Scrapple

As tradition built it

Scrapple

Simmer stock about 2 hours; set until firm, then slice and fry

Ingredients

• about 1.5 lb (organ meat plus meat and bones for stock) pork scraps and offal: head meat, hocks, organs unsuitable for sausage
• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1/4 cup buckwheat flour

Method

1. Simmer the pork scraps and offal, head meat, hocks, organs unsuitable for sausage, in a large kettle for hours.
2. Combine the resulting meat and gelatin-rich broth with cornmeal and buckwheat flour.
3. Pour into loaf pans to set.
4. Once cold, slice and pan-fry until the outside is crisp and dark and the inside stays creamy.

Notes

William Woys Weaver's own scholarship is the reason this chapter can state plainly that not every “traditional” scrapple served to tourists is as old as it claims to be, some fried preparations are documented tourist-trade inventions rather than deep community practice, a fact this chapter treats as interesting rather than damning.

What a modern chef changes

A clarified broth carried through the loaf

Cross-refs Rung 05, scrapple's whole-offal rendering

Method

1. Cook the offal and scraps sous vide first, at a precise low temperature over many hours, extracting the same gelatin-rich broth a stovetop simmer gives but without ever risking a scorched pot base or an over-reduced, muddy stock.
2. Set the loaf with a portion of the strained broth passed through a chinois for total clarity before it is folded back into the cornmeal mixture, a cleaner-tasting base than the traditional method, which never separates broth from solids this precisely, ever achieves.
3. Finish the fried slice under the Big Green Egg's direct heat for the final minute rather than in a pan alone, for a genuine char the flat griddle cannot give.