What's 'Scrapple'?????

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 11:53 AM

I hesitate in accepting food criticism from anyplace where mushy peqs and bacon butties are considered delicacies.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GLoux
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 11:58 AM

Scrapple originated from the "waste not, want not" belief of farm life for the Pennsylvania Dutch/Germans.

-Greg

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 12:29 PM

"Its not either of the above....."

oh, but it is. I was the one who described it to Dave as the scrapings off the abbatoir floor, and I stand by that.

I'm not one to wantonly diss honest food, especially honest food which has come out of poverty. Some of the best food in the world falls into this category (for instance, I'll not hear a word said against brawn, or "head cheese" - lovely stuff).

But scrapple is vile. The texture is kind of soft and mushy. The taste is indescribably awful. To smell it cooking makes me feel ill. It's like Irish white pudding gone horribly, horribly wrong.

And don't get me started on canned corned beef hash...

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GLoux
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 02:43 PM

Sounds like you're basing your opinion on poorly-prepared scrapple. If you ate scrapple that had a soft and mushy texture, like pudding, it was not properly prepared and must have been disgusting. No wonder you don't like it.

There is a range of both quality and spicings across the various brands that are available around the Philadelphia area, and butcher shops each have their own recipes. If it is quality scrapple and is properly prepared, it's delicious. A whole lot of people agree.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Bobert
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 03:09 PM

I had all but forgotten this thread but now that it is back, the Godshall's turkey scapple was delicious... Might of fact I reckon I ougtta order me up another 10 pounds...

Now the way to cook it is fried in a cast iron fry pan... Alll you gotta do is thrown jsut a little butter or olive oil in the bottom so9 as to keep it from stickin' to the pan... Now here's the way I like it: thinly sliced and fried until it's crisp on both sides...

Yummmmmeeeeeeee...

Bobert

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GLoux
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 03:27 PM

Joe Offer wrote:

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,

I've got a great Pennsylvania Dutch cookbook that parenthetically includes the Pennsylvania Dutch names for each of the recipes. There is a recipe for Scrapple (Panhaas), so I'm gonna guess that it was scrapple. Are you sure she baked it? This recipe calls for it to be cooked stovetop into a mashed potato-like consistency, then poured into loaf pans, allowed to cool, then covered and refrigerated overnight. Next day, turn out the loaves and cut into thick slices and fry in a hot, greased skillet. If your grandmother's homemade scrapple was smoother and milder than commercial scrapple, that would be because she ground the meat finer and spiced it milder...probably her secret, or her in-law's secret recipe. You might try to locate your grandmother's cookbooks...a family member may have them. My brother has my grandmother's cookbook that I know has a scrapple recipe in it.

By the way, Pennsylvania Dutch aren't Dutch at all...they're Deutsche (German).

-Greg

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 03:32 PM

Ruth, you don't know shit from shinola.(;<))

And I could care less if its made from 10 day old road kill, I love the stuff!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GLoux
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 03:37 PM

Bobert,

You're absolutely right about how to fry it. I'll add that you shouldn't try to flip it until it is nicely crisp, or you'll risk breaking the slices.

-Greg

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GLoux
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 03:38 PM

Down south, they call it Livermush.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 04:36 PM

Actually G, I've had both and they're different. Livermush distinctly tastes of liver. I like it but it ain't Krepples. Also had some all beef scrapple which was kinda' weird.

Way back at the beginning of this thread many years ago, I sugggested and still do now that you slice regular pork scrapple a little thick, cook it in bacon grease (oils are okay but bacon grease is the thing!), and get it crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

I've been eating this stuff all my life on a regular basis and finding good scrapple is getting harder and harder.

Spaw

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 05:28 PM

my dad was from Philly. He grew up on the stuff, and it featured in breakfasts throughout my childhood. My mother sliced it and fried it so it was crisp on the outside, and retained softness inside. It was stll vile.

Shit? Shineola? Presumably these are its principal components?

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GLoux
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 05:44 PM

Actually, we're both right...Livermush definitely has a liver taste, but the recipe I referred to earlier in my Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook has as for its meat ingredients:

1 pork heart
1 pound meaty pork ribs
2 pounds pork liver

I admit I've never made this recipe, but I have to believe it has to have a distinct liver taste. I'll also admit that the commercial scrapple from around Philadelphia (Parks, Hatfield, Habersett have been mentioned here) don't have the distinct liver taste of livermush. But when I've served scrapple for my southern visitors, they call it livermush. When I've had it, I think of livermush as scrapple made predominantly with liver.

I've eaten scrapple all my life, too. And I'm Pennsylvania Dutch. My dad would fry it up for Sunday morning breakfast. I do the same for my kids. My grandmother's cookbook recipe for scrapple calls for scraping out two split hog heads (I remember reading that as a boy)...I expect that recipe would taste different still, but I don't think I'll try that one. I've enjoyed a wide variety of scrapples.

And I think this thread is motivating me to make homemade scrapple from the recipe I have, from: Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking by William Woys Weaver published by Abbeville Press. If I make it, I'll report back here with the results.

-Greg Loux (pronounced like "loud", but with a hard "x" or "cks", 'cause it's German.)

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GLoux
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 06:08 PM

But scrapple is vile. The texture is kind of soft and mushy. The taste is indescribably awful. To smell it cooking makes me feel ill. It's like Irish white pudding gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Sure sounds crunchy to me. Sounds like you were made to eat poorly prepared scrapple as a child and it scarred you for life. You are not dissing scrapple; you're insulting it. I've had food I've not enjoyed, but I never had to insult it.

