this book on a whim last year -- it turned out to be one of the best food/food history books I've ever read. I cannot recommend it enough! Hoping to try some of the old recipes this winter.

cool......copied out some of them.....lets compare notes

sorry Oldhobo....due to life haven't made it to the library this week.....it was tough but will try for tomorrow......

[Martin Fisher]

I grew up on the stuff.

ScrappIe was originally a food of necessity—whatever was available was used. 

Same with hog maw "Seimaage", etc.

Scapple is like meatloaf in that there are a gazillion recipes out there.

Homemade scrapple (Pon Haus) featuring pork butt.

[kayb]

On 11/5/2017 at 10:21 AM, Anna N said:

Just saying...

 

Click.

 

I followed one of the recipe links.

 

Sweetened condensed milk? Seriously? I'll pass.

 

Tried making goetta once. Damndest mess I ever made. Wound up tossing it.

 

Will stick to sausage.

 

[kayb]

3 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

I grew up on the stuff.

ScrappIe was originally a food of necessity—whatever was available was used. 

Same with hog maw "Seimaage", etc.

Scapple is like meatloaf in that there are a gazillion recipes out there.

Homemade scrapple (Pon Haus) featuring pork butt.

OK. That's more like it. That I could actually eat.

 

[OldHobo]

I don't know if or when I'll get around to scrapple. Thank  you, Suzilightening for going to the trouble of messaging the William Woy recipe. I've never really been a big fan of the cooled, sliced and fried polenta/mush/grits so I guess that makes it easier to procrastinate. Maybe someday; maybe an ovine variation of it.

 

But, I was inspired to make grits with pork broth (from split pig feet), fresh chorizo, onion, and poblano peppers that was outstanding, to my jaded tastes at least.

 

Also noticed fresh lamb heart, liver, and kidney in the nearby Mediterranean Grocery that might show up in my pot someday. Maybe stewed in a broth made from fresh whole goats head. Mentioned somewhere recently that I couldn't really see myself cooking a whole hogs head. I can easily picture that goat head looking up at me though.