SCAPPLE AMISH FULL

Scrapple is not only decidedly anti-cosmopolitan-it's anti-change, as well. He was having to eat pork chops for breakfast.” Strauss describes the account of one Pennsylvanian who moved to cosmopolitan New York City in the 1870s, only to find himself in a cold, scrapple-less world: “He couldn’t find anything like it in New York.

SCAPPLE AMISH FULL

Although these urban transplants were no longer farmers by trade, they could honor their agricultural roots (and stay full in an inexpensive, delicious manner) by eating the beloved dish.Īlthough it made its way out of the farmlands and into the city, scrapple struggled to gain traction outside of the mid-Atlantic region, mainly due to its reputation as a “catch-all” food made from butchering scraps, only suitable for working country people, Strauss explains. The pork product was no longer just a thrifty food, but a comfort to workers as they navigated this transition sold at the public market, Philly’s Reading Terminal Market, it went fast: “Scrapple went from being something that was a household breakfast meat on the farm, to quality, working-class food at the factory,” Strauss explains. Philadelphia had begun to lead the nation in industrial textile, ship, and oil production, luring generational farmers away from agricultural work. Simple, hearty, and inexpensive, scrapple became a dietary staple, and remained a go-to source of protein for the country-dwelling settlers for the following centuries.Īccording to Strauss, the 1800s was the first time scrapple made any notable appearance outside of a farmland setting-and only because ex-farmers-turned-industrial-workers grew nostalgic for it. The cornmeal allowed the German settlers to stretch trimmings (brain, snout, eyes, probably the oink) into more meals than eating the meat alone would provide. “They mixed cornmeal with all of the leftover scraps from their day’s butchering and voila-scrapple was born,” Strauss says. Their solution arose when they encountered Indigenous maize, which, at that point, was already being dried and ground into meal by the Algonquin and Iroquois peoples of the area.

Scapple amish