The Ultimate in Sustainable Eating? Scrapple!

This past weekend while visiting The Butcher & Larder to pick up a few night's worth of meat, I spotted something you don't see very often in Chicago:

Beautiful, isn't it? It's called scrapple, and it's a fantastic breakfast snack. Very popular in Pennsylvania, scrapple is traditionally a mush of pork scraps (hence the name) and trimmings combined with cornmeal, flour, and spices. The mush is formed into a loaf and served pan fried with eggs.

So what are the "scraps" in the scrapple? Traditionally it's made of hog offal, like the head, heart, liver, and other parts. The meat and bones are boiled to make a stock/broth. Once the meat is cooked, it's removed from the bones and cornmeal is added to broth to make a mush. The meat is minced and returned to the mush before making a loaf. At The Butcher & Larder...it's only $4 a pound!

While it doesn't look particularly yummy sitting on the butchers paper, once fried and served with eggs and ketchup...it's really good. It has the consistency of a hash, but there is a great sausage/meat flavor that goes perfectly with the yolk of the egg.

Here it is cooked up:


If this isn't a perfect example of sustainable eating I don't know what is. The butcher takes the meat that is many times thrown away, and finds a vehicle for them. In the end almost all of the animal is used. Considering the quality of the meat sold at Butcher & Larder, if you're going to eat the "questionable" meat from a pig, I would much rather it be from a high quality local sustainable farm.

Next time you're at your local butcher, ask if they have any scrapple. You might be surprised how much you enjoy it. If you don't? You're only out a couple dollars.

**Edit: Pictures resized.

My Dad's from central PA, so we grew up eating scrapple for breakfast. I must admit that I stopped eating it when I went through a vegetarian phase and never picked it up again. (On the other hand, my Mom hand-carries it to my brother, who lives in St. Louis.)

If you like The Butcher & Larder's version, you might want to check out Habbersett's, which is one of the most popular brands in the east. (Rappa's the other big seller that I'm aware of.) I have seen Habbersett's at Treasure Island on Broadway in the past.

chgoeditor wrote:My Dad's from central PA, so we grew up eating scrapple for breakfast. I must admit that I stopped eating it when I went through a vegetarian phase and never picked it up again. (On the other hand, my Mom hand-carries it to my brother, who lives in St. Louis.)

If you like The Butcher & Larder's version, you might want to check out Habbersett's, which is one of the most popular brands in the east. (Rappa's the other big seller that I'm aware of.) I have seen Habbersett's at Treasure Island on Broadway in the past.

Chgoeditor:

Thanks for the tip on Habbersett's scrapple. Do you find it in the frozen section?

I love scrapple. Back when I went to the University of Pennsylvania, my "alright I've consistently gone to the gym" treat was a morning scrapple, egg, & cheese hoagie (with "sal-peppa-ketCHUP") from the food trucks. That's interesting yours is all hashed up, though. As I remember it, scrapple fried up in one piece, like a slice of Spam. Am I completely wrong, or is it because yours is a local product?

Okay I'm scrapple jonesin'. Anyone know if it's sold in the Western suburbs?

mike

P. Channon wrote:

chgoeditor wrote:My Dad's from central PA, so we grew up eating scrapple for breakfast. I must admit that I stopped eating it when I went through a vegetarian phase and never picked it up again. (On the other hand, my Mom hand-carries it to my brother, who lives in St. Louis.)

If you like The Butcher & Larder's version, you might want to check out Habbersett's, which is one of the most popular brands in the east. (Rappa's the other big seller that I'm aware of.) I have seen Habbersett's at Treasure Island on Broadway in the past.

Chgoeditor:

Thanks for the tip on Habbersett's scrapple. Do you find it in the frozen section?

Good question...I honestly can't recall where in the store I saw it, but I'm certain it would have been in the frozen section. (I can't imagine that TI sells that much scrapple.) That said, it may have been a couple years ago that I noticed it. I'll probably be there later today and will look for it.

Sorry yuck....my grandmother used to make something like this with ground beef and pork and steel cut oats...it was a German dish she called gritzwurst. It looked like scrapple and was not appetizing.

Paulina Meat Market has scrapple (although I'm not certain if it's an everyday item). My family has occasionally had a Scrabble/Scramble/Scrabble night where dinner was scrapple and scrambled eggs and we later played Scrabble. I guess we could have also done some drawing to add Scribble to the night's activities but I didn't think of that at the time.

P.Channon,
Thanks for starting this discussion. Scrapple is one of my all time favorite foods, and I've been enjoying it since I was a kid. Mikelipino brings up the "hashed up-ness" in your photo. Yours certainly looks delicious, but the real joy to me is the textural contrast from a crisp outer crust obtained by slowly frying it up in solid slices in a cast iron skillet. I had a dog who went wild when she smelled the livery goodness.
My stash:


chgoeditor,
Habersett's is very good, but my heart belongs to Rapa. Original flavor please...no spicy or beef.
Toria,
gritzwurst sounds similar to goetta. I'd love to try it some time.
John R,
FYI, Paulina Market's scrapple is beef rather than pork. I'm ashamed to say that I've never tried it.

Preheating your pan is a must. Coating the slices with a bit of flour gives a heavier crust, but I like mine without. Resist the urge to turn it or futz with it...let the crust slowly develop. I usually start mine in butter. Bacon fat adds a smokiness that covers up the flavor IMO. My condiment of choice is normally a pair of over easy fried eggs with either a bit of ketchup or some maple syrup. It's all about the scrapple to me. A scrapple and fried egg sandwich on Wonder bread is also hard to beat.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I think the next time I get scrapple, I'm going to make sure the pan is really hot and try to get the outsides a little more crispy before eating. It's really a very unique, sustainable, and inexpensive treat!

