For this week’s review we have chosen to eat scrapple.  Here’s a little backstory to the evening this decision was first made.

A few weeks before we actually started the blog, we were hanging out with a couple friends, talking about what kind of foods we could eat that would be interesting enough to write about.  Somebody then said, “Oh!  I know!  You guys should eat scrapple!”

The others all agreed that this would be a good idea.  I then said, “Scrapple?  What’s that?”

Then, almost in unison, the group said, “Nobody Tell Him!”

Well, that sure got me excited for the inevitable scrapple review.  I went a few weeks playing along with the idea of going in blind.  Every time I went to Google something, the thought of googling scrapple popped into my head.  I remained strong for as long as I could, and refused to look into it.

Finally, about a week ago, Will told me that he had found a place to buy scrapple in the area.  The scrapple was purchased, and a date was set for our review.

It’s not that I was worried about what I would be eating, but I have always been the type of person who liked having things spoiled.  I keep up to date on all of my favorite TV shows to find out what’s going to happen later in their seasons.  I have only played half of Mass Effect 1, and yet I know the entire plotline and ending for the trilogy.  Plain and simple, I like knowing what I’m getting into before doing something.

Because of this, while on the phone with my mother a day before the tasting, at the end of our conversation I asked, “By the way, do you know what scrapple is?”

“Oh yeah, Grandma use to like it!  It’s kind of a mixture of meat and fat, I think.” She replied.  

Meat and fat?  That didn’t sound too bad.  What was the big deal about that?

The next day, I told April that I had discovered what scrapple was, and that it didn’t seem like it was that strange.  She then told me that while yes, it was meat and fat, it wasn’t just any meat.  It was organ meat.  

Oh.

Again though, was this really information that needed to be kept away from me?  I mean, I eat hotdogs, and who knows what goes into those.  (Nobody tell me, I have a good enough idea.)  Now knowing the full meaning of the word scrapple, I decided to go into the review with an open mind, as one always should.

For the actual meal, Will wanted to make a traditional breakfast consisting of eggs over-easy, hash browns, and fried scrapple.  I have to say that the meal overall was excellent, with the eggs cooked perfectly (and only one accidently broken yolk, which wasn’t on my dish anyway), and the hash browns having a perfect crunch.  I hate soggy hash browns.

The scrapple itself was a bit odd.  It was fried, so it had the crunch that I really like in food, but besides that it didn’t really seem like anything that weird.  In fact, while eating the meal, I had a hard time knowing if what I was eating was the scrapple or the hash browns.  This is perhaps a downside to liking my food crunchy, as stuff that’s cooked that much starts to taste like carbon as opposed to their original flavor.

Focusing on a piece which I was sure was scrapple, I have to say that it wasn’t that bad.  I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t eat it alone, but it was a great addition to the eggs and hash browns.  I’d go as far as to say I would rather have this for breakfast instead of bacon and eggs, mostly because it’s easier to mix the scrapple with the eggs than it is the bacon with the eggs.  (I love mixing my food together.)

As a stand-alone item, however, I don’t think I would want to eat a meal consisting of nothing but scrapple.  It tasted very iron-y, which was a consistent reminder of just what it was I was eating.

I guess it’s pretty telling that most of this review was more about the buildup of the scrapple, than the scrapple itself.  It was made out to be this weird food that I wouldn’t eat if I knew the truth, but in the end it was just a decent breakfast item with nothing that remarkable about it.

 
                Micro-regional cuisine has been a fascination of mine ever since I first learned that every other country in the world aside from the United States thinks pumpkin pie is disgusting.  Sure, I knew that other countries had their exclusive odd foods that were pleasing only to the palates of their own people: Australia's Vegemite, Japan's natto, France's butter and chocolate on bread (yup, that's a thing, and better than you may think); but it was quite an eye-opener to find to that one of my own beloved childhood foods was amongst them.  

                How could something as delicious as pumpkin pie be so reviled everywhere else?  How do any of these foods manage to be so loved so strongly by so few?  Do we learn to love these foods, or are we genetically wired to?  Nature or nurture?  Soon I was seeking out every example of such foods I could find to try to satisfy my insatiable curiosity.

