Scrapple
Why I Love This Recipe
Scrapple is a polenta style breakfast dish with a pork flavor.
I grew up with Grandma making scrapple for Christmas. It is not an easy recipe to find. And from what I hear it is even harder to make. Grandma doesn't make it anymore. I was told she would show me how if I came over to stir. It is stiring a boiling, popping, very thick cornmeal mixture. It used to take all of the adults to make it since you have to stir the thick mixture constantly.
I'm going to try it this afternoon.
I've also been told that the best meat to use is a dark pork roast. My mother says you grind the roast after it is cooked. I don't have a meat grinder, but I'm thinking the S blade on my food processor should work. Also instead of water, as this recipe calls for, you're supposed to use the broth from the roast.
I'll post as I find new and easier ways to make one of my old favorites Scrapple.
Ingredients You'll Need
2 C Yellow Cornmeal
3 tsps Salt
9 C Water, Divided
1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked pork or
ham chopped
Shorting for frying
Directions
In a medium bowl, stir well the cornmeal, salt, and 2 cups water. Get all the lumps out.
Meanwhile put a 6-8 quart kettle on high heat and bring the 6 cups of water to a boil.
Slowly stir the cornmeal mixture into the boiling water.
Stir constantly with a long-handled wooden spoon or mixing spoon, as the cornmeal has a tendency to blurp up and burn the cook.
Cook at least 10 minutes.
Stir in pork.
Pur into greased loaf pans and cool overnight in refrigerator.
In the morning, slice 1/2-inch thick.
Heat shorting in a heavy skillet and fry slices until golden brown on both sides and the edges are crispy.
If desired, serve with honey, syrup, apple butter, or applesauce.
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Grandma would use a 9x13 cake pan rather than loaf pans. I like mine sliced thinner. We would use an electric griddle to cook ours. And syrup is our condiment of choice.
Ok, I tried it. I used sausage. I cooked it in my presure cooker and then used the broth as part of the water the recipe called for. The food processor worked perfect for smoothing out the sausage. It looked like patte after I processed it.
The stiring was tiring. My right arm will probably look like Popeye tomorrow. It looks about right. It smells right. We'll wait till tomorrow morning to see if it tastes right.
I called Mom as soon as I finished cooking it and she told me how Grandma did it. They would cook the pork roast grind the cooked roast. Then put the meat back into the broth add the cornmeal and boil. Of course Grandma's way of doing it has no measurements.
It tasted a little different from Grandma's, but it was close. It was a hit everyone loved it and from the sounds of it the 10min of stiring is less than what everyone else does when they help Grandma.
Will definately make it again; however, I will not double this batch unless I'm planning on feeding 30 or more people.
