Real Scrapple

Chef #208121's Note:

here is why you don't see any real scrapple recipes on Zaar. This is not "the" Scrapple recipe. This is A scrapple recipe. Each family developed its own. When I was a kid, every family had its own. It is becoming a lost art. They can tell you Grandma made scrapple but not what her recipe was.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 0 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 8 pans

• 4 lbs ground meat , See NOTE
• water
• cornmeal
• buckwheat flour , see recipe
• 3 ounces salt
• ¼ ounce black pepper
• ¼ ounce sweetened marjoram
• ¼ ounce nutmeg
• ¼ ounce thyme or ¼ ounce sage
• 2 ½ ounces onions
• 1 pinch mace (optional)
• 1 pinch red pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. NOTE: the meat involved is Pork head, meat, feet, heart and tongue, or other pork trimmings, if desired, including liver.
2. Place them in a water in a covered container until the soft tissue separates readily from the bone. Separate tissue from bone and grind with a fine grinder. Return the ground meat to the strained soup container and boil. Cereal is then added. A common cereal mixture is seven parts cornmeal and three parts of either buckwheat, white, or rye flour.
3. Approximately 4 lbs of the ground meat combined with 3 lbs of soup (liquid) plus 1 lb of cereal is sometimes used. Gradually moisten the cereal with a cool liquid (water or the cooled soup) to prevent lumping. Add this premoistened cereal to the ground meat-soup mixture slowly then boil for 30 minutes.
4. Prior to finishing boiling, add seasoning.
5. A suggested seasoning combination for 8 lbs of finished scrapple would include 3 oz salt, 1/4 oz black pepper, 1/4 oz sweetened marjoram, 1/4 oz nutmeg, 1/4 oz sage or thyme, and 2-1/2 oz onions. Some prefer to add a pinch of mace and a pinch of red pepper also.
6. After the seasoning is mixed thoroughly and the onions cooked, pour the scrapple into pans (not bowls) and refrigerate to 30 - 32F degrees immediately.
7. Note this is usually made in large batches and saved throughout the year until the next butchering. It uses every part of the pig so nothing is wasted. It wasn't a throwaway society. This is also NOT a city recipe. They didn't butcher as they did in the country.
8. number of pans is a guess.
9. Note: IF you want the instructions for cleaning the meat [from head and so forth] zaar me. I am not going to post it because more people are going to look at this that are NOT going to do it yourself than people who are. Some just don't wanna hear it and that isn't a problem. My brother always turned green.

Reviews

[joebobjim]

I love Scrapple! Bought some, loved it, tried to make a lower fat version, nice pork chops, defatted the broth, cornmeal and herbs and FAILED! Well, it isn't bad with syrup. But you need the fat, thats for sure, and this recipe sounds old school like the scrapple I had first tried. Will be trying this next! But gosh darn even pork trimmings are getting hard to find in these boring grocery stores these days

[Chef #806707]

To Philocrates. This is the best recipe I have seen for scrapple. When I was young my mother would take me to the slaughter house and buy something. We lived in Portland, Oregon and I still do. I never new what she was buying until at about 10 or so I opened the lid of a big pot on the stove and saw a hog head cooking. I never knew before that what scrapple was made of. I had always loved it and mom would slice it up from a loaf pan and fry it for breakfast. After I saw the hog head I would never eat it again. Years later I tried a recipe using a pork loin that was really bad. Mom is gone many years now and I am 63 and really miss that taste. I will try your recipe and let you know what I think. Thank you

[Nana Chickens]

Thanks Phil for posting this. It was a great starting point and an inspiration for my "own" scrapple. Both my DH and I were raised on scrapple, Habersetts to be exact.We come from outside Philadelphia, now live in Missouri and there is no scrapple nor have they heard of it. When I asked for it at the food store they thought I was asking for that fruity tea drink, Snapple...lol. Well, to make a long story short we raised a pig this summer, had her butchered early this fall and last week took two days to make the scrapple. The butcher saved me scraps and the liver, sans head. Afterwards I had three stock pots going and all edible meat was ground up with my Kithchen Aid meat grinder. I tweaked the seasonings and used barley flour instead of the buckwheat flour along with the cornmeal. The end result was 10lbs of "my own recipe" for scrapple. I have enough scraps to make another batch , but will have to purchase the liver. I think that will keeps us until next fall when the summer feeder pig go to butcher. Thanks again for posting a little taste of home. Leslie