                Somehow in my quest to subject my own taste buds to every instance of "they love it in 'X'... but you wouldn't like it", I had neglected one from just a few scant miles to the south: Pennsylvania's scrapple.   Scrapple, for those unfamiliar with it, is a Pennsylvania Dutch invention that utilizes the left-over bits of pig that many would just discard.  The little scraps of meat too small to be used in anything else, as well as the pig's organs are combined with spices and corn meal, and then formed into a loaf.  Typically you then slice this loaf and pan-fry it.

                This sounded like the perfect subject for the blog, so after a couple weeks of soda and fast food, I suggested we try some scrapple.  To try to assuage the other's fears a bit, I extolled on its historical significance. "It is perhaps the first pork product invented in America!", I exclaimed.  "It was a very popular dish back in the day, but has fallen out of favor.", I continued, appealing to their sympathies.  April relented, but Kenny remained firm.  "It's perfectly traditional to have it with ketchup.", I offered finally.  In the end he accepted the challenge.

                Simply finding some scrapple turned out to be a little more difficult than I anticipated.  I knew I had seen vacuum-packed varieties in grocery stores in the past, but I had hoped to find a local butcher or deli that had fresher options.  This proved futile, though.  After several attempts, I finally found a supermarket that still carried 'pork mush'.  Out of other options I picked up a block of Hatfield brand lean scrapple, and prepared to fry it up.

                Unwrapping the Scrapple, I was immediately reminded of chicken liver pâté' in both its smell and appearance.  It smelled faintly of iron from the organ meat, and it was fairly firm to the touch.  My trusty chef's knife made quick work of it, as I sliced it into quarter-inch thick slices .  As the scrapple fried the iron smell was quickly overcome by the rich savory aroma of the pork, and smelled not at all unlike simple pork sausage.   After 10 minutes on each side I plated them up with some hash browns and eggs; opting for a restaurant-style vertical presentation for laughs, and served my nervous comrades.

                Now, perhaps this is due to the particular brand of scrapple I had found, but there is little to say about the flavor itself.  It tastes much like it smelled, similar to pork sausage: savory and salty, but with the addition of a slight iron taste from the offal.  The texture was soft, like pâté', but delightfully crispy on the outside.  It was fantastic dipped in the runny yolk from my eggs as well.  All in all I enjoyed it greatly, and would even order it instead of bacon or sausage as a breakfast meat occasionally.  I would like to try some other brands to see how they differ, assuming I can find them.

                I personally suggest giving this one a shot.  Even if you are put off by offal, the taste is much milder than one would expect, and adds a nice depth to the overall flavor.  It may not replace bacon in too many hearts, but it deserves a place on the breakfast table once-in-a-while.

 
                I had never heard of Scrapple, but from the way which Will spoke of it I was pretty sure that it would be one of those foods that would require me to be "open-minded". From his description, I had a general idea of what it was and contained-- also that it was a micro-regional favorite for certain areas of the American North East and that, though once a beloved breakfast treat, it has slowly fallen out of favor and then nearly completely out of knowledge (as many people I've spoken with have never heard of it). Not knowing too much about it in advance seemed the best way to avoid any sort of prejudice on my part when it came time for the tasting.

                The first part of our Scrapple adventure was trying to find it. Will had heard from a co-worker that it was available at Price Chopper, so we knew we could get the pre-packaged variety at the very least. The thought was that we could call around to local butchers (is that still a thing, even?) to see if some fresh Scrapple could be obtained; unfortunately, every butcher that we tried said that they didn't carry it at all anymore or that they only stock the pre-packaged kind.

                The brand of pre-packaged which we ended up trying was Hatfield. The ingredients are listed as: 

Pork Stock, Pork, Pork Livers, Pork Skins, Yellow Corn Meal, Pork Hearts, Whole Wheat Flour, Pork Tongue, Salt, Buckwheat Flour, sodium citrate, sodium diacetate, wheat flour, spices, dextrose, flavoring

                This list didn't immediately endear Scrapple to me (I even felt a little sick thinking about it), however I was not beyond the possibility that I could like it. For me, eating something that I haven't tried before (especially one containing more organ meat than I'd ever knowingly consumed in my life) is about making the choice not to remember the ingredients list. What I kept telling myself was that I'd checked on the ingredients to be sure that I could eat it and that it was going to taste like pork.