Does mayonaise make you angry?

-Greg

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 06:14 PM

Pretty much the same experiences Greg. Now in the Swiss/Amish country of east Ohio I will never know why we call it "Krepples."

In any case, I don't think I've ever met a Scrapple I didn't like, but the quality varies. The "All Beef" loaf I got from someone in PA. but I can't remember the name......Martin Farm maybe? It was pretty good but there was just something almost too lean, too meaty. I have never tried the turkey version that Bobertz got though.....Somehow I just can't imagine it. On the other hand I have used a lot of turkey sausage so why not?


Spaw

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Bobert
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 06:27 PM

Livermush an' scrapple is teo different things... You go into a Harris-Teeter in North Caroline and they are both sold in the same palce in the store but one is lievermush and the other scrapple...

I use to have a friend who made scrapple and he used parts of the pigs head to make it... Livermush uses the liver & is distinctly darker... And meatier...

B~

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 06:41 PM

First and only time I had it was once when my whole office went camping. I woke up one morning to the sound of loons and the smell of this stuff frying. I was starving, it smelled amazing and it tasted wonderful. I should point out that it was home made by my boss's brother. He made it every year and sent it to my boss. I've tried the Jimmy Dean stuff. On a scale of 1 to 10, with my boss's scrapple being a 10, Jimmy Dean would be about 4. Edible, but nothing like the rapturous experience of eating a slab of carefully seasoned ground-up critter parts in a campground on the edge of a lake.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 06:53 PM

Jeri, I think that's because camp cooking done well in iron skillets and Dutch Ovens makes everything taste really special.....I'm sure that was excellent scrapple but frying up anything out there in the fire with the woods and lake smells, the cool dampness, etc.........yeah............

We need a campfire cooking thread.........

Spaw

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 02:59 AM

"I've had food I've not enjoyed, but I never had to insult it.

Does mayonaise make you angry?"

Well, that depends. Kraft mayonnaise does, actually. *Gag*

Lighten up, chap - it's only food. It cannot feel. It has no self-esteem to be damaged.

In the UK, there's an ad campaign for Marmite (yeast extract - another abomination). The whole campaign - which is quite funny - is based on the fact that some people love it, and some people really, really hate it. So the ads either end with the words "My mate Marmite" or "I hate Marmite". Scrapple similarly divides people, it seems.

Just to prove I'm not castng nasturtiums at Pennsylvania Dutch cookery in general, I love a good shoofly pie. Apple butter is the food of the gods. And they make the best baked ham in the whole world round Lancaster, PA.

Am I forgiven?

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: billybob
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 08:20 AM

My brother in law in Pennsauken NJ has scrapple every time he goes out to breakfast, he introduced us to it when we last visited. Any relation to the black pudding and white pudding served up for breakfastin Ireland?

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 10:35 AM

When we were kids, we used to go out into the forrest and throw it at each other.

When we missed, we took note of the fact that, unless we hit a tree, the scrapple didn't fall far from the tree---!! ;-)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 11:44 AM

Just to prove I'm not castng nasturtiums at Pennsylvania Dutch cookery in general, I love a good shoofly pie.


   Do you like your bottom wet or dry.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 03:15 PM

As I get older, I prefer dry! But alas, that all Depends...
Art

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 03:20 PM

wet every time.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: PoppaGator
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 03:45 PM

Two questions:

1) Why is this not down in BS? Is the thread so old that it predates creation of the "below-the-line" section?

2) Am I correct in remembering Shoo-Fly Pie as being pretty much the same as pecan pie, but without the pecans?

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 04:00 PM

Its above the line because scrapple, like possums, holds a special place in Mudcat lore. So do grits. And Ruth, you need to read through all the Marmite vs. Vegemite threads around here. As you say, they too have a love/hate thing going. I love it, prefer Vegemite myself, but have both in the house and I'm an American for chrissakes!

On the other hand, I see you have no taste at all(:<))

Spaw

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 20 Nov 07 - 04:19 PM

Pleb. Marmite is evil.

Now Gentleman's Relish - that's WORTH smearing on your toast!

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GUEST,heather
Date: 09 Jul 09 - 07:03 PM

scrapple is pork (pig) it has intestins, heart, tougue, skin, alot of organs.. its really good though :D

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: bobad
Date: 09 Jul 09 - 07:09 PM

I was glad to see by Google that Gentleman's Relish is a real foodstuff and not a euphemism.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Jul 09 - 08:22 PM

I see most of the Scrapple recipe links seem to have died.

It sounds good to me. Probably improved by mixing in a bit of Marmite.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: Peace
Date: 09 Jul 09 - 08:25 PM

It's a game played with lotsa little wooden squares with letters on them.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 10 Jul 09 - 11:25 AM

My adopted Mom, who just passed away at 100, was from a large Mennonite family based in rural Kansas. Their ancestors had come from Holland and Germany. Her particular group came from a region south of present day Ukraine, formerly part of Prussia. They adapted their folk recipes to utilize locally available produce, etc. Scrapple is best known as a Pennsylvania Dutch specialty, but it is simply part of the "nothing wasted" school of cooking common to most Mennonite communities of an earlier era.

Subject: RE: What's 'Scrapple'?????
From: TIA
Date: 10 Jul 09 - 01:47 PM

It is exactly what it says it is...right there in the middle part.