Southern Scrapple Recipes

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.

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:

• 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.

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.

OLD-FASHIONED SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• In a large saucepan combine pork, cornmeal, chicken broth, thyme and salt.
• Bring to a boil, stirring often.
• Reduce heat and simmer about 2 minutes or until mixture is very thick, stirring constantly.
• Line an 8x8x2-inch baking pan or a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with waxed paper, letting paper extend 3-4 inches above top of pan.
• Spoon pork mixture into pan.
• Cover and chill in the refrigerator 4 hours or overnight.
• Unmold; cut scrapple into squares.
• Combine flour and pepper; dust squares with flour mixture.
• In large skillet brown scrapple on both sides in a small amount of hot oil.
• Serves 12.

SOUTH CAROLINA SCRAPPLE

Steps:

• For each pound of meat, use a quart of water; simmer until meat drops from bone.
• Remove meat from bones carefully, being certain to get all the small pieces.
• Bring ramaining broth to boiling point, adding sufficient water to make two cups.
• Add corn meal slowly and cook until thick, stirring constantly.
• Chop meat and add to corn meal mixture; add seasonings and onion.
• Cook 30 minutes in top of double boiler.
• Pour hot mixture into a dampenened oblong pan; let stand until cold and firm.
• Heat a little bacon grease in a skillet; slice scrapple and brown until golden in hot grease.