http://bestoflancastercounty.com/

http://www.stoltzfusmeats.com

in fact, a few years ago i wrote about my two favorite “Delaware valley” treats: scrapple and pork roll. it was an ode to things we love and take for granted when it’s difficult to buy: http://www.weareneverfull.com/dont-pork-this-roll-or-scrap-this-scrapple-the-dirty-culinary-pride-of-south-jerseyphilly/

thanks for writing about it….w

Because Philadelphia was the primary point of departure for all the German and Swiss German Amish and Mennonite immigrants, I believe Mrs. Wilson’s recipe for scrapple is pretty much the definitive Pennsylvania German/Swiss German/Amish/Mennonitet type of scrapple, i.e., a scrapple which may contain pork liver, kidney, tongue and snout, but which uses only cornmeal and buckwheat.

Personally, I’ve found that scrapples which use wheat flour instead of buckwheat (scrapples made in Delaware, for example) are significantly ‘mushier’ when both type of scrapples are cut to the same thickness.

I have a close family friend who grew up on a farm in Maryland, south of Baltimore, where the family patriarch (originally from a part of Germany east of the Rhine) annually butchered hogs on their farm and made headcheese and scrapple exactly the way as described in Mrs. Wilson’s cookbook.

For another thing, contrary the Pennsylvania German scrapples shouldn’t at all be considered just a regional type of “breakfast food”, like ham and eggs or bacon and eggs. You can make a quick, very good, and surprisingly low calorie (compared to an equal weight of hamburger) scrapple “cheeseburger” with two pieces of toast (or a bun or a roll), some hamburger pickles, lettuce, thinly sliced onion, and a thin slice of tomato. Cut the scrapple to 3/8″, (apporximately two ounces) and cook it 4-5 minutes a side in a teflon-coated frying pan (don’t use any shortening, oil, or butter). A slice of American cheese ‘tailored’ to the shape of your scrapple, put on top to melt half-way through the cooking time for the second side, makes an quick and tasty lunchtime treat. Then too, thinly sliced but larger pieces of cooked scrapple can be the meat course for dinner, along mashed potatoes or sweetpotatoes, and green vegetables such as peas, lima beans, or spinach.

A scrapple can be made of any type of meat — beef, pork, lamb, chicken, fish, or shellfish. Scrapples are generically a cereal grain mush in which meat (or vegetables) have been mixed into during the cooking. One example is the recipe for German “panhas” (which has a number of phonetic spellings) which specifies good beef cuts combined with buckwheat flour and allspice seasoning (good cuts of pork are also allowed as an acceptable alternative), and cooked for an hour or more, or until a stiff mush is obtained.

I’d like to point out two major points of confusion for a great many people about the term ‘scrapple’ and the use of the phrase “Pennsylvania Dutch”. Firstly, the term “Pennsylvania Dutch” originated during colonial times as an ethnic and religious slur. The English settlers certainly knew full well the difference between the early Dutch settlers and the later German immigrants. The English disliked the Dutch, and to call someone a “Dutchman” was a common perjorative of the time. You can Google the terms “Dutch uncle”, “Dutch courage”, and “Dutch leave” to see how the term was (and still is in some geographic locations of our country and Canada) an ethnic slur. Consequently, the term “Pennsylvania German” is increasingly preferred over use of the term “Pennsylvania Dutch”. Secondly, I don’t believe the term “scrapple” refers to “scrap” pork, pig or hog meat. I believe the term derives from the Dutch word “schrappen”, meaning to cut or scrape. In the Dutch language an “sch…” is pronounced as “sk…”, e.g., school, schooner, etc., and in butchering a pig a sharp knife is used to cut/scrape meat from bones in the de-boning operation. The “scrapings” from de-boning are tossed in a tub to be rendered for their fat (lard) content, and are not “scraps”, which generally has a negative conotation in contemporary English.

If you travel in and around the Lancaster, PA area (PA Dutch/German epicenter), the scrapple is served with syrup. You cut those pancakes/waffles up, mix in the cut up scrapple (or bacon or sausage), then pour syrup over the whole mess. That’ll stick to yer ribs!