Scrapple V1.0 , prototype

Wart

Banned
Wife was cleaning out the pantry and came across a bag of polenta. It didn't look to buggy so Wife made polenta for dinner, I put the leftover in a small bread pan and , golly, made my first Cornmeal Mush.

Then a thread here on NCT reminded me of scrapple and I figured why not give it a shot.

So using what I had on hand I made a brick to see how well it worked, a prototype. Scrapple V1.0:

4 cups water (sort of*)
1 cup Polenta*
6 ounces link sausage
2 ts garlic granules
1 ts basel

(see NOTES*)
(click the pics to see larger versions)

I had a 12oz pack of Johnsonville Maple Syrup link breakfast sausages on hand so I took half a pack and pealed them:



squashed them together into a patty:



and slow cooked them into an ugly little burger in the bottom of the sauce pan:



Which I then put in a food processor and chopped real fine:



While I was playing at chopping the sausage I put 4 cups of water in the pan and brought it to a boil and added the polenta.

I have a picture, it's more boring than the rest.

The polenta is suppose to be boiled/ cooked for ~20 minutes with regular stirring. As polenta cooks it thickens to a point the escaping steam "plops" out of the corn meal. BEFORE the polenta reached the plop point I stirred in the garlic, meat and basel. I continued cooking until the mixture was thick.

I then poured into a smallish bread pan:



It's now Scrapple.

I let the scrapple cool for quite a while then covered with plastic and chilled in a 37 degree fridge overnight.

Next morning I cut the scrapple:




Fried it (another boring picture) and got this:



And now for the notes:

I used Polenta (coarser grind than cornmeal) because it was old and needed used. Next time I make scrapple it will probably be with cornmeal. Probably call the thread V2.0

6 ounces of meat is NOT ENOUGH!!! The only definite flavor to come through was the maple.

I looked at one recipe, it said to boil the meat. I thought , No. I didn't want to boil flavor out, wanted to make sure all the grease got in, figured boiling would introduce an unmeasurable amount of water. and I wanted to mince/ chop the meat to minimize structural problems.

I think hte meat could have been cooked a bit browner, it would have added a bit more flavor.

I cook by weight, before I started I set the scale to the pans tare. After removing the meat from the pan I set the pan on the scale and filled it till the scale read 32 ounces. I forgot to take note of how much pork fluid was in the pan, it wasn't much.

When I measured the polenta I tapped to settle the polenta in the cup, and the cup was slightly rounded. I believe the Polenta weighed 6.5 ounces.

When making polenta mush in accordance with the instructions measurements (1 C Polenta & 4 C Water) the mush seeped water. This time it didn't seep so much because, I believe, of being heavy on polenta and the meat.

The fried slices in the picture were cut in varying thicknesses between as thin as I could to ~ 1/4 inches thick. I like the thicker cuts better than the thin, I think.

Also, after two days in the fridge the scrapple cut better.

Flavor and texture:

This was no where near as heavy of flavor as the store bought scrapple. Of course I'm not using pig renderings as a fluid. This needs more meat, and definitely meat without the maple. Next batch I think I'll try 12 ounces plane pork.

The texture is light and pleasant.

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gadzooks

Member
Wart has the right idea, sort of. The meat needs to be fatty (do not trim or skim), and ground fine. We always boiled the meat and whatever seasonings, then added the cornmeal after the meat looked done and cooked another twenty minutes or so. Chill in greased loaf pans. And think a moment...pig renderings include boiled hooves and cartilege, which means gelatin. Binds the stuff, gives it a nice, even texture.
 
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Wart

Banned
Wart has the right idea, sort of. The meat needs to be fatty (do not trim or skim), and ground fine. We always boiled the meat and whatever seasonings, then added the cornmeal after the meat looked done and cooked another twenty minutes or so. Chill in greased loaf pans. And think a moment...pig renderings include boiled hooves and cartilege, which means gelatin. Binds the stuff, gives it a nice, even texture.

Thanks.

Gelatin ... Thinking ... Thinking ... Knox. I 'rendered' ham bone and put back some of the fluids. However since not everyone has ham bone renderings I think next time I'll add some Knox.

Something about boiling meat just doesn't seem right to me. Meat is to be fried or baked or roasted or best of all grilled or Q'ed, but not boiled. OTOH, and there is always the other hand, it would serve to breaking down the connective tissues in the meat. ... You got me thinking I'll boil/simmer the meat, drain well, record the amount of liquid, and weigh and process the meat. Once I get the recipe worked out these steps will probably be unnecessary. Who hasn't been curious about how much fat and connective tissue are really in a pound of Jimmy Dean (sic).

So far the greased pan hasn't been needed, otoh I haven't used gelatin.

Back when I was just a little kid (1962 ~ 65? Hell, hard to remember) I went to the butcher shop with Dad. This shop ran under the radar then, today the shop would stroke out a health inspector. This shop had a cauldron of bubbling goo with nondescript stuff floating in it, that goo smelt so good, I was told not to touch it, the stuff would make me sick or kill me ... I now understand it was their rendering pot.
 

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
Excellent post, Wart! Great instructions and pictures!

I loved the seasonings in my attempt at scrapple, but they just made it taste like sausage.

So, what do you think about using sausage and fresh pork hocks? The hocks would provide the gelatin, and the sausage the flavor. Grind it all together really fine.

The yellow cornmeal in mine was pretty good.

Lee
 
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