Meet Scrapple: The Pennsylvania Dutch Dish My Dad Reserved a Special Skillet For
No, it doesn’t grow in the wild forests of Pennsylvania.
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In fifth grade, my health teacher taught a lesson on cooking safety. I remember only one thing from that lesson. She told us that if our parents had a cast iron skillet that they never washed, it was death waiting to happen. Okay, maybe she didn’t say “death waiting to happen,” but she did tell us that it could have bacteria and germs, and eating food cooked in it could give us food poisoning, and food poisoning sometimes killed people.
I went home, filled the kitchen sink with hot, soapy water, and submerged my father’s cast iron skillet, which I had never seen washed. Then, I scrubbed and scrubbed. When he got home from work that night, he yelled at me, maybe for the first time ever. I had destroyed the seasoning he’d built up for years in his skillet, the skillet he used for one thing and one thing only: scrapple.
His anger didn’t last long, but the incident forever linked three things in my mind—scrapple, my dad, and cast iron skillets. My father didn’t cook much. He was the type of dad who usually left the kitchen cooking to my mom, and only took charge of grilling burgers in the summer. But he always pan-fried his scrapple because no one else had the patience to get it just right.
What Is Scrapple?
Popular in the Mid-Atlantic, scrapple seems to have come to the U.S. through Pennsylvania Dutch and German settlers. Go to a diner in many of the states in that area, and you’ll often find it on the breakfast menu alongside bacon, sausage, and pork roll. Made from boiled pork scraps, it's mixed with spices and grains such as cornmeal, formed into a block of meat, then sliced and usually pan-fried.
Like hot dogs, some people prefer the ingredients to remain a mystery, but scrapple could be held up as the poster child for sustainable, nose-to-tail cooking. It’s the result of using all parts of pigs, from heads to hearts to livers to tails.
Home cooks sometimes make homemade scrapple with sausage or ham hocks, but the real deal stuff—the one that my dad loved and that I’ve come to love—is made from the parts of the pig that are often discarded. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say it’s made from “everything but the oink.”
How popular is scrapple in some families? A Reddit user posted a photo of her great-grandmother's handwritten scrapple recipe sewn into a blanket. That blanket has been passed down for generations, and the recipe, which calls for sausage, is still used today.
“Wow, I didn't know people MADE scrapple. I thought it just grew wild in the forests of PA!” one Redditor responded. Others shared their personal experiences with regional American dish.
“I was a server at a breakfast place in PA as a teenager and I was taught to describe scrapple as “basically all the parts that go into sausage, but mixed with cornmeal.” Some people would be turned off but a lot of people would at least try it out of curiosity,” commented one person. Another responded, “That's a much more charitable description than I was given the first time I encountered scrapple after moving to PA! I was told it's 'all the stuff that wasn't fit to be hot dogs.'"
How to Make Scrapple
Unless you have your own pigs, you’ll have to go to a butcher that sells the pork scraps to get the traditional ingredients. But if you want to make a version of scrapple with more accessible ingredients, we have a recipe that uses a ham hock, chicken stock, cornmeal, and a long list of dried spices, butter, onion, and optional cheddar cheese. We also have a recipe that uses ground pork sausage as a shortcut if you're
Whether you use a ham hock, sausage, or the traditional scraps of pig, this is the basic method for making scrapple. The process takes a while, but it’s not difficult.
Boil the ham hock, then remove the meat and shred it, while also reserving some of the cooking water.
Cook the cornmeal mixed with the spices in chicken stock and reserved cooking water.
Sauté the onion in the butter.Add the meat and the sautéed onion with the butter (and optional cheese) into the cornmeal.
Place the mixture into three prepared loaf pans and refrigerate overnight.
How to Cook Scrapple
Slice scrapple anywhere from 1/4-inch to 1-inch thick (my dad would only eat 1/4-inch slices) before cooking.
The traditional method is to pan-fry in a hot, heavy-bottomed skillet with a bit of oil, butter, or lard. Do not touch the slices until they’ve formed a crispy crust on the bottom or they’ll fall apart. Then flip it and cook until the other side has also formed a crispy crust. It takes some patience, but the wait is worth it.
To cook scrapple in the oven (which is a good way to cook many slices at once), preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, place 1/2-inch slices on a baking sheet covered in parchment, and cook for 40 minutes, flipping it after 20 minutes so both sides crisp up.
In an air fryer, cook the scrapple at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, flip, and cook another 10 minutes.
Cooking times will vary based on the width of the sliced scrapple. The most important thing to remember is do not flip, or even move, the scrapple until the bottom has formed a crispy crust. You’re looking for crispy crusts on either side and a heated, soft inside.
How to Serve Scrapple
I usually eat my scrapple the same way my dad did, covered in ketchup, as a side to eggs and breakfast potatoes. It’s a tasty, savory slate for all sorts of toppings. Some people enjoy putting maple syrup, jam, or even horseradish on their slices.
Scrapple can also go in a breakfast sandwich with egg and cheese. I had scrapple tacos once at a Mexican restaurant in Philadelphia that were absolutely delicious. I don’t recall what other taco toppings were in there, but I do recall that the tacos were fantastic.
Since scrapple is traditionally a breakfast meat, you can use it in casseroles the way you would sausage, ham, or bacon. Substitute cooked scrapple for ham in a ham and potato casserole or for sausage in a breakfast casserole.
Once you get a taste for scrapple, you’ll find plenty of ways to get creative with it. Or, like my dad, you can keep it simple and go with the classic eggs, potatoes, and toast route. Just be sure to cook it in a cast iron skillet. These days, we know it’s okay to wash it, too.
Read the original article on All Recipes.
