Some links may be affiliate links. I may earn money if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these links on this site.
Rob Knowlan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
National Scrapple Day 2024
Another comfort food that I don’t specifically associate with November or 🍂Autumn🍂 has its own day. Today is National Scrapple Day, if you can imagine. Let’s dig in.
Break Out The Syrup
What nicer thing can you do for somebody than make them breakfast? ~Anthony Bourdain
Naturally, you can eat scrapple at any meal, but it’s typically considered a breakfast staple.
Some people consider it an old school Frankenfood, but it’s actually relatively simple in its composition.
Pork fat, liver and side cuts mixed with cornmeal and buckwheat turns into a sort of pork polenta. The foie gras of the Pennsylvania Dutch, if you will.
Of course, gormands the world over would hunt you down and spear you with salad forks if you drizzled maple syrup on actual foie gras, but that’s neither here nor there.
This hearty breakfast griddle meat is meant to be enjoyed with or without the benefit of a drizzle of syrup and no geese are harmed in the process.
If you’ve never had it, I encourage you to give it a try. A chilly 🍂Autumn🍂 weekend is the perfect time to try this hearty Pennsylvania comfort food for breakfast, brunch or any time of day.
Scrapple, Now Onct
Stoltzfus Meats Scrapple: How scrapple is made and how to cook scrapple
I grew up in the borderlands between the Greater Philadelphia Area and Dutch Wonderland. We watched Philly news and UHF channels, but life was more deep suburban / rural with a basic Mennonite simplicity.
We had a lot of German place names and German family names around us. The food and the warm family nature of my old stomping grounds still informs who I am today.
I love Pennsylvania and the Dutchy treats I grew up with. Shoo Fly Pie, Apple Butter and Whoopie Pies are old favorites that I cannot currently enjoy, but am looking forward to adding back in sparingly.
Scrapple can be included in my current A1C repair diet in moderation, but as it turns out buckwheat is actually good for me. Who knew?
I’ll be giving buckwheat products a try since it is a low to moderate glycemic index grain with nutritional fiber and magnesium. Fire up that porridge, y’all.
Old School Synthesis
As soon as chemists have a definite conception of the internal structure of the molecule of an organic compound, they are able to tackle the task of producing these substances by artificial methods, i.e. by synthesis, as we call it. ~Otto Wallach
I can’t help but wonder who came up with such a thing. I guess it’s a kind of caseless sausage-like food that could be readily made on frontier farmsteads.
Necessity is the mother of invention. I imagine that, given the inclusion of cornmeal, that it was invented over here as an alternative to sausage.
It’s amazingly random inventions like this that tend to inspire me. I mean, what made someone think to add this to that and come up with scrapple?
My brain feels like scrapple. I’ve had a really long week and I’m looking forward to taking some time away to regain my bearings.
As before, no matter how hard I double down, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for me to catch up on everything that’s on my plate.
One could conclude that this is an amazingly bad time for a vacation, since not working at all will certainly not get any of my work done and will put everything a week later than it already is.
On the other hand, one could conclude that this is the absolute perfect time for a vacation, because I’m worn out and pretty frustrated with my inability to catch up.
Taking some time away and not even really thinking about work or other stressors is going to do wonders for my overall wellbeing.
Hopefully, with a hard stop on work and a change of scenery, I’ll be more inspired to make some serious progress on The Lights of Pine Hollow.
I’ve just been too worn out mentally from work to process a coherent creative thought for this year’s Holiday Season Serial Romance.
Actually getting a good night’s sleep and not having to jump right back on the treadmill should help me get back on track. I hope so, anyway…
Oh, hey, while I’m thinking of it, I’m not sure if I mentioned that I had created a menu item on Christmas All The Time where people can easily find and read the previous 5 stories on the site.
In the original serial form, you can read post by post for free. If you’re like me and prefer the feel of a nice paperback in hand, you can always go to Amazon and grab a copy.
That’s it for today. Fry up some scrapple and eggs if you care to. I hope you have a wonderful scrapple weekend.