Geo grew up on the Maryland Eastern Shore. Scrapple has a home there. It's easy to find in the grocery store, for sure, but it's also not too hard to find folks that make it themselves.
To little-Geo's horror, his family did just that. And when he saw what went into it, well, I'll let him tell the story:
I grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and can recall as a boy when my Dad, Aunts & Uncles would have a "hog killing" every year in the late Fall. One of my uncles was a farmer and supplied the animal.
I remember the first time I watched what went into scrapple, I swore I would NEVER eat any of that stuff! I watched with disbelief the huge cast iron pot over a wood fire, used to render down the "scraps" of EVERYTHING from that hog. After grinding the cooked solids, everything was returned to the pot; corn meal and spices were added to finish the recipe.
It didn't take too long to get past the memory of a hog killing and enjoy homemade fresh scrapple! Wow, who would have guessed that 60+ years later, I live 1,300 miles from the Shore but now make my own scrapple at home! No more scraps though, just Pork Shoulder, pigs feet and other pork delicacies! Yum!
One man's pork scraps is another child's nightmares and his adult self's delicacies.
Where were you when you first learned where scrapple comes from? Tell us about it in the comments!
Photo by thornypup via Flickr and the Creative Commons.
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