What's 'Scrapple'?????

Subject: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 12:43 PM

On John Gorka's CD, "The Company You Keep", there's a song called 'People My Age', that has a line...

"Back in Pennsylvania I'd eat scrapple on toast"

What's scrapple??

;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 12:47 PM

All the leftover parts of the pig ground up and baked or canned. Sort of like head cheese.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 12:50 PM

Scrapple is a Pennsylvania Dutch meat product. It's prepared more or less by boiling miscellaneous pork scraps sort of to a mush, and thickening it with corn meal, then letting it set. There may be some pepper and salt or something in the mix.

You slice off slices, and fry them, sort of crisping them. Scrapple is sometimes eaten just that way, and sometimes served with syrup. It's one of those things that you either love or hate. I love it.

Thinking of how it's made, I think of it as a sort of Pennsylvania Dutch Haggis. Which I also like.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 12:57 PM

Ug... you people really will eat anything eh????

I think I'm gonna change the lyric when I perform the song anyway...

To..

"Back in North Ontario, I'd eat poutin on toast..."

LOL!!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 12:58 PM

You mean it's kinda like Spam?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 01:12 PM

So scrapple is "sort of like head cheese".

And if I asked what head cheese is, the answer I imagine would be it's "sort of like scrapple"...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 01:16 PM

Yes sir, indeed Kevin! Nasty stuff is head cheese and scrapple.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 01:20 PM

Actually, Scrapple is sort of like--well, it IS fried cornmeal mush, but with a meat content and flavoring.

A lot of the world's best foods are poor-people food in origin, or maybe I should say "needfully thrifty-people food". Scrapple is like haggis in that it's a way to get food value out of what would have been waste from the slaughtering. They're both good if you can get around your own prejudices.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Don Firth
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 02:55 PM

So it's not like Spam, then.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 04:42 PM

Hey Clinton...Man, as long as you been around here and you haven't heard about scrapple??? Here in east Ohio, we call it krepples....

Enter scrapple in the forum and DT search box and you'll be amazed at how much it's been talked about here at the 'Cat!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 04:49 PM

I just tried that and I realize that I must be the main proponent of scrapple in the joint! I just love it!!!!

Check out this website.....Ummmm..Ummmm..Gooooood!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Mark Clark
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 04:52 PM

Scrapple is terrific. I enjoy making it for house guests. I just make corn meal mush and add plenty of Jimmy Dean's pork sausage cooked up in small pieces. I put it in old half galon milk cartons to set up.

As Uncle_DaveO says, you just slice it and fry it in a pan. Best served with pure maple syrup.

In the bad old days, they's keep a big crock of mush ouside the back door during the cold months and add all the hog scraps into the jar. When they wanted scrapple, they'd just carve some out and fry it up.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 04:55 PM

BTW, I fry the stuff in slices about a half inch thick using a lot of oil, but bacon grease is best. It was one of those by-products of butchering hogs and indeed eaten by poor folks, but nowadays they give prizes for the best at state fairs just like they do with jerky or trail baloney.

Nowadays we have it only as a treat becasue the stuff when cooked is cholesterol hell!!!! My kids refer to it as "Pig Lips" because that's one of the things ground up in it........I never mention to most folks that they grind up the assholes too..........

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 05:36 PM

And Bird's "Scrapple from the APple"?

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Jeri
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 06:10 PM

I don't believe the USDA-inspected stuff has assholes in it. Faces, probably, but no assholes. When I went through a school for food inspection, they made us try unusual (to most folks here) foods. I got lots of leftover camembert because other people thought it tasted like snot. Having never eaten snot, I loved the cheese. The one thing I wouldn't touch was head cheese. They had a particular brand that had big chunks of parts, sliced. It was more of a cross-section type of thing you'd see in a lab. I didn't like the looks of the round puckered things. They were probably just noses.

