Sunday, November 11, 2007

Rooster graphics and scrapple

                             

 

For those who do not know what scrapple is:

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.

 

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.

 

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.

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 Dutch 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.



CINDY

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for the explaining that Cindy.  I was just wondering what it was.  I think it might be quite nice. Wouldn't mind trying it...just send some over please !!!  Enjoy your meal  Love Sybilx
    http://journals.aol.co.uk/sybilsybil45/villagelife

    ReplyDelete
  2. MMM sounds scrummy think Id like that ,thanks for the explanation ..love Jan xx http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeadie05/Serendipity/

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wonder if that is what my grandmother used to make that she called press meat. I know she used hogs head to make it with. I was only a child then and don't remember the ingredients she used but I remember her making sandwiches out of it. She made it in a big bowl and sliced it up. Helen

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was also wondering what it was.  we don't have down here I don't think as I'd never heard of it in Georgia.  We do have something called Liver Pudding or Mush and we so love it with eggs and grits.  But that's more from my NC roots as it's hard to find in GA.  I just told my friend Kelly to come by and itnroduce herself to you.  She lives about 20 minutes away.  We haven't met yet.  But she raises chickens and has a family and is just so nice.  She writes The New Chicken Chronicles.  Hope you two get to know one another.  Love the look on that chicken's face, like he's either in love or now needs a cigarette. lol

    Hugs to you all,
    Nelishia
    http://journals.aol.com/nelishianatl/PrayingandBelieving/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Seems I wasn't the only one who asked then? I sounds delicious, I'll try it when I next come over. For the life of me I still can't remeber the name of the place I had grits, I think it was Applebees, but not sure.
    Thanks for the cooks tour, it was fascinating. Scrapple is on my menu for breakfast on my next visit to the US.
    Gaz xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cindy I don't think I will try to make scrapples ~ I though scrapples was a game or is that scrabble ~ and I would love to know what Grits are ?????  I do need educating LOL ~ Ally x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yuck!!
    Sorry I'm sure it's lovely, but....er  not for me.
    Enjoy
    Carolxx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey, good to meet you! Love the graphic, as I am a chickenaholic. LOL. I snagged it, hope that is alright? Nelishia sent me over this way, said I had to see it...love it! Will be back to read more...good to be here. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. 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

    EWWW people actually eat that?? yikes!!  Glad you are getting insurance for Rebecca.

    CJ

    ReplyDelete
  10. I never had that, but doesn't sound to appealing. Sounds like something my mother would have cooked. She was always using every part of something to cook with.
    Take care, Chrissie

    ReplyDelete