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I had never heard or Scrapple, but the description I found doesn't make it sound very appetizing.
"First, let's get the exact definition of scrapple out of the way. Pork meat (sometimes, but not always, along with offal including the head, heart, and liver) is boiled until falling apart, finely minced, and combined with cornmeal and flour into a slurry. Spices including sage, black pepper, thyme, and savory are added, and the mixture is then formed into loaves, which are allowed to cool until set. Half-inch slices are then cut off and fried in butter until golden brown."
Yeah. It’s floor scrapings at the butcher. I’ll eat it but it’s not a favorite. My mother was from Pennsylvania Dutch country. Summer sausage/Lebanon bologna is 2 thumbs up. Scrapple, not so much.
The thread already suggested what I’d do. I’d ask an independent butcher to saw it up for me. I’d make sure I ordered a substantial amount of other things at the same time if I’m not a regular customer.
You are right, that description does not sound very appetizing and it doesn't list all the ingredients and other spices and various methods of preparation employed that can make scrapple so unique, nutritious and delicious. And it's not for everyone either, most rural people who raise their own foods would likely be more open minded about it but I've noticed that many city folks will tend to turn up their noses just at the idea of it without ever having tried it.
You might find this following recipe from Farmer's Almanac sounds a bit more appetizing when you see their full list of ingredients and the way they are combined. And their write up about the history of scrapple and how and why farmers made it is also more interesting from the point of view of practical, economical farm cooks whose motto was and still is "waste not, want not, eat well".
Recipes will vary from region to region too, including variations in the kinds of meat that is used. There is a recipe there for turkey scrapple too, but scrapple can be made out of the scraps from pretty much any kind of meat animal or combination of meats, though I think pork scrapple is still the most delicious of all of them. The Pennsylvania Dutch recipe in Farmer's Almanac, although I don't see garlic and a few other spices listed that our farmers did include in their recipes, is still much like the scrapple that the European farmers in my farming community used to make and the sliced and fried scrapple patties came out tasting like delicious spicy sausage meat patties and looking as shown in the cover picture.
I had never heard or Scrapple, but the description I found doesn't make it sound very appetizing.
"First, let's get the exact definition of scrapple out of the way. Pork meat (sometimes, but not always, along with offal including the head, heart, and liver) is boiled until falling apart, finely minced, and combined with cornmeal and flour into a slurry. Spices including sage, black pepper, thyme, and savory are added, and the mixture is then formed into loaves, which are allowed to cool until set. Half-inch slices are then cut off and fried in butter until golden brown."
nothing wrong with those ingredients. If an animal is killed for food, it only makes sense to eat all of it. I love sausages. I have only had scrapple a few times, it is OK, bit not something I would go out of my way for, of course home made would be better.
I had never heard or Scrapple, but the description I found doesn't make it sound very appetizing.
"First, let's get the exact definition of scrapple out of the way. Pork meat (sometimes, but not always, along with offal including the head, heart, and liver) is boiled until falling apart, finely minced, and combined with cornmeal and flour into a slurry. Spices including sage, black pepper, thyme, and savory are added, and the mixture is then formed into loaves, which are allowed to cool until set. Half-inch slices are then cut off and fried in butter until golden brown."
The definition of offal is the inedible bits (as noted above), remaining after butchering an animal. But I quite assure you that all that is protein, & excellent eating.
If you ever truly go hungry - days without food - to the point that you begin to hallucinate & go faint, & your blood pressure drops, & so on; your body knows better. You may gag, but your system will recognize food in whatever shape.
If you grew up on organ meats, or even just ceremonial bits of it, you'll recognize the flavor & texture. There was a time in Western Civilization when crops & livestock & hunts didn't waste any food. Anything that could be eaten or otherwise used was consumed. Perhaps that regard for our sustenance has gone out of the World. A pity, because in hard times, hunger will out.
I order it from Pennsylvania every few years. I just thaw out one package at a time and fry it up as wanted. It's not going to spoil in a week.
Or, fry it all up at once and freeze in serving size portions in ziplock baggies.
Over the years, I have made scrapple and goetta, a dish similar to scrapple that originates in the Cincinnati area. My wife's made panhaus which is a similar dish. All of this is made as a by-product of the pig butchering process. And if the person knows the proper seasoning, it can be really delicious.
As none of our relative are pork producers anymore, we do NOT have access to these products, We are pretty much limited to purchasing the commercial products from the supermarkets. We buy 1# packages, freeze them and use them for two meals over a one week period. Personally, I would not try to cut it unless the butcher will do it for you on their band saw. Don't count on it as MOST supermarkets do not cut much meat in house, as it is cheaper to buy the meat pre-cut and pre-packaged as you are using minimum wage (or less) labor in many packinghouses.
As to the person who states that offal is inedible, that is silly. There is a reason why people say that everything on the pig is consumed other than the squeal. Since most people only use the "high on the hog" parts of the pig, they lack the knowledge as to how to prepare the offal. However, give the offal to a trained chef or many farm cooks, they can make the entire hog tasty.
A friend just stopped by with 15# of pork bones. Sometime in the coming weeks, half of those will be converted to a hot pot of steaming pho; the other half will be going towards my first efforts of a totanksu ramen which is unlike anything that you see in those packets in the supermarket.
I think a person's views are often heavily influenced by what they ate when growing up. I've never had Scrapple and, as an adult, I have no desire to try it based on what's in it.
However, I have no problem with (and very much enjoy) stuff like hot wieners, Slim Jims, and kielbasa. I've eaten those things my whole life. I don't even want to know what's in them, but I suspect it's nasty stuff similar to what's in Scrapple. Perhaps even worse.
I occasionally ate bologna when I was a kid. I don't as an adult. That's not because of what's in it though. My tastes simply changed with time.
how about a serrated electric knife, like for carving turkeys.
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I beg to differ
