Just the name - scrapple - implies something that's made of all the leftover crap they had sitting around the meat factory. Our local store sells it for $1.99 - because really, who would pay more? It proudly lists the ingredients - which include pork skins, pork livers, and of course, everyone's favorite tasty pork part - SNOUTS. Now, to me, something that calls itself scrap, that contains snouts, is like a big neon sign flashing DO NOT EAT. For some reason, however, my brother loves this stuff. He insists that if I just try this wonderful scrapple, I'll want nothing else to eat for breakfast for the rest of my life.
The rest of my short life, no doubt, because I imagine this porktastic product is quite the artery clogger.
Thinking that perhaps this was just an off brand that included snouts and parts, I checked my favorite questionable content authority, Wikipedia. And no... apparently, this is a scrapple 'feature'
Quoth the Wiki:
Scrapple is a savory mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour. The mush is formed into a loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then fried before serving. 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 Delaware, South Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
Other regions of the country apparently know better than to consider this food.
So I ask you , kind people of Gather, would you eat this? Should I eat this? Am I just missing out on a wonderful tasty treat, or are my first impressions correct?
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Comments: 52
Jesus I am so glad I have never run across this before.
But don't worry - many parts of the world eat some REALLY bizarre stuff - live octopus in Korea, bits of fresh dung in Africa/Asia. Scrapple sounds pretty damn tasty now, doesn't it?!?
:-D
We had a new priest, a young one, from CA. A group of us welcomed him by taking him to our beloved Melrose Diner (singing "Everybody who knows goes to Melrose..."!) after Mass. We treated to whatever he wanted--plus a serving of scrapple. We were all eating ours with relish. He ate his with a "brave" demeanor then admitted he wasn't sure he'd be trying it again soon. He didn't know we'd fry it up ourselves for church breakfasts!
Many people eat theirs with ketchup. I prefer mine simply with salt and pepper.
Scrapple is delicious comfort food. I'd truly curl up and die if forced to live in an area of the US where it is not available!
Risa, I love Taylor pork roll, too! It isn't a trip to the Jersey shore if you haven't eaten some!
I am an adventurous eater and think that scrapple would be interesting to eat! We do not have it here in central Indiana but I do have several recipes for it. When I was young, I thought surely it had apples in it, I was much disappointed to find it does not!
Given the choice between eating scrapple and insects, I would choose insects. They might not taste so good, but at least they are nutritious. (Of course, I'm assuming that the insects weren't crawling in places particularly disgusting, like feces or vomit.)
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It's almost impossible to find here out west, but I have a recipe that was given me 30 years ago by an Amish family when I lived in Delaware. I may make some this week.
I'd not eat it.
Food comes out of the ground, thru the farms, from our animals and it is almost sacreligious to be picky about what part of an animal is ok and what is not..
for health reasons sure.. but that pig DIED for you and to waste it's sacrifice is hardly 'green'.
Really, though, there's nothing in it that will kill you...well, except for the clogged arteries and all that. If I made it myself I might try it, but I'm very suspicious of all store-bought meat, and this gives me a chill up my spine. I have visions of the meat-packing plant workers using a scoop shovel to scrape the floors....
Doc has a point, though. A living creature has been sacrificed, and waste is a sin.
Laura, I featured this article in my post Traditional Pennsylvania State Foods - ( Updated)
Strange. I lived in PA for the first 21 years of my life and have been back many times and have never eaten Scrapple. I never even knew anyone who ate it.