American · Pennsylvania Dutch · main

Scrapple (Pannhaas)

Scrapple (Pannhaas) reads richness 8.8, umami 8.7 and salinity 5.3 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a American · Pennsylvania Dutch main, about 16 hr 45 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 8.8 · Umami 8.7 · Salinity 5.3 · Allium 3.8 · Sweetness 3.1 · Warm Spice 2.4 · Herbaceous 2.3 · Earthy 1.9 · Bitterness 1.9 · Nutty 1.8 · Heat 1.2 · Floral 0.9 · Sourness 0.8

What's in it (15)

Time & effort: about 16 hr 45 min (4 hr 45 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 105.3 kcal, 6.7 g protein, 6.6 g fat, 4.6 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

  1. Pannhaas — pan rabbit, a joke about a dish containing no rabbit whatsoever — is a butchering-day product. When a hog was killed in late autumn, the parts that could not be cured or sausaged were simmered down, the broth thickened with cornmeal and buckwheat into a loaf, and the loaf kept in a cold cellar for weeks and sliced off as needed. It is a preservation technology first and a breakfast second.
  2. Buckwheat is not a garnish here. Weaver is emphatic that the buckwheat-and-cornmeal combination is what distinguishes genuine Pennsylvania Dutch scrapple from the all-cornmeal commercial product; buckwheat gives the grey-brown colour and the slightly bitter, earthy note that makes scrapple taste of something other than pork mush. Any mill that stocks buckwheat flour for pancakes will do.
  3. Put the pork shoulder, liver, hocks, water, onions, bay and peppercorns in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil, skim off the grey scum thoroughly, then simmer 3 hours, until the shoulder shreds under a fork and the hocks have given up their gelatin and the broth is sticky on the lips.
  4. Strain the pot. Pull all the meat from the bones, discard the bones, skin, bay and peppercorns, and either chop the meat very fine or run it through the coarse plate of a grinder. Return the broth to the pot and boil it hard to reduce it to 2 litres.
  5. Whisk the cornmeal and buckwheat flour together and rain them into the simmering broth in a slow stream, whisking hard the whole time so no lumps form. Drop the heat to its lowest.
  6. Cook 45 minutes, stirring often with a wooden spoon and scraping the bottom and corners — it will spit like lava and it will catch if you leave it. It is done when a spoon stood in it stays upright.
  7. Stir the chopped meat back in with the savory, marjoram, salt, black pepper and nutmeg. Taste it, and be aggressive: it will taste noticeably less seasoned when cold.
  8. Pack into two greased loaf tins, smooth the tops, cool, then refrigerate at least 12 hours until completely firm. To eat it, turn out a loaf and cut slices 1 cm thick, dust them with nothing at all, and fry them in the lard over medium heat 6 minutes a side without moving them, until a hard dark crust forms. The inside should be creamy. Eat with apple butter or, in the Lehigh Valley, with maple syrup and an argument about which is correct.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.