For anyone who didn't grow up in the Pennsylvania/Delaware/Maryland area, I'll explain. Scrapple is, to put it simply, all the parts of the pig left over after they've made sausage -- i.e. organs, ears, snout -- ground up and mixed with corn meal and spices. The mixture is formed into a brick, which is kind of grey-colored in raw form. To cook it, you cut it into slices and fry it.
This may sound gross to some, but it's one of Philly's most beloved foods, behind cheesesteaks of course. Ed Cunningham of WHYY made this video of how to make your own scrapple (albeit with not-so-scary pork products).One place that makes really great scrapple -- cut to just the right thickness, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside -- is the Art Museum diner on Fairmount Avenue and 24th. Don't let the sign "Demetri's Pizza" on the outside of the restaurant fool you, everyone calls this place "The Art Museum."
We took our friend and her Scottish boyfriend there the other weekend. He'd never had scrapple before, but we figured with a heritage of blood pudding and haggis, it'd be right up his alley. It was -- he polished off his plate in about as much time as it took me to put sugar in my coffee!
No comments:
Post a Comment