Scrapple Recipes

SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• Set the pig's head in a large kettle and cover it with water. Bring this to a boil and skim off all the scum that floats to the surface. When this is done, add the carrots, onion, bay leaves, juniper and black peppercorns. Simmer this, adding more water if the level drops below the pig's head, until the meat wants to fall off the bone, about 3 hours.
• Carefully remove the pig's head and pick off all the meat and random bits. I toss the eyes and the palate, which aren't very tasty. Chop everything up very fine, and combine with the spice mix in a bowl.
• Strain your pig broth and pour about 10 cups into a large pot. Bring this to a simmer and add the cornmeal and buckwheat flour, stirring constantly so you don't get lumps. Add salt to taste. Cook this, stirring often, about 30 minutes.
• Add the chopped pig bits in with the mush and stir well to combine. If you happen to be using the unflavored gelatin, now is when you would add it. Let this all cook for 10 minutes or so.
• Pour this into loaf pans, or a terrine pan. While not strictly necessary, it will make the scrapple easier to remove if you line the pan with plastic wrap first. Pack it in well. Let it cool to room temperature uncovered, then cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight before slicing and frying.

SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• Place sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain and rinse in colander under cold water, breaking sausage into pea sized pieces.
• Return to skillet along with the condensed milk, and heat over medium until just bubbling. Immediately stir in the cornmeal and pepper and reduce heat to simmer. Continue cooking, 5 minutes total; mush will be stiff.
• Pack into 8x4 loaf pan, cover and chill overnight. To serve, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices and saute until golden in nonstick skillet.

SOUTHERN SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• In a large skillet, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain and set aside. In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Gradually add the grits, salt, pepper and cayenne, stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in butter and cheese until melted. Stir in sausage. , Press into a greased 9x5-in. loaf pan. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until cool., Remove scrapple from pan; cut into 1/2-in. slices. In a skillet, cook scrapple in butter until browned on both sides, adding more butter as needed. Serve warm with syrup.

CORNMEAL SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• In a saucepan, combine the cornmeal, milk, sugar and salt; gradually stir in water. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; cook, covered, 10 minutes longer or until very thick, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in sausage. Pour into a greased 7-1/2x3-1/2x2-in. loaf pan (the pan will be very full). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerator. , To serve, unmold and cut into 1/3-in. slices. Dip both sides in flour. In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat; brown scrapple on both sides. Serve with maple syrup if desired.

REAL SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• NOTE: the meat involved is Pork head, meat, feet, heart and tongue, or other pork trimmings, if desired, including liver.
• Place them in a water in a covered container until the soft tissue separates readily from the bone. Separate tissue from bone and grind with a fine grinder. Return the ground meat to the strained soup container and boil. Cereal is then added. A common cereal mixture is seven parts cornmeal and three parts of either buckwheat, white, or rye flour.
• Approximately 4 lbs of the ground meat combined with 3 lbs of soup (liquid) plus 1 lb of cereal is sometimes used. Gradually moisten the cereal with a cool liquid (water or the cooled soup) to prevent lumping. Add this premoistened cereal to the ground meat-soup mixture slowly then boil for 30 minutes.
• Prior to finishing boiling, add seasoning.
• A suggested seasoning combination for 8 lbs of finished scrapple would include 3 oz salt, 1/4 oz black pepper, 1/4 oz sweetened marjoram, 1/4 oz nutmeg, 1/4 oz sage or thyme, and 2-1/2 oz onions. Some prefer to add a pinch of mace and a pinch of red pepper also.
• After the seasoning is mixed thoroughly and the onions cooked, pour the scrapple into pans (not bowls) and refrigerate to 30 - 32F degrees immediately.
• Note this is usually made in large batches and saved throughout the year until the next butchering. It uses every part of the pig so nothing is wasted. It wasn't a throwaway society. This is also NOT a city recipe. They didn't butcher as they did in the country.
• number of pans is a guess.
• Note: IF you want the instructions for cleaning the meat [from head and so forth] zaar me. I am not going to post it because more people are going to look at this that are NOT going to do it yourself than people who are. Some just don't wanna hear it and that isn't a problem. My brother always turned green.

SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• Trim the fat from around the top of the heart and remove the sinews. Cut the heart into 4 pieces and put it in a heavy stewing kettle with the meaty bones and liver. Add 3 quarts of water, cover and simmer gently for 3 hours until the meat falls from the bones.
• Strain the broth into a clean pot. Discard the bones and put the meat through a coarse grinder. Grind the heart and liver as fine as possible and combine the 2 meat mixtures.
• Bring the broth to a simmer. Combine the cornmeal and the seasonings and gradually add to the boiling broth, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and add the meat mixture. Stir until everything is well mixed. Cook slowly for 30 minutes, stirring almost constantly so it does not stick to the bottom, as it will be quite thick.
• After 30 minutes it is ready to pour. Rinse 9 small breadpans with cold water or grease them and pour the scrapple to the top of the pans. Set the pans to cool and when cool refrigerate until the next day.
• When ready to eat, unmold the scrapple onto a cutting board and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices. Melt fat in a skillet and fry the slices until brown and crusty on both sides. Serve immediately with or without maple syrup.
• The loaves can be unmolded and frozen but will keep refrigerated for about 1 week.

SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• To a large stockpot, add the pork butt, hocks, onion, celery, peppercorns and bay leaves. Barely cover with water and simmer over low heat until the pork is tender and the meat falls off the bones, about 2 hours.
• Drain and reserve the stock. Pour the solid contents onto a baking sheet so that you can easily discard the celery, onions, peppercorns, bay leaves and all of the bones. Make sure to pull the meat completely off the bones, being careful to remove all the small pieces of bone.
• Add the meat to a food processor with the blade attachment and pulse to coarsely chop. Don't over grind it.
• Measure 1 gallon of stock and return it to the pot along with the chopped meat and the salt, ground black pepper, cayenne, and sage. Bring to a simmer over low heat.
• Add the cornmeal and stir, stir, stir. Simmer until smooth and thick, about 15 minutes. Add a little stock or water, if needed, to ensure a smooth texture.
• Pour into 3 loaf pans and refrigerate until solid, preferably overnight.
• Unmold, slice and fry in clarified butter until golden brown. Serve with applesauce or maple syrup.

SCRAPPLE (MUSH)

Steps:

• Bring the ham hocks and water to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Reduce heat to meduim-low, cover, and simmer until the pork is very tender, about 2 hours. When done, remove the ham hocks to a plate to cool to room temperature, then shred the meat, discarding the fat, skin, and bones. Strain the cooking liquid and reserve 2 1/2 quarts.
• Return the 2 1/2 quarts of broth to a boil in a large pot over high heat, and stir in the chicken soup base until dissolved. Place the cornmeal in a bowl, and stir in the thyme, sage, savory, allspice, nutmeg, clove, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Slowly whisk the cornmeal into the boiling broth, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
• While the cornmeal is cooking, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and cook until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. After the cornmeal has cooked for 15 minutes, stir in the onion, shredded ham hock, and Cheddar cheese. Cook and stir an additional 15 minutes; the mixture will be thick enough that a spoon will stand up in it. Season to taste, scrapple must be well-seasoned or it will taste very bland when fried. Oil the bottom and sides of three 9x5 inch loaf pans, and pour in the scrapple. Cover the pans with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
• To serve the scrapple, remove from the loaf pans and cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices. Fry in melted butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until brown and crispy on both sides, about 10 minutes.

EASY SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• Pour 2 cups of water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
• Cut sausage into pieces and add to boiling water mixing throughly (a potato masher works well). Once sausage is done take pan off heat and add red pepper flakes and sage.
• Add cornmeal and mix throughly and pour into loaf pan.
• Refrigerate until completely cooled.
• Slice and fry in frying pan with cooking spray.

SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• Bring ham broth, 1 1/2 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil in the top of a double boiler over direct heat. Once boiling, sprinkle cornmeal into liquid, stirring constantly till mixture is smooth and starts to boil. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in the bottom of the double boiler. Place the pot with hot cornmeal on top of the bottom of the double boiler, cover and cook for 45 minutes.
• While the cornmeal mixture cooks, heat large nonstick skillet. Brown ground pork until cooked thoroughly. Remove from heat and let cool. Do not drain. Once the pork has reached room temperature, grind meat to a paste in a food processor.
• Place puréed meat in a bowl and add grated onion, 1 teaspoon of salt, the pepper and the sage, and mix well. Add hot cornmeal mixture and combine thoroughly so no lumps remain.
• Rinse 9-by-5-inch loaf pan in cold water and grease with bacon fat. Pack meat mixture in loaf pan and cover skin of meat with plastic wrap, pressing it against the surface. Meat mixture will be warm to touch. Let meat loaf come to room temperature, and then place in the refrigerator to chill overnight.
• Remove plastic wrap and unmold scrapple onto a cutting board. Cut into 1/2-inch slices. Dust lightly with cornmeal and fry on both sides in a small amount of bacon fat.