Scrapple Recipes

You can find plenty of recipes for scrapple out on the web, but this is a collection of recipes that I've personally tested.

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Michael Loo's Scrapple

3 cups Pork organ meat or Trimmings, Cooked and ground
3 cups Water
2 cups Cornmeal
1 tablespoon Crushed hot red pepper
1 tablespoon Sage
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 tablespoon Salt --more or less
2 teaspoons Pepper

Bring the water to a boil. Add pork and simmer 5 min. Add cornmeal and stir until smooth. Add rest of ingredients (you may want to halve everything but the sage - but I like a very spicy scrapple) and cook over low heat (I used the oven, actually) until very thick, stirring once in awhile so it doesn't scorch. Turn out into a greased casserole and chill. When it's cold, slice into 1/3 to 1/2" slices and fry in a little oil or fat over low heat until crispy on both sides, turning once. I used rendered suet to fry it once, and it was GREAT! but the next time I decided to be a good boy and fried it on a Pam-sprayed skillet, and it was okay.

Notes:

• This is the recipe I use most often when I make scrapple. For the meat, I usually put two fresh pork hocks and some neck bones into a pressure cooker with the water to render the meat soft enough to finely chop using a food processor. I remove the bones but chop everything else (skin, gristle, everything) and I don't try to separate out any of the fat. If I can find some pork liver, I'll use that as well to round out the flavor.
  
• As much as I love sage, I find it can give an unpleasant bitterness if too heavy a hand is used with it; a full tablespoon of sage in this recipe is almost too much. The first time you try it, cut the sage to 2 teaspoons and see how you like the final result.
  
• This recipe was originally posted to the Fidonet National Cooking Echo in 1995 by Michael Loo. Since then, it's been ganked by many recipe sites, almost all of which have removed his name from both the title and the text of the recipe.

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Modern Day Scrapple

2 pounds ground lean pork
1 pound beef liver
1 cup buckwheat flour
3 cups yellow corn meal
4 tablespoons salt
4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sage
2 teaspoons ground mace
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground thyme
2 teaspoons whole sweet marjoram
3 quarts of water

In a large pot bring the water to a boil. Add beef liver and boil 10 minutes. Remove the liver and either run through a chopper or grab a knife and cut it in as small pieces as you can. Return chopped liver to the pot. Add the ground pork, a little at a time, and stir. Simmer for 20 minutes.

In a large bowl mix the buckwheat flour, corn meal, salt, and spices; add to meat and broth slowly, stirring constantly. Simmer gently for one hour, stirring frequently. Use lowest possible heat, as mixture scorches easily.

Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bounce the pans a couple of times so that the Scrapple settles, and let cool. Let the Scrapple set in the refrigerator overnight.

When you arise in the morning, remove the scrapple from the refrigerator and cut into to 3/8 inch slices.

To freeze, lay a sheet of waxed paper between slices, place in freezer bags.

To serve: Thaw slices and dust with flour. Fry in either bacon grease or lard until golden brown. Do not use a cooking spray. It will not taste right and ruin the scrapple.

Notes:

• The seasoning and general proportions for this recipe are pretty good, but simmering lean ground pork for 20 minutes isn't going to give you the finely-textured meat you'll need for a good, smooth texture to the scrapple. Instead, use fresh hocks, neck bones, or country-style ribs enough to make up two pounds of meat and cook them in the pressure cooker to render them from the bones. Then whirl the meat in a food processor or run it though a meat grinder after cooking to give it the smooth and paste-like consistency it should have.
• I haven't been able to trace the origins of this recipe; nearly identical versions appear at The Global Gourmet and About, and the recipe has been copied and pasted into many scrapple recipe threads on the Web.
  

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Chili Scrapple

1 lb meat
1 1/2 qt boiling water
1    onion
2 c  tomatoes
1 T  salt
1 T  Gebhardt's Chili Powder
2 c  corn meal
1 c  cold water

Either beef, veal or pork may be used in this recipe.   Boil the
meat in the water until tender (about 1 and 1/2 hours).  Remove meat
and run through meat grinder with the onions.  Measure meat stock
and add enough water to make five cups of liquid: combine with
ground meat, onions, tomatoes, seasonings and cornmeal moistened
with the cold water.  Simmer 15 minutes or until ingredients are
tender and mixture thick. Pour into greased bread pan to cool. Slice
about one-fourth inch thick, roll in flour and saute in hot fat
until golden brown in color.  Serve hot with chili sauce.

Posted in: http://www.slashfood.com/

From: "Mexican Cookery For American Homes"
By: Gebhardt, San Antonio, Texas, 1936

Notes:

• This recipe was sent to me by Jim Weller of Yellowknife, NWT, in March 2008. He hadn't tried it, but he knows my reputation for trying unusual foods and recipes and called it "weird but probably tasty."
• The ingredient list is a little bland, so when I make this scrapple, I add a tablespoon of freshly ground black pepper with the chili powder. The resulting seasoning is very savory, but not "spicy," and the taste reminds me of a sun-dried tomato flavored corn chip. Although it sets up a little wet, it fries nicely and develops a deliciously crispy shell.
  

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Tomorrow: Step by Step Photo Guide To Making Scrapple