Scrapple
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Scrapple is a cornmeal pudding in which the cornmeal, perhaps with the addition of buckwheat, is simmered with pork scraps and trimmings, then cooled and hardened into a loaf.
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Composition
Scrapple is one of those farm foods invented to use those parts of slaughtered food animals which were not suitable to be served on their own, in the same manner as sausages, or Jewish kishkes. Scrapple typically contains the meaty parts of hog heads, hearts, some liver, and other scraps. The proportion and spicing is very much a matter of the region, family, and the cook's taste.
Commercial scrapple will often contain these traditional ingredients, with a distinctive flavor to each brand, though homemade recipes often specify more genteel ingredients, and consequently a blander taste.
Preparation
Scrapple is typically cut into thin slices, fried until the outsides form a crust, and eaten at breakfast in a similar manner to bacon or sausage. It may be eaten as is, or served with maple syrup, apple butter, ketchup, mustard, and/or butter.
Regional Popularity
Scrapple is particularly associated with Philadelphia but is popular in eastern Pennsylvania, and elsewhere in the southern portion of the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Scrapple is readily available in supermarkets in the New York City suburbs, but is usually sold frozen to extend sales life.
Among other places, scrapple is manufactured in southern Delaware. Bridgeville, Delaware hosts an annual "Apple-Scrapple Festival". Scrapple is reported to have originated in Germany.
In Appalachia, scrapple is known as pon hoss.
Goetta
Cincinnati and the surrounding Southwestern Ohio/Northern Kentucky area have a regional food known as "goetta" (Pronounced ˈgě.ttə) that is similar to scrapple. According to the 1975 edition of The Joy Of Cooking, the main difference between scrapple and goetta is the cereal components, corn meal in scrapple and pin head, or steel cut oats in goetta. Traditionaly goetta is cooked with different seasonings than scrapple, including bay_leaf, rosemary and thyme in goetta while scrapple is usually seasoned with sage; both have salt and pepper. Goetta is also traditionally made with half pork meat and half beef.
Goetta comes from the Low German word götte, and originates from the Oldenburg, Hanover, and Westphalia areas of Germany. Large numbers of German settlers who came from Northwest Germany settled in western Cincinnati bringing goetta and other traditional German foods to the area.
Cincinnati hosts an annual goetta festival.
Similar dish
Scrapple is somewhat similar to the Scottish traditional dish haggis, though the latter is prepared with mutton offal instead of pork, and oatmeal instead of cornmeal. It is very similar to the breakfast sausages in the UK, such as white and black pudding.
External links
- How to make scrapple (http://lynnescountrykitchen.net/amish/scrapple.html)
- A traditional country recipe (http://www.velvitoil.com/Scrapple.htm)
- How to use scrapple (http://www.kunzler.com/recipes/default.asp?fa=scrapple)
- Sussex County Apple-Scrapple Festival (http://www.sussexcountyonline.com/news/photos/applescrapple.html)
- Ralph and Paul Adams, Inc. (http://www.rapascrapple.com/index2.html) - Makers of Rapa Scrapple
- Stoltzfus Meats (http://www.stoltzfusmeats.com/) - A scrapple maker in Intercourse, Pennsylvania
- Glier's Goetta (http://www.goetta.com) - A goetta maker in Covington, Kentucky