Recipes

Scrapple (Pennsylvania Dutch)

Breakfast · Offal · Pates and Terrines · Pork

Scrapple (Pennsylvania Dutch)
Prep 30 minutes
Cook 4 hours, plus 3 hours setting
Serves 6
Level Medium

The Mid-Atlantic breakfast loaf: pork shoulder and trotters simmered for stock, a little pork liver, cornmeal mush finished with buckwheat flour, sage and cayenne, set in a loaf pan, then sliced and fried crisp.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Pâtés and Terrines section and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

  • 2–3 pounds pork butt, preferably skin-on
  • 2 pig’s trotters
  • 2 medium onions, roughly chopped (about 2 cups)
  • 6 medium garlic cloves
  • 4 ounces pork liver (a ½-inch slab)
  • Salt and pepper, as needed to season the liver and mush
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for frying
  • 2 cups cornmeal
  • ½ cup flour, preferably buckwheat
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

  1. Cover the pork, trotters, onions and garlic with water. Bring to a boil, then simmer, skimming, until the meat is falling off the bone, about 3 hours. Rest 10 minutes.
  2. Pick the meat, discarding skin, bone and tendon. Strain the stock; there should be about 7½ cups.
  3. Season the liver and sear it in the oil over medium-high heat, 1–2 minutes a side, until just cooked. Dice it finely with the pork (5–6 cups in all).
  4. Whisk the cornmeal into 7 cups of the stock. Simmer, whisking and scraping, adding more stock or water as needed, until thick like polenta, 20–45 minutes depending on the grind.
  5. Whisk in the buckwheat flour quickly during the last 10 minutes.
  6. Stir in the meat, sage, paprika and cayenne and season to taste.
  7. Pour into a parchment-lined 9 × 5-inch loaf pan. Cool 1 hour, cover and chill at least 3 hours.
  8. Slice ¾ inch thick and fry in hot oil in cast iron, 2–3 minutes a side, until crisp.

Notes

Source Adapted from Chichi Wang, “Scrapple,” Serious Eats. Keeps several days refrigerated, and freezes.

The family Scrapple descends from Low German panhas, carried to southeastern Pennsylvania by German settlers. Its cousins are Cincinnati goetta (made with oats) and North Carolina livermush (more liver, cornmeal only).

The Pâtés and Terrines section’s American Cousins page (/pates-and-terrines/american-cousins/) covers the history and technique behind this dish.

The photo The photograph shows a slab of scrapple on a diner plate.