Pennsylvania Dutch Scrapple

Description

Scrapple is a food heavily associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch community. This food is prepared by incorporating less-popular cuts of meat, along with cornmeal and/or flour, to produce a loaf-style food that is sliced and pan-fried before serving. While scrapple is most frequenty associated with Southeastern Pennsylvania, this dish is also popular in other areas of the Northeast with a high proportion of German ancestry, such as Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Virginia. It is believed that scrapple gets its name from the German word "panhaskröppe”, from the Swiss and German settlers who populated the area in and around Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This dish is unique because it is a fusion between old world cooking techniques and new world ingredients. 17th and 18th century settlers brought their traditions of meat processing to Pennsylvania, but through the addition of corn (a new world ingredient), the hybrid dish of scrapple evolved to be what it is today. There are many variations of how to make scrapple, and the most authentic recipes use the following cuts of pork: neck, liver, heart and heat. Another common variation is around the use of cornmeal or buckwheat; most recipes that I found seemed to use a combination of cornmeal and buckwheat, but recipes exist that use only one type of grain. The recipe below is a fairly standard recipe that you can make with easy-to-obtain ingredients, but feel free to customize to your own preferences.

Ingredients

(Makes 2 loaves)

• 2 lbs. pork shoulder, bone-in and ideally skin-on

• 1 medium onion, quartered

• 3 cloves garlic

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal

• ½ cup buckwheat flour

• 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage

• ¼ tsp nutmeg

• Salt & pepper

Preparation

In a large pot, add the pork shoulder, onion and garlic. Fill with water until pork shoulder is submerged, or at least mostly submerged. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low heat for 3 hours, or until meat is falling off the bone.

Remove the meat from the pot and strain the pork stock into another pot. Turn the heat to medium high and whisk in the cornmeal and buckwheat. Turn heat to medium low and frequently stir this mixture until it is the consistency of cooked grits. This should take 20-30 minutes.

Add the shredded meat to the cooked cornmeal mixture, along with the sage, nutmeg, salt & pepper. Taste to adjust seasoning. Grease two bread loaf pans and pour in the mixture. Cover top with plastic wrap and allow to chill overnight.

To serve, cut off bread-sized slices of scrapple. Heat a cast-iron pan or griddle over high heat, along with oil or butter. Fry on each side until golden brown.

Notes

• Scrapple is often served along with eggs, toast, home fries, bacon breakfast sausage, and sometimes apple butter (see recipe here).