As to scrapple, I only had it once. We had an office camping trip, and my boss brough some his brother had sent him. Wonderful stuff, fried in an iron skillet over a campfire!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Gareth
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 06:25 PM

Sounds a little like those British Delicacies -

Brawn - Chopped up pigs heads etc in a jelly

Haslet - Chopped up pids scraps in a jelly.

or the infamous British Railways Buffet Pork Pies.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Deckman
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 07:02 PM

You babies don't know anything! Just wait 'till you are served a bowl of Finnish FISH HEAD STEW! And yes, the eyeballs are the much sought after prize. It's really good, by the way! CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Gypsy
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 09:46 PM

nawngggg........sounds way too much llke chorizo to me. 'Spaw, you kin have my share. I'll stick with squirrel stew.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 10:43 PM

My French-Canadian grandmother used to make something called Pfannhaus, or something like that. She was married to a German, and probably got it from his family. She died in 1958, and the recipe died with her. As I recall, it was much smoother and milder than scrapple. She'd bake it like a meat loaf, and then my mom would cut off cold slices and fry them and serve them with syrup. As I recall, it was like heaven to eat it - but I haven't had it since I was ten. Anybody know anything about it?
-Joe Offer, former Detroiter-

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: WyoWoman
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 11:19 PM

Wait, WAIT!!! Chorizo is lovely, delicious Mexican sausage, very spicy, but as far as I know, not the repository of all parts piggy. However, menudo has chicharones in it, which is tripe, which is pig intestines, which I could never face regardless of how great my friends said it was. It is greatly touted as a hangover remedy, but the idea of eating anything even close to pig intestines the morning after the night before made me want to hurl.

Scrapple is basically a heart attack on toast. My father would sneak it into the house every now and then and serve it to us as a great delicacy. My mother never went along with the program however, and said we might as well eat a whole stick of butter as a bite of that stuff. I remember liking it a great deal, however -- whether because it was actually that good (we lived in Oklahoma -- was the scrapple likely to be authentic?) or because my Dad thought it was great and my Mom hated it, I don't know.

What's poutin, Clinton?

ww, who had tofu with peanut sauce for dinner, thank you very much ...

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 11:46 PM

READ THE LABEL WW - piggy or cow!

Lips, Tongue, Glands, and OTHER beef/pork products?

Don't get me wrong - being one myself - I don't mind ass-holes -

its just the "other" parts of the "other" parts I take exception to.... But then again, little wican witches might love .... pieces of other wican witches.

Tell you what....go to the refrig....read the label....and type it here...ya hear?

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: RangerSteve
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 06:42 AM

Scrapple is nothing like head cheese. Scrapple is good. Head Cheese is evil. My grandmother's old recipe book had the following instructions for head cheese: Take a cows head and remove the brains and eyes. Clean the teeth. Clean out the nostrils. (I, personally, am not brushing a dead cows teeth, nor am I blowing its nose). Boil the head. Scrape off the meat and the gelatinous crud (my words, not the cookbook's). put it in a loaf pan and let it set.

Sounds yummy, huh? It's really foul. I guess it's called head cheese because calling it what it is - cow face- isn't as appealing. There's also something called souse that's similar, but with hot seasonings like cayenne pepper.

Parks brand scrapple has on the list of ingredients: pork snouts, ears and tails, corn meal and spices.

It's all ground up so, mercifully, you can't identify the ingredients. And it's good, if not necesarily good for you.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GUEST,An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 07:02 AM

Scrapple: are you sure it isn't a traditional form of alphabet spaghetti?

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 08:11 AM

WyoWoman,

I'll field this one for Clinton. Poutine originated in Quebec and is another heart attack on a plate. French Fries doused with Gravy and Cheese Curds. It's a gooey mess that is about as unhealthy as anything ever invented, but I must admit, I like the stuff.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Pseudolus
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 08:34 AM

I'm with ya Spaw, I LOVE scrapple!!! My dad used to say, "Ya got your hame, bacon, roasts, pork chops, pigs feet, and everything thats left is ground up into scrapple. Hey, it's not good for you but it's no worse than bacon or sausage.

For the scrapple lovers, next chance you get, get a nice big 'ol biscuit, fry up some scrapple, scramble up some eggs, throw it all on the biscuit with a slice of cheese and enjoy one of the best breakfast sandwiches known to man/woman!!!! Of course, if your watchin your weight, skip the cheese....*BG*.....

Great, I just made myself hungry....

Frank

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Pied Piper
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 08:54 AM

This is the funniest thread I've read for ages. I always thought you colonials were a bit odd but now I know it.All the best PP

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 09:02 AM

Scrapple is yummy, and like laws, you don't want to know how it's made. But it doesn't have all the aspic and jelly-like gristly stuff that head cheese, which my Mom likes, has.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: mooman
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 09:08 AM

And there was silly old me thinking all the time that it was the desperate noise/action undertaken simultaneously by several musicians trying to save a valuable and tumbling instrument from total destruction following its being knocked over by "ye feckin' drunken' gobshite" during an Irish session.

