So, scrapple. Never tried it before, but I pickled up a frozen Jones Dairy Farm package of it the other day, thawed it overnight, and tried a slice today.
The package says to cook it in the oven but I just fried it up with a little herbed butter till it crumbled and browned all over, then plated it with some eggplant parm and butternut squash.
So how was it? Not bad, not bad at all. Quite salty, and no doubt bad for my cholesterol count, but as a small part of my lunch, surprisingly good.
For a real heart attack special I might try frying it into a browned crumble, then stirring in a couple of eggs for a scramble. Might have to think of some other stuff to try, as I’ve got most of the package still left over. Or I could just toss what I don’t use into the compost bin.
Dunno if I’ll ever buy it again, but it was worth the experiment.
I like it savory, with egg, but my husband must have his fried slices on a piece of bread, drizzled with dark Karo syrup. Not light Karo syrup, not molasses, nor any other kind of sugar sauce. It’s good that way too.
I thaw it in the fridge overnight, then slice it with a cleaver. Fry the slices about ten minutes on the first side to get them crisp enough to hold together, then turn them and cook only a few more minutes.
Oh, and don’t read the ingredients!
I ate a fair bit of it when I was going to college in Philadelphia. The ingredients are no grosser than any other “breakfast meat”; maybe a little fattier, at the worst. Nowadays, I’d probably find it too salty, but at the time I liked it just fine.
I slice the brick longways, about 1/4" thick, then pan fry on low. It’s ready to flip/eat when it’s bubbling on top. It should mostly self-release from the pan when it’s ready. I like it very crispy on the outside and basically liquid in the middle.
Grew up eating it all the time and cooking it in a restaurant. Preferred brands back home/then were RAPA and Milton. I live Midwest now and can only find 1 brand at 1 grocery store, need to have it a couple times a year.
Others already got you on the preparation, but yeah, you slice it up. I remember getting 10 lb blocks and putting them on the kitchen slicer.
I was never huge fan of the local scrapple/ketchup (hate it)/white bread sandwich. Always ate slices on the side or used as the replacement in any decent egg/breakfast sandhich (ex. bacon egg and cheese bagel or sausage biscuit or whatever with the meat replaced with scrapple).
Is it like a sausage or like a spam in flavor? I enjoy trying new things, but hate wasting food/money. I can remember liking spam, but when I tried it recently, I had to spit it out it was so awful. But I used to hate blue cheese and now I love it. Go figure.
Scrapple varies a lot, but so does sausage. It’s typically made with a lot of corn meal and other grain fillers, more so than most breakfast sausage. It also contains any variety of possible meats, often nothing but meat scraps. I haven’t had any that resembles Spam much flavor-wise, but it is reminiscent of some more savory breakfast sausages.
Scrapple isn’t like sausage or spam. It has its own flavor and texture. I grew up eating scrapple, and I think I might not like it if it wasn’t a nostalgic thing. I like it with fried eggs and toast, and it’s best fried in a cast iron skillet.
I live in a place where I can occasionally find scrapple, but it’s not the best kind. Sometimes I bring some back when I visit my family in Delaware.
I think it’s mostly grease, bound together with cornmeal, with a few bits and pieces of animal parts. The grease and the parts are most likely from a pig, though I suppose both could be almost anything. It’s similar to at least some sausages, certainly more so than to spam.
Back in college in the mid 80s, my roommate and I road-tripped to the NYC area for spring break. I remember stopping at a restaurant for breakfast somewhere in PA on the way back. They had scrapple, which I was totally unfamiliar with, as a breakfast meat option. I asked the waitress what it was and she tried to describe it, but not very successfully. Anyway, I thought I’d give it a try. My memory was that it had the taste and texture of fat with sawdust mixed in. That’s my one and only scrapple experience.
My mother always dredged with flour before frying, so that’s the way I do it. Really crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Or would do it, since Mrs. Martian won’t let it in the house…
Regarding similar foods: the closest I have ever come is white pudding in Ireland.
It’s good that way too.
