Homemade Sausage Making

Ok guys, wife has a girlfriend that just recently moved to town and she is on me to make some scrapple!

She said she grew up on the stuff in the north east US and hasn't found any that meets her criteria in a packaged form....

She's a great gal and I really want to try it for her, but there are MANY variants on the net... I look to you guys for tried and true...

Charlie

Hey Cranky - Scrapple has been on my to-do list for a long time, but I've never made it. My wife's family lives on the Easter Shore of MD, and the stores there have several brands of it at any time, but nobody has even heard of it here in CA.

This is the recipe I enjoy reading. I don't think you must have a pig's head, but mostly I like the story and the advice:

http://www.pine3.info/Scrapple.htm

Marianski has a recipe. His always seem to be foolproof. http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/hams-other ... a-scrapple

Let us know how it turns out!

Jeff

Tomorrow while I am out and about I will copy the ingredients from a package of scrapple made in Pennsylvania. Also Lynn aka Hamncheese may also be of some help..

Jeff, I had just located that in the "Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausage" I was sure that I had also seen it on line.

Ross - I knew I had seen it online but I couldn't find it. Finally I googled "Scrapple Wedliney Domowe" and it popped right up. It calls for buckwheat, and I know corn meal is often used. I will be interested to know what you find listed in the ingredients on the packages in the stores around there. Seems straight buckwheat flour might be a little strong.

Jeff

Hi Gang,

We're due to make our annual trip to a local Mennonite farm for the cooking of the scrapple. The father is a butcher who processes beef and venison, so they make two versions every year.

They cook the bones and scraps that he has saved and frozen over the year in a giant cast iron pot over a wood fire. Each type is cooked separately. Once the meat has fallen off the bones, it is put through a grinder and added back to the broth with spices and cornmeal. Then everyone (the children mostly) takes turns stirring the pot with a huge wooden paddle.

Every so often they ladle a glob onto a formica table and the old timer's swipe a finger through it to check consistency and taste. Then they huddle and there is much of discussion and the cooking/stirring continues until everyone is happy.

Once everyone agrees on the relative perfection of the slurry, the pot is pulled from the fire and the slurry is ladled into aluminum pans and cooled. We generally come home smelling like a wood fire with warm scrapple adding it's own aromas to the car.

Since this family also sells free range eggs, it becomes a breakfast bonanza weekend!

I'll see if there is an actual recipe, or if this is just a 'when it tastes right to you, it's done' kind of operation. I'm sure they will share if an actual recipe exists and I'll be sure to post it. When you think about it, scrapple really is just grits cooked in meaty broth, right?

I think that some percentage of groats would add an earthy background flavor and lots of good nutrition but might be a bit much if it were to used in lieu of cornmeal.

Lynn

CB if you want a tasty modern version of scrapple try this link, the girl knows how to cook. http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/200 ... apple.html
Smokin Don

Look out ! here it comes!

Liedy's scrapple: water,pork w/ skins, cornmeal, liver, skin, tongue, heart, whole wheat flour, salt, onions , spice.

Kunzler scrapple: stock,pork meat, skins, liver, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, salt, spices.

RaPA scrapple: stock, pork liver, fat, snouts, cornmeal, hearts, flour, salt, spice.

Hatfield scrapple: Stock, Pork meat, pork skins, cornmeal, heart, whole wheat flour, tongue, salt, buckwheat flour, spice.

Thanks Ross!

I see scrapple in my very near future.

Jeff

I think that this might be a good use for hocks. Some of these recipes are much like liver sausage but with the added cereal or like head cheese with the added liver and cereal. The short shanks of hams and shoulders and the skins would work well I think.

This link would seen to suggest that scrapple is a flavorful way to fix cornmeal mush.http://www.rapascrapple.com/products/index.htm

Scrapple (or panhaas, as my German ancestors called it) is more a general technique to make good use of pork scraps and offal than it is a consistently recognized recipe, much the same as headcheese and the like.
Everyone had their own receipt.
The only thing that many versions have in common is they're thickened with cornmeal or buckwheat grouts. Almost all recipes contain sage, other ingredients vary.