When will I ever learn to look in the Forum Search?

mooman

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 10:14 AM

Don Firth: You're right; scrapple doesn't look or taste at all like Spam.

As for the taste of scrapple: some scrapple is absolutely heavenly, and some is absolutely horrible. It depends a lot on the spices used. There's one local brand here in Pennsylvania called "Hatfield" (the meat-packing plant is in the town of Hatfield, but I don't know if the company is named after the town or after the family for whom the town is named); it's pretty highly flavored, and is my personal favorite. Yum!! I, too, eat it only once in a while, as a treat (and I do mean treat!).

A couple of years ago, I had a co-worker whose parents run a farm upstate. I mentioned that I love scrapple, at which my co-worker recoiled and talked a bit about the scrapple-processing done by her folks. She brought me a sample brick to take home and try... and it was just god-awful, fatty stuff with no flavor whatsoever. No wonder she hates it! I didn't have the heart to tell her that I hated it, too, but I never asked her for her family's scrapple again!

By the way, although some folks simply fry the square that they've sliced off the scrapple brick, others – like my family – scramble it in the pan as it fries. I think it tastes a bit lighter this way; certainly the texture is less dense.

One of the local Philadelphia radio stations held a "Scrapple-Fest" for a couple of years, and put out a CD of songs written by local performers on the subject, called "Scrapple Rocks". Alas, the radio station has changed its format and has fired the scrapple-loving host of the Fest, but scrapple still rocks!

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: gnu
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 11:45 AM

CH... you actually eat PQ Poutine on toast and charge others with "eating anything" ?

I say "PQ" Poutine because around here (Maritime Canada) Poutine is a dish made of mushed potato, formed into a ball, with, maybe/maybe not, pork and/or pork scrucheons in the centre. It is often served with brown sugar, molasses or maple slurpup... or just some salt and pepper.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Pseudolus
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 12:04 PM

SharonA, I too have "scrambled" the scrapple occasionally when I cook it. Usually it's so that I can add some eggs, onions, and maybe mushrooms and have a scrapple omelette! OK, Now I'm REALLY hungry!!!! Maybe we need a favorite scrapple recipes thread....lol

Frank

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: IvanB
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 01:59 PM

Wyowoman, actually tripe is from the stomachs of cattle or other ruminants (probably 99% of the time cattle). Since pigs aren't ruminants, their stomachs don't have the proper texture. That said, menudo is another wonderful dish that's a heart attack waiting to happen. The best usually has a thick layer of cholesterol laden liquid fat which rises to the top of your bowl. I probably get a bowl about once every ten years, and it's heaven!

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 02:19 PM

Over the years I've tried maybe 15-20 different scrapples. My favorite is a small butcher in Millersburg Ohio who for me at least, has it just right. I buy 3 loaves and divide them, slice them down and freeze them. It does quite well frozen but you need to slice it first. It cooks fine but can be a bit crumbly if you try to slice it after freezing.

There is someone over in PA, Martin by name, that sells a scrapple through Yoder's that is a part beef scrapple. It's different. Obviously a different flavor but it's almost too lean. We ate one loaf but I think I'll pass on any more. I've tried several homemades from real good to real bad but the worst is that awful stuff they are selling in large grocery stores, frozen in a small loaf. I guess they're trying to get the "Scrapple Message" out to the people or something, but it's really bad stuff.

I like dipping mine in my eggs as you do toast. I cut at about a half inch so I can fry it very crispy on the outside and still mooshy in the middle.........................

GOTTA' HAVE SOME TONITE!!!!

........damn thread.........trying to lose weight...........

Spaw

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 02:39 PM

While on holidays [vacation] in the US and Canada last year, we went into a working man's restaurant/bar on the road from Montreal to Vermont, but still in Canada, and I had this Poutine stuff, I liked it but my staff didn't, boy is it filling though. I almost couldn't eat my 4th portion of ice cream, after the tour of Ben & Jerry's later that day.
"Cholesterol; cholesterol"....Giok

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 03:19 PM

Jeez, I guess I've missed it living up here where the moss grows on my north side. Plenty of very toothsome indigenous goodies, but I've eaten grits only twice (in Denver), and I've had catfish only once (love it!!), but I had that here and it was imported. Never scrapple.

