Scrapple is a food in which the cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, is simmered with pork scraps and trimmings, then formed into a loaf. Small scraps of meat left over from butchering, too small to be used or sold elsewhere, were transformed into scrapple to avoid waste, a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.

Composition

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Scrapple is typically made of hog offal, such as the head, eyes, heart, liver, bladder, and other scraps, which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head), to make a broth. Once cooked, bones and fat are discarded, the meat is reserved, and (dry) cornmeal is boiled in the broth to make a mush. The meat, finely minced, is returned, and seasonings, typically sage, thyme, savory, and others, are added. The mush is cast into loaves, and allowed to cool thoroughly until gelled. The proportions and seasoning are very much a matter of the region and the cook's taste.

Commercial scrapple often contains these traditional ingredients, with a distinctive flavor to each brand, though homemade recipes often specify more genteel cuts of pork, with a consequently blander taste. A few manufacturers have introduced beef and turkey varieties.

Preparation

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Scrapple is typically cut into thin (quarter-inch-thick) slices, pan-fried in butter or oil until the outsides form a crust, and served at breakfast, as an accompaniment to eggs. It is eaten plain or with ketchup, maple syrup, dark corn syrup, or apple butter.

In some regions, however, such as New England, it is prepared by mixing the scrapple with scrambled eggs and served with toast.

History and regional popularity

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Scrapple is arguably the first pork food invented in America.The first recipes were created by Dutch colonists who settled near Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries. Others have posited that scrapple originated in Germany[http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panhas.

Scrapple is strongly associated with Philadelphia and neighboring eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware. Among the Pennsylvania Dutch and in Appalachia, scrapple is known as pawn haas or pon haus. It can be found in most supermarkets throughout this region in both fresh and frozen refrigerated cases. It can sometimes be found in cities farther from this area — even as far away as Los Angeles — in frozen form.

See also

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• Goetta
• Livermush
• Jones Dairy Farm - A scrapple maker in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin

External links

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• How to make scrapple
• Sussex County Apple-Scrapple Festival
• Stoltzfus Meats - A scrapple maker in Intercourse, Pennsylvania
• Habbersett's Scrapple - A scrapple maker in Folcroft, Pennsylvania
• Arnold's Meats - A scrapple maker in Bensalem, Pennsylvania
• Nutrition Information

Breakfast foods | Offal | Peasant foods | Philadelphia cuisine | Puddings