Where Does the Word Scrapple Come From?

So where does the word scrapple come from?

"Scrapple? It’s made from the scraps of the pig left over after they make all the other meat.  Scraps…scrapple. Get it?"

Seems an easy enough explanation, right? And completely wrong, according to William Woys Weaver in his book, Country Scrapple.

Williams Woys Weaver instead says that the word actually stems from scrapple’s German parent, Panhas. Or more specifically, "a slice of Panhas."

Scrapple as a food has its origins with the Pennsylvania Dutch, who in Germany called it Panhas.

"Hey, Bram, cut me a slice of panhas, man!" might not have been an uncommon phrase spoken in Pennsylvania back in the day. Only instead of "a slice," he would have said kröppel. So "a slice of panhas" would have been spoken as panhaskröppel.

But say the word panhaskröppel around a bunch of English-speaking Philadelphians and it just sounds like gibberish to them.

English guy: Wait, did you say scrapple?
German guy: Nein
English guy: Frank, he says this delicious stuff is called scrapple.
German guy: ::shake my head::

And the word scrapple was born.

But that explanation is kind of long and boring, and takes away from a lot of the shock and awe of introducing people to this delicious breakfast meat. So how about we keep the truth between you and me and just keep telling people it's all about the scraps? Cool? Cool.

Photo by giveawayboy via Flickr and Creative Commons.