The Odd Bits
Once the food of royals, offal and the odd bits are delicacies in some cultures — yet strange and unusual to many.
Originating from the Pennsylvania Dutch, Amish and Mennonite communities in the U.S., scrapple is a dish designed to use leftover scraps of pork, blended with cornmeal and flour to form a semi-solid loaf that can be fried for breakfast or sandwiches. Little learned to make this dish while working Boucherie Lawrence's eponymous restaurant. It's rich, comforting and versatile, so the pig's head can be replaced with any type of off al, even bacon, ham or sausage.
Ingredients
To cook the pig's head
- 1/2 pig's head*
- 1 large onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 celery stalks
- 2 bay leaves
- 10 sprigs of thyme
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1/2 bunch parsley
- 2 cups cornmeal
- 1 white onion, peeled & diced
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
- salt to taste
About this recipe
Clean the pig head by removing any hair with a sharp knife. Place in a large pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes, scimming any scum that floats to the top. Turn the pot down to a simmer and add vegetables, herbs and peppercorns. Cook until the meat comes clean off the bone. Remove the pig head from the pot and when cool, shred the meat, fat and skin and chop roughly.
Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan and add 2 cups of cornmeal. When cooked, add the chopped pork and fat, onion, spices and salt to taste.
Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and pour in the scrapple (meat and cornmeal). Cover with plastic wrap and let set overnight.
In the morning, slice the scrapple into one-inch slices and pan fry with butter and serve with your favourite style of eggs.
*A good butcher should be able to get you 1/2 a pig's head, but if you can only find the whole head, this recipe can be doubled and frozen or made to serve a crowd.
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