Can’t Spell ScrappleFest Without C-R-A-P

By: Jeff Vogel, posted Mar 24, 2009 at 3:00 pm

scrapple

Pennsylvania’s culinary claim to fame shame is scrapple, the repugnant meat-mush made from waste parts of a pig and cornmeal and/or flour. Typically served as a breakfast food (presumably to people you hate), scrapple was the star of the show at the 2009 ScrappleFest at Reading Terminal Market last weekend. Sandwiches held their own in the competition as Carmen’s Famous Italian Hoagies took home the bronze for their scrapple cheesesteak, though it appears scrapple was merely an addition to the traditional steak sandwich. Another was Dutch Eating Place’s traditional scrapple, egg and cheese sandwich. We just hope this doesn’t start some sort of fad where we see scrapple infused sandwiches popping up all over the city.

So, what do you think about scapple? Is it the perfect compliment to a sandwich, or just utterly disgusting?

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Viewing 9 Comments

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    Scrapple has to be crispy for me to eat it! With alittle bit of ketchup...yum...I'm sorry I missed ScrappleFest, I would have loved to taste the vrapple.
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    I love your blog, but this was a pretty lame post. First of all: I think it's a little bit silly to refer to the things that go into scrapple as "waste parts". Food is food. People eat heart, liver, snout, and anything else that goes into scrapple on its own in various prats of the world -- and the production of the product is far less sickening to me than that of the hot dog (which is also delicious). I don't know if scrapple's place is on a sandwich -- I can't imagine the scrapple steak being that great and I prefer a bacon egg and cheese to the scrapple egg and cheese (which is nothing new, being available at almost any food truck in the city), But fried in a little bit of butter and with a touch of ketchup on the side, scrapple is a damn tasty breakfast meat.

    That isn't to say that scrapplefest was anything awe inspiring. Waiting in line to try a piece of scrapple that I could (and later did) make myself at home was boring. I was excited to try the Vrapple after reading about it on I think phoodie, but that was by far the low point of the day.

    Sure, scrapple seems gross in concept -- but so does foie gras, blood pudding, caviar, and a scrapload of other foods I'd love to have in my mouth right now.
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    What?! Scrapple is awesome and is definitely a claim to fame for Pennsylvania. Who cares what it is made out of it tastes great! I mean hot dogs are made of pretty much the same thing but you eat those don't you?I love scrapple and it is the perfect compliment to a sandwich.
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    Full disclosure: I only eat kosher hot dogs for the same reason: kosher meat specifically forbids most of the ingredients in typical hot dogs (and scrapple.)
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    Jeff, thanks for the full disclosure, I was going to call you out on your swine-eating habits.

    Many people who turn up their nose at scrapple will gladly scarf down a hot dog, which in most cases also contains offal, fillers, etc. I don't know if its elitism or ignorance, but there is a lot of baseless hate for scrapple out there.

    And while I agree that Hebrew National, Empire, et al do produce higher quality hot dogs, I don't believe there are any kosher restrictions relating to offal in hot dogs besides the fact that there can't be blood and some restrictions to the casing. So kosher != no heart, lungs, etc.
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    oh yeah plenty of fillers, artificial flavors, preservatives and what not are also kosher, be careful out there..
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    Here's some great info about what constitutes a kosher dog:
    http://www.hot-dog.org/ht/d/sp/i/38598/pid/38598
    http://www.bests-kosher.com/whatIsKosher.html
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    Do I smell a new Sandwich 101 post?
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    I grew up with scrapple and love it to this day!

    There's an article posted in Reading Terminal Market with the perfect quote, calling scrapple "a poor man's terrine." I think that gives it the respect it is due.

    Heck, offal is more natural and identifiable than the chemicals in a certain frozen blended coffee drink, or in some fast food items. I order it for breakfast whenever I'm in Philly. I'd keep it at home, too, but Rapa requires a 6-pound minimum for online orders. I love scrapple, but I also love lower cholesterol levels. ;) Scrapple is an occasional treat, like cheesesteaks.
 

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