WOOHOO!

Looks like I have a great plan for mixtures for my endeavor!

I'll do this in the next couple of weeks and WILL post pics, thoughts, and taste test results here.

Thanks folks, I knew you'd come through!

Charlie

Baconologist wrote:Scrapple (or panhaas, as my German ancestors called it) is more a general technique to make good use of pork scraps and offal than it is a consistently recognized recipe, much the same as headcheese and the like.
Everyone had their own receipt.
The only thing that many versions have in common is they're thickened with cornmeal or buckwheat grouts. Almost all recipes contain sage, other ingredients vary.

Bob, while I agree that there are many different variations in using offal, it's not exactly a free-for-all as you describe. Just recently there was a heated debate on the Polish WD forum about Silesian "krupniok". The latter is a type of product related to scrapple and also thickened with buckwheat and blood. One of the members made a "krupniok" and referred to it as "Silesian", and all hell broke loose. She changed the ingredients only slightly and was shouted down for not following tradition and admonished for calling it "Silesian krupniok".

I understand that the Europeans view these things differently, (just look at the strict rules for branding and naming products within the EU), but at the same time many of us are here trying to learn and re-create traditional recipes and techniques that are quickly disappearing in this world of fast food and convenience. So can anything be called scrapple? Maybe, but I also think that there should be limits. Smoking Don posted a link to a blog where something is called "scrapple" but if you look at the recipe you might as well serve refried beans to your guests and tell them that it's salmon mousse.

So, Cranky, having said all this, you have a tough task at hand. Another complicating problem in trying to re-create recipes containing offal parts is that unless you are butchering your own pig, it's extremely difficult and expensive to obtain them. Personally I would not use any organ meats purchased in supermarkets because of the antibiotics, hormones and feed formulas used in the large hog operations.

Let us know the details of the recipe you will craft and how the project turns out.
Good Luck!

redzed wrote:

Baconologist wrote:Scrapple (or panhaas, as my German ancestors called it) is more a general technique to make good use of pork scraps and offal than it is a consistently recognized recipe, much the same as headcheese and the like.
Everyone had their own receipt.
The only thing that many versions have in common is they're thickened with cornmeal or buckwheat grouts. Almost all recipes contain sage, other ingredients vary.

Bob, while I agree that there are many different variations in using offal, it's not exactly a free-for-all as you describe. Just recently there was a heated debate on the Polish WD forum about Silesian "krupniok". The latter is a type of product related to scrapple and also thickened with buckwheat and blood. One of the members made a "krupniok" and referred to it as "Silesian", and all hell broke loose. She changed the ingredients only slightly and was shouted down for not following tradition and admonished for calling it "Silesian krupniok".

I understand that the Europeans view these things differently, (just look at the strict rules for branding and naming products within the EU), but at the same time many of us are here trying to learn and re-create traditional recipes and techniques that are quickly disappearing in this world of fast food and convenience. So can anything be called scrapple? Maybe, but I also think that there should be limits. Smoking Don posted a link to a blog where something is called "scrapple" but if you look at the recipe you might as well serve refried beans to your guests and tell them that it's salmon mousse.

So, Cranky, having said all this, you have a tough task at hand. Another complicating problem in trying to re-create recipes containing offal parts is that unless you are butchering your own pig, it's extremely difficult and expensive to obtain them. Personally I would not use any organ meats purchased in supermarkets because of the antibiotics, hormones and feed formulas used in the large hog operations.

Let us know the details of the recipe you will craft and how the project turns out.
Good Luck!

I'm an American, I can't speak to how classic favorites in Europe are treated and I don't see how that applies to something such as American scrapple, not the real scrapple that I know anyway.
I didn't just read about it in a book or online.
I grew up among Mennonites and around other German-American communities and I can tell you for a fact that everyone basically has/had their own recipe for scrapple.
Almost all the recipes varied in some way, much the same as meatloaf.
Some don't make it the same way twice.
That's the reality of homemade American scrapple.
You certainly wouldn't expect everyone to follow the exact same meatloaf recipe, right?
I sure hope not!

It is what it is.

What is your favorite scrapple recipe?