Scrapple recipe

I spent the first eight years of my life in Virginia, New Jersey and Texas before we settled in Southern California, in the west where I mostly stayed thereafter. A memory of this experience is scrapple for breakfast, which I love. But it's hard to find scrapple in the west, and if you do find it, it's probably frozen. From time to time, therefore, I've tried making my own.

Scrapple is a dish whose origins go back to the Pennsylvania Dutch settlers of the 1600s and 1700s. Consisting of pork and cornmeal moistened with broth, the scrapple is seasoned with various spices, formed into loaves, and allowed to cool and set in the refrigerator. Before serving, the scrapple is unmolded, cut into ½-inch (1.25 cm) slices, and panfried in butter, bacon drippings, or oil.

Yesterday I made scrapple, and I had it for breakfast today. It's good! Moreover, it's easy to make. Let's call it "easy scrapple" because to make authentic scrapple you need a meat grinder, which I don't have. This is a scrapple clone, easy and a good substitute if you don't have the real thing. I put together this recipe from a dozen I saw on the net, incorporating their easiest and most intriguing parts.

EASY SCRAPPLE

1 lb. pork sausage
1 slice beef liver
2 cans (3 c.) chicken broth
1 c. white corn meal
1 c. cold water
Season to taste (I just used a few dashes of tabasco)

Fry and drain the sausage. Set aside.
Fry the liver, cool, and mince the meat. Mix with the sausage.
Bring the chicken broth to a boil. Add the meat mixture.
Combine corn meal and cold water. Slowly pour into boiling mixture.
Continue to boil, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.
Cover and cook over low heat, 10 minutes.
Pour into loaf pan.
Cool and then refrigerate overnight.

Slice scrapple, lightly flour, and fry for breakfast.

This is something I'm always going to have around the house. It's easy and damn good. Try it.

Scrapple’s long shelf life was much valued by the colonial-era Pennsylvania Dutch settlers, who had no means of keeping their foodstuffs cold other than sinking them into streams or half-buried ice houses. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were both said to have been fans of scrapple’s charms, the latter having developed a taste for the dish during his visits to Philadelphia.

Fried scrapple is typically served as a breakfast meat. It is eaten plain, between slices of bread as a sandwich, or with fried eggs, and popular accompaniments are ketchup, maple syrup, applesauce, or butter.

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