More than you ever wanted to know about scrapple
I mentioned yesterday that I love reader Mark, who’s checking in from overseas to keep up on York County life.
Well, Mark really did his homework for me. After asserting that scrapple might not be German, and setting off what I fondly refer to as the Great Scrapple Uprising of Aught Eight, Mark did some further digging and updated me with the results. His findings:
Doing a Wiki-search for Panhas and translating the info, I have some very interesting info for all of you that are interested! Panhas IS a German recipe from the Westfall/Rheinland regions, includes (regionally) pork, bacon and/or beef ‘bits’ and is cooked with salt, papper, spices and flour to a slurry. The slurry is cooled but not gelled and then, hold your nose, blood is added. This slurry is then introduced into a sausage skin. The result is called a variety of names here – Blutwurst (blood sausage), Hackfleisch (ground meat without the skin – kinda like puddin) or Leberwurst (literally liverwurst). It is eaten cold or cooked (like scrapple is cooked) and served with grilled onions, salt potatos (kinda like a potato salad) and or sauerkraut.
So in reality, he writes, the origins are German. He adds: “This is an old recipe, and not normally favored by today’s generations. Blutwurst is readily available at butchers but the name Panhas has somewhat been phased out (at least in Austria and parts of Germany).”
For those of you who were upset, he writes: “I apologize for any unsettling chills I caused by saying scrapple was not German. In origin, it is and yes the immigrants modified it with what was available to make it what is is to us today. I hope this clears the air a little for you all.”
Meanwhile, he still contends King Syrup is the appropriate topping for scrapple. Reader and coworker Doug mentioned after my last scrapple post that he is known to eat his plain… or sometimes with maple syrup.
Sister-in-law Adriane swears it needs no enhancements.
So while I think they’ll all agree with you on the origins now, Mark, I think you’re out of luck in finding a taker on the syrup!!
