Scrapple

Scrapple — a loaf of pork scraps (head meat, organ meat, trim, skin) cooked with cornmeal and buckwheat flour, spiced with sage, thyme, and black pepper, set into a loaf pan, sliced, and fried — is the Pennsylvania Dutch answer to "what do you do with the parts nobody wants?" The answer: make them into something everyone fights over. The dish descends from the German *Panhas* (pan rabbit — a misleading name for a pork-and-grain loaf) brought by the Palatine German immigrants who settled Pennsylvania in the 17th-18th centuries. Scrapple is the Mid-Atlantic breakfast protein, served from Philadelphia through the Delaware Valley to Baltimore, and virtually unknown beyond that geography.

Pork trim and offal (head, liver, heart, tongue, skin — everything the butcher can't sell as a cut) simmered until tender, then the meat is removed, chopped fine, and returned to the cooking broth. Cornmeal and buckwheat flour are stirred into the broth and cooked until thick (like polenta). The mixture is seasoned with sage, thyme, marjoram, black pepper, and salt, then poured into loaf pans and refrigerated until set firm. To serve: slice 1cm thick, dredge in flour, and pan-fry in butter or lard until both sides are deeply golden and crispy. The exterior should crackle; the interior should be soft, porky, and grain-textured.

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