PA Dutch

I try to keep tradition alive with my daughters, but I married a damn hippie. I converted them all to scrapple, but they still can’t pronounce “syrup” right.

Anyway, if you haven’t ever had PA Dutch cooking, make this: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1938,152162-254206,00.html

The parsley is optional. There are only 4 spices in PA Dutch country: Salt, pepper, flour, and milk.

Forget about that, where’s your scrapple recipe?  It’s a little hard to find around here, but we can get goetta.  Similar.

I got nothing on that score. I looked through all the old church cookbooks and my grandma’s recipe notes. I guess it was just one of those things everybody knew how to make. If I know Grammie it was cornmeal and anything left from the pig all run through the grinder.

17 different recipies for Chow Chow, though.

Just another way to stretch out our porky friend. Scrapple and Goetta are similar to Boudin which however uses rice instead of buckwheat or oats.

Is there something that uses buckwheat?  Scrapple uses cornmeal and goetta uses oats.  The thing I like about goetta is how crisp it fries up.  The crust on scrapple is thinner, and it’s a bit more delicate to handle.  Goetta is more forgiving to cook, too.  Never had boudin; I’ll have to look for it.

From wikipedia:

[quote]Scrapple, also known by the Pennsylvania Dutch name pon haus,[1][2] is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices.
[/quote]

But I just see a pack of it by the sausage locally. Never tried it but I will. Some say Boudin is an acquired taste or maybe too spicy. Far from the truth.

Do you cook goetta and boudin the same way as scrapple?

Slice it and fry it.  Goetta comes in a tube/roll like bulk sausage for patties, so you usually get them as round pieces looking like paler but crisper sausage patties.  Scrapple is usually in a block, so I guess it’s more like fried cornmeal mush but with porky goodness.  The pieces are rectangular, usually.

I found one of the things to learn with scrapple is how to slice it so that it’s still soft on the inside while the outside is crisp.  I remember ordering scrapple at a Baltimore restaurant when the NHC was there and getting something that was totally crisp, like a cracker.  Not nearly as good.  I’m guessing it’s about 3/8" thick when sliced properly.  Too thick and it will fall apart when you try to flip it.

In 1926 two brothers from Bridgeville, Delaware founded the RAPA Scrapple manufacturing plant. The brothers were named Ralph Adams and Paul Adams.

The Original flavor of RAPA Scrapple has been around since the founding of the company. This famous recipe is moderately seasoned with a natural spice blend. It is cooked in cast iron kettles for the old-fashioned flavor that made RAPA famous!

Ingredients
Pork Stock, Pork Livers, Pork Fat, Pork Snouts, Corn Meal, Pork Hearts, Wheat Flour, Salt, Spices.

Back on topic:  I make a Potato Soup with Rivals recipe originally from Jeff Smith that is dyno-mite!
Love that stuff

It wasn’t the Bel-Loc diner, was it? And yeah, 3/8" sounds about right. I would’ve said 1/2", but I never measured my scrapple that carefully.

Dunno.  It was awhile ago.  Walking distance from the conference hotel, maybe 5-10 minutes.  Seemed like an old-fashioned kind of greasy spoon diner.  Would have expected better from a place with that kind of vibe, unless that’s some kind of local way of eating it.

Baltimore usually sucks for scrapple.

Boudin is considered a sausage and presented in natural casings. I have seen it out of the casing. The sausages can be steamed, grilled, baked, smoked, and micro’d. I wouldn’t boil it though. Don’t know about Goetta, but looks and sounds similar to boudin.

Goetta isn’t like a link sausage; it doesn’t have a casing.  I just checked out the wikipedia entry for it; looks fairly accurate.  The picture on the top is pretty much how you buy it.

Yummm, Chow Chow.  Getting to be time to can up this season’s batch.

Love it!  Scrapple, Goetta (especially), Haggis…all great comfort food in my book.  I first discovered Goetta on a visit to Cincinnati  around 34 years ago. It’s really easy to make at home too!

In the casing  type ‘extended’ sausage department, I’ve always  had a particular fondness for the Hungarian rice and meat sausage, Hurka (the meat therein usually being what some consider nasty bits…not me!).  It’s a bit like Polish Kiska, though hasa looser texture.  The version of Hurka that  contains some  blood in the mix is actually rather like Boudin Noir.

I’m eating less of this stuff than I once did, but when I do have any of these, I make my own from scratch and really savor every bit.

Gordon, I’ll go through my dad’s file and dig out his really fine scrapple recipe for you.  It really is about the best I ever had (though I guess I’m biased).  ;D

Now I want to make my own scrapple, dangit. We usually buy Jones. I’m pretty happy with that.

But seriously, if you’ve never had potato rivels, you should try it. One giant gloppy mess of gelatinous comfort food. With a pat of butter on top.

You have to get a scrapple terrine to make scrapple right.

The Amish sell them up theres around Lancaster. I think they are about $100. It is porcelain iron rectangle with a really heavey lid that fits inside so to compress. I think you cook with that in a water bath in the oven.

I have a big freezer bag full of homemade scrapple my dad brought down the last time he came to visit.  He makes it about once a year.  I can still remember my grandparents cooking it up in a big iron kettle on butcher day every year.  I really need to get that recipe from him.

I would love to see that recipe.

This recipe interesting. http://philadelphia.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=philadelphia&cdn=citiestowns&tm=8&f=10&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.recipesource.com/main-dishes/breakfast/00/rec0017.html

I remember being at the Amish wares store and they told me that you need this special terrine to make scrapple the  correct way. He was talking about the density.

MAybe they were just trying to pussh this stuff on the English tourists.