Scrapple
Scrapple is a savory mush in which cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, are 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 made into scrapple to avoid waste. Scrapple is best known as a regional food of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.
Composition
Scrapple is typically made of hog offal, such as the head, heart, liver, 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. A few manufacturers have introduced beef and turkey varieties and color the loaf to retain the traditional coloration derived from the original pork liver base.
Vegetarian scrapple, made from soy protein or wheat gluten, is offered in some places. It is seasoned to be much sweeter than typical meat scrapple.
Preparation
Scrapple is typically cut into quarter-inch slices, and pan-fried until the outsides form a crust. It is sometimes coated with flour or fried in butter or oil. A breakfast food, it is eaten plain or with apple butter, ketchup, pancake syrup, or even mustard and accompanied by eggs.
In some regions, such as New England, scrapple is mixed with scrambled eggs and served with toast.
History and regional popularity
Scrapple is arguably the first pork food invented in America. The culinary ancestor of scrapple was the Low German dish called Panhas, which was adapted to make use of locally available ingredients. The first recipes were created more than two hundred years ago by colonists, who settled near Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries[1].
Scrapple is strongly associated with Philadelphia and surrounding eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware. Among the Pennsylvania Dutch and in Appalachia, scrapple is known as pawn haas or pon haus, a term hailing back to the old German dish. 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.
Television
Scrapple was featured on an episode of Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo. Upon entering the facility where scrapple is produced, the host met the public relations manager, who gave Mark a somewhat ambiguous answer as to what scrapple is. Upon the manager's invitation to "see what it looks like coming in," referring to the cuts of meat, his superior stepped in and told the crew of the show that not only were they not allowed to film the room but that their tour of the facility was over.