# What's in Scrapple?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 15, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536 "2011-04-15T19:50:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2011, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536/21 "2011-04-17T09:12:46Z")
Scrapple is definitely associated with the parts of Pennsylvania _east_ of the Appalachians. Particularly the southeastern parts of the Commonwealth, where I grew up. Not Pittsburgh. And while I don’t care for scrapple, the decent brands and the homemade type are not made with anything scary.
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#):
>
> A worthy try, but Eagles fans are notoriously pissed off. I don’t know why they booed Santa either.
They were promised a Christmas parade as the half-time show. Because of the sucky weather, the floats couldn’t be taken out on the muddy field. The guy who was supposed to play Santa Claus never showed up, either, so someone got the idea to ask a skinny twenty-year-old who had showed up in a cheap Santa costume to go out on the field and wave to the crowd. I suspect most of us would roll our eyes at that, if not outright boo.
Philly sports fans are well-known for saying exactly what they think, but the Santa incident has been blown way out of proportion. And this is coming from a Steelers fan.
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### Author:  [@J-P\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J-P_L)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2011, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536/22 "2011-04-17T14:05:33Z")
There was a recent episode of [Dirty Job](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJfwo4h5ygM)where Mike Rowe visited a business that makes Scrapple
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### Author:  [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536/23 "2011-04-17T17:14:44Z")
What’s the difference between scrapple and head cheese?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536/24 "2011-04-17T17:31:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> i don’t know where you guys get yours but our aunt who lives in philly makes scrapple from choice lean pork.
I’m not even sure how this would work. Using high-quality meat, sure, there’s no reason that couldn’t be done (though part of the point is to make the low-quality bits palatable), but I would have thought that the fat was essential for how it holds together.
**Shinna** , I’m not sure there’s any particular similarity between scrapple and head cheese, other than that they’re both made from parts of the pig that aren’t generally used directly (but then, there are a _lot_ of pork products that match that description).
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536/25 "2011-04-17T17:39:55Z")
> [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](#):
>
> What’s the difference between scrapple and head cheese?
Scrapple is made of pork scraps, ground up, mixed with salt (and perhaps other seasonings), cornmeal and sometimes another type of flour, and baked as a sort of meatloaf. You slice it and fry the slices. It’s breakfast food, and many people top it with ketchup. It is strongly associated with southeasten Pennsylvania and PA Dutch cooking.
Headcheese is traditionally made by boiling the head of a pig (or a calf, or a sheep) until the meat falls off the bones, and then allowed to cool in the gelatin cooked out of the bones until it is set. It is usually eaten cold, often on bread, perhaps with mustard. Pretty much any culture that eats pig meat has had some version of headcheese.
Both are ways of using up the bits of meat that are left when you butcher an animal and take all the easy parts, but otherwise they aren’t terribly similar.
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### Author:  [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536/26 "2011-04-17T18:23:07Z")
> [@mac\_bolan00](#):
>
> i don’t know where you guys get yours but our aunt who lives in philly makes scrapple from choice lean pork.
there’s no standard quality grading for pork. “Choice” is meaningless.
[http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/inspection\_&\_grading/index.asp](http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/inspection_&_grading/index.asp) (look near the end of the page)
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### Author:  [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536/27 "2011-04-17T18:31:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I’m not even sure how this would work. Using high-quality meat, sure, there’s no reason that couldn’t be done (though part of the point is to make the low-quality bits palatable), but I would have thought that the fat was essential for how it holds together.
I suppose it could be done similar to making sausages from leaner cuts; grind in cubes of fatback or something. at that point, though, I dunno why one wouldn’t just start with a Boston butt which can be had for a lot less per lb.than leaner cuts.
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-scrapple/578536/28 "2011-04-17T18:34:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Mostly, grease held together with cornmeal. Yeah, it’s gross, but it’s also delicious.
> [@Tibbytoes](#):
>
> If heaven could be described in grey, porcine brick form, its name would be _“scrapple”_. Perhaps…nay, unequivocally and absolutely, the finest, more or less, semi-digestible mass of adipose and cartilaginous-rich matter this side of the Milky Way galaxy.
Agree very strongly with both of these.
However, **Tibbytoes** , I’ll gladly take the boink AND the oink.
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