If anyone makes a visit to B&L I would recommend picking up a $1 slice to give it a try.

Sorry, but I haven't made it to Treasure Island yet this week. I promise a scrapple report as soon as I do!

Well, I walked the refrigerator and freezer areas of Treasure Island on Broadway, and asked two employees (meats & deli) and couldn't find any scrapple. My recollection is that when I saw it, it was either in a separate small refrigerator case where the coffee is now kept, or in the fridge that used to be where the diapers are now found. (Both of those have been gone for a while now.) Might be worth checking at other locations, but I think Broadway is a bust.

Jones brand scrapple can be found at all Woodman's stores.

From Roadfood.com:

RE: Scrapple = best mystery food around Sun, 03/30/08 2:21 AM (permalink)
I googled Rapa Scrapple. It was the brand of Ralph & Paul Adams Inc. and had been in business since 1926. In 1981 Rapa was purchased by Jones Dairy Farm and in 1988 Jones purchased Habbersett Sausage, located in Folcroft, PA. Habbersett had been in business since 1863!!!!!! Jones Dairy Farm is located in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin and is the Parent Company. Both are still operating under their own brands and from their original plants. If you buy Jones Dairy Farm Scrapple, your buying Scrapple made by Rapa or Habbersett. Not sure about the recipe they use. They also make Scrapple under private labels for other companies. http://www.rapascrapple.com/index2.html

With all due respect and endearment for B&L, the scrapple I brought home from them did not retain its composure, melting down to what I might characterize as mush, very nice mush at that. The effect was as if your polenta was too loose and even after a night in the fridge, its just too wet to slice up and panfry. I'm no scrapple expert, but what my PA people have served me has a firm consistency that sears and browns up nicely.

Jefe wrote:With all due respect and endearment for B&L, the scrapple I brought home from them did not retain its composure, melting down to what I might characterize as mush, very nice mush at that. The effect was as if your polenta was too loose and even after a night in the fridge, its just too wet to slice up and panfry. I'm no scrapple expert, but what my PA people have served me has a firm consistency that sears and browns up nicely.

I may have to agree with you after reading all the responses to this thread. What I got still tasted great...but I'm not sure it cooked the way it is supposed to (as you can see in my photo).

Related to scrapple, here are two sustainable things I made from scratch this winter:
Balkenbrij, a type of Dutch blood sausage. I grew up with this. Made from pig's scraps, or a pigs head, pigs blood and buckwheat flour, it is fried and served with fried apples (or eggs). It tastes remarkably sweet.

Zure zult, a type of Dutch head cheese. ground much finer thatn most head cheese you find in stores, this is made with a pig's head and a little vinegar. It's eaten at room temperature was very tasty, but I put some in the freezer, and iwhen I thawed it, it did not come out that well.

On the left zure zult, on the right balkenbrij


From top to bottom: zure zult, balkenbrij on homemade bread, fried apples

Wow!!! You made those from scratch?!? They look delicious. Care to share the recipes?

Seamus wrote:Wow!!! You made those from scratch?!? They look delicious. Care to share the recipes?

I made these from scratch since it is not available in the US.

The word balkenbrij comes from the old dutch and means "intestine porridge". In the past it was literally the last step in butchering a pig. Anything that could not be used in another dish went into the balkenbrij. Lungs, stomach, heart, kidney, pigs blood, etc. all went in it and the buckwheat flour was used to tie it all together. Nowadays it is still a popular dish in the Netherlands, but is made with more common parts of the pig.
I'm not brave enough to use lungs, etc., but I have made it with pigs head as well as a leftover piece of pork butt.

A few general notes:
- The pork butt was lot easier and quicker, but the pigs head had the advantage that you can use the cooking water.
- The buckwheat flour is the key to making it into a pudding. It should stick together, almost like a pate, even when fried. The balkenbrij in the picture had too little buckwheat and fell apart.
- The buckwheat flour I used was made by Arrowhead Mills
- I got the pigs blood in an Asian grocery store on Argyle. It is only available frozen, but it seemed to work well.
- The balkenbrij freezes well for 1-2 months. I cut it into slices beforehand, wrapped them in platic foil and stored them in a zip-loc bag.
- I've used both a meat grinder and a food processor to grind the meat. I couldn't tell the difference in the end product.

A Dutch recipe can be found here (translation courtesy of Google)
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... md%3Divnse

A few notes about the translation.
- The first time it mentions bacon, the recipe calls for lean bacon. the second time it calls for bacon, it pointing to back fat. but I wouldn't worry to much about the pork cuts you use. Just make sure that you use a good amount of fat.
- The ground pepper referenced in the recipe is white ground pepper, not black pepper. I didn't use the raisins, or the aniseed, but other than that I followed the recipe closely.
- I frry it for 5 minutes on each side until it turns black. I found that it is remarkably sweet and mild flavored.

Seamus wrote:Wow!!! You made those from scratch?!? They look delicious.

Ditto. Nice work.

Scrapple: Everything but the squeal. I still can't find any other than Amazon.

Sauganaut wrote:Scrapple: Everything but the squeal. I still can't find any other than Amazon.

Publican Quality Meats usually has theirs for sale in the case by the door. Expect to pay accordingly, but it's good stuff.

For those looking for scrapple in the Chicagoland area, you can generally find the Jones Farm brand in the freezer section of most Woodman's stores. I will NOT claim that it is the best scrapple that I have ever had but it sure hits the spot.

Love scrapple! Stolzfus in Pennsylvania makes an excellent product (which freezes better than most scrapples), plus they deliver. I recommend them highly!

Geo

http://www.stoltzfusmeats.com/fresh-smoked-cooked-products