Last time I had my cholesterol checked, it was 176, so I guess I have a little room to experiment. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GUEST,Blues=Life
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 04:19 PM

Don, Scrapple I don't know about, living here in South Carolina, but grits...that I can talk about. Being a native of the Midwest, grits don't thrill me usually. Think runny, pre-chewed corn. But in the Charleston area, they make a dish called Shrimp and Grits. A mess of fresh caught, cooked shrimp, served over a plate of grits, smothered in brown gravy. Had to had my arm twisted to try it the first time, now I have it every time I cross the state to the coast. Now that's some good eatin'! Blues

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 04:22 PM

Ug... grits... the single dumbest 'food' ever... why eat something that has no taste of it's own at all???

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 04:24 PM

Blues: Shrimp in brown gravy?? Hmmm... I'd have to have my arm twisted, too...

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 04:25 PM

You could say the same about avocados, which mainly taste of what you put on them.....Giok

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 04:28 PM

Yeah, I found grits like Cream o' Wheat, only more bland. But Shrimp and Grits as describe gets the old salivary-glands goin'!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 04:40 PM

Well, it's been 30 years since I ate any critter that walks on 4 legs, but I'm hear to tell ya' that of all the meaty type foods, scrapple is the one I miss tghe most. I know it's 90% cormeal, 5% spices and only 5% cooked down pig parts but I'm still not eatin' no pigs. Period. When they come out with turkey scrapple, I'll eat it.

Funny thing about scrapple though. Down South they say that scappple is yankee food but they eat something called livermush. Now it cooks up just like scrapple, looks and smells like scrapple but according to them folks it ain't scrapple... Hmmmmm?

I say if it looks like scrapple, smells like scapple and quacks like scrapple, it's probably, ahhhh, scrapple.

BTW, if they could figure out how to make scrapple out of apples you'd get apple-scrapple... Nevermind.

Bobert

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 04:52 PM

Or in Hawaii, it might be pineapple-apple-scrapple. Sorry.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Mark Clark
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 04:54 PM

Scrapple has indeed been cited as unnecessary in the human diet and perhaps even harmful in large doses over prolonged periods, but I try to remember the wisdom left to us by Redd Fox:

All those people who exercise, eat healthy diets get plenty of sleep and watch their weight are going to feel really stupid when they're lying in hospital dying of nothin'.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 05:04 PM

All things in moderation—including moderation itself.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 05:14 PM

Just for you, Bobert: CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE

Or, if you'd rather order it pre-made than whup it up yourself: Godshall's (Telford, PA) turkey products, including turkey scrapple

Bon appetit!

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 05:19 PM

(Please note that, on that "Godshall's" page, there's a picture of a plate heaped with squares of fried-up scrapple, at just about the right level of browned-ness. As Spaw says, it should still be mushy inside the crisped coating!)

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 05:33 PM

Looks just like what I just et up fer supper!! Now of course I feel guilty, but eatin' krepples beats talkin' about krepples!!! I have no idea why we call them krepples in Ohio........

Spaw

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 07:22 PM

Here's a little solid substance for a thread short on it.

Great-Grandmother Harbaugh (Pennsylvania Dutch) had this in her White House Cook Book copyright 1888 by R.S. Peile p. 133.

SCRAPPLE

Scrapple is a most palatable dish. Take the head, heart and any lean scraps of pork, and boil until the flesh slips easily from the bones. Remove the fat, gristle and bones, then chop fine. Set the liquor in which the meat was boiled aside until cold, take the cake of fat from the surface and return to the fire. When it boils, put in the chopped meat and season well with pepper and salt. Let it boil again, then thicken with corn-meal as you would in making ordinary corn-meal mush, by letting it slip through the fingers slowly to prevent lumps. Cook an hour, stirring constantly at first, afterwards putting back on the range in a position to boil gently. When done, pour into a long, square pan, not too deep, and mold. In cold weather this can be kept several weeks Cut into slices when cold, and fried brown, as you do mush, is a cheap and delicious breakfast dish.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 07:41 PM

Click here for a scrapple recipe that also calls it "pon haus." I guess that must be the spelling for what my grandmother made.
This recipe gives "Pawnhaas" as an alternate spelling.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 07:42 PM

Well Garg, I think we had plenty of substance myself, including the Casa de Scrapple and several good serving suggestions, but I thank you for your addition to the general BS........a good find and indeed the basic recipe.

Spaw