                For anyone interested in the nutritional values involved:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 2 oz.(56g)
Serv. Per Container 8

Amount Per Serving

Calories 90 
Calories from Fat 50
Total Fat
5g
Saturated Fat
2g
Cholesterol
35mg
Sodium
310mg
Total Carbohydrate
5g
Dietary Fiber
0g
Sugars
0g
Protein
5g
Vitamin A
30%
Vitamin C
4%
Calcium
0%
Iron
8%

                Uncooked Scrapple resembles a tightly-packed, rectangular block of corned-beef hash. It even smells like it a bit-- or perhaps cheap wet dog food. That isn't to say that it was completely unappetizing, but I wouldn't rely on aesthetics and aroma as the major selling-points; but that's not how food should be anyway. We all like when things look "pretty"-- but more than that I like things to taste good.

                The Scrapple was cut into slices, pan-fried, served on a bed of Will's homemade hash browns, and topped off with two over-easy eggs. Will went out of his way to make sure that Kenny and I could forget the pork hearts, skins, and other offal(organ meat) contained within our meals. The Scrapple itself was analogous in texture to a Boca Burger, but I discovered upon taking my first bite that-- unlike a Boca Burger-- Scrapple is good. 

                I'm not sure what I was expecting. Will had mentioned that organ meat is a bit metallic in flavor (because of the increased iron content-- the one aspect that ended up being an issue for me, as I need to watch how much iron I consume), but I didn't find it to be unpleasant. In fact, the denigration and disparaging rhetoric, which flies about in mixed company at the mere mention of Scrapple is a bit confusing to me. At the end of the day, Scrapple tastes like a mild, saltier bacon in patty form. It's rather good, even without any other food or condiment. 

                So this brings me to a question: Why is it that Scrapple fell out of favor? There are plenty of possible reasons, and likely not one that can answer the question in full, but to me it's more the fact that many people today are disgusted by Scrapple that is the greater mystery.

                I know a number of people who are completely willing to live on a steady diet of food that is mainly processed hydrogenated oils, soy, various chemicals, and despair, as long as they think that it will help them lose weight. The number of food dyes that we're willing to eat, just so that our food can "look nicer", is staggering. It wasn't until I was diagnosed with a metabolic disorder, on top of my food allergies, that I really began to question why I was okay with eating things that affect me so poorly-- and it's not just my situation which relegates these aforementioned additives to the "crap-for-your-body column". Others I've spoken with in my life have stated that they're perfectly happy eating chemicals, dyes, etc as long as they like how it tastes.

                Why not apply the same reasoning to something like Scrapple? Scrapple is tasty, and if one has a mental block about eating organ meat (as I had), it's easy enough to put that out of mind. It's not that everyone is going to like it, of course, but I believe that there are a number of people laboring under the impression that they wouldn't, even though they've never tried it. 

                In the end, the Scrapple itself didn't lead me to an "ah-ha" moment, but trying it did. I liked the Scrapple and would have it again, but I will either take it or leave it depending on my mood. It is yummy and I think the people should try it.  But I learned something about myself when I did; I had been completely convinced that I wasn't going to like it. Despite knowing much more than I used to about all of the crappy, hyper-processed foods that I've been eating for years, I still thought that this would be the grossest thing that I'd tried to date. It's not. If you're worried about the sodium or cholesterol for health reasons, or just flat-out hate organ meat, then it's probably not for you-- but this just goes to show that there are plenty of great options for a special breakfast treat that don't contain a minimum of forty ingredients.

                In the past few reviews we've tried foods which were comprised of some seriously nasty, heavily-processed ingredients. I knew this and thought that I cared, yet my only concern was whether or not any of the ingredients were a specific trigger for my condition. There were food dyes in the Doritos Locos Taco Shells, but I can have food dye in small amounts so I just didn't have any in the two days surrounding the tasting. The sodas had caffeine, which I can also only have in small amounts-- ergo, I only drank enough of each to get my impressions. I had convinced myself that I'm truly bothered by the things which are found in processed foods but if that is so, why is it that when I look at the other ingredients (MSG, partially-hydrogenated oils, chemical preservatives, etc), I don't feel the same level of enervation that came through when reading about what was in the Scrapple?

                Why had organ meat been more offensive to my sensibilities than Hot Pockets ever were?