To the uninitiated, scrapple sounds gross: "Do you know what's in there? No way I'm eating that!" It's hard to really blame them.
But I've found if people understand the full history of scrapple and why it was initially created -- we've got all these left over pig parts and we need to feed our family -- people are a little bit more open to listening and trying.
That's why I gave this speech at my Toastmasters group:
Read More...Topics: first taste, scrapple origins, scrapple history
It's election season which, of course, got me thinking about scrapple. (but really, when am I not thinking about scrapple?)
Anyway, I wondered, have any of our Presidents been scrapple lovers?
I'm sure, of the 44 that have lived in the White House, several of them have enjoyed a slice or two of scrapple. But it looks like the only US President with any real evidence of eating scrapple in the White House is our 15th, President James Buchanan.
From Sarah Marshall's All the Presidents' Menus post:
While compiling this list I attempted as often as possible to learn not what the presidents ate at state functions and inaugural dinners but during their solitary breakfasts and family suppers—in other words, their comfort foods.
James Buchanan: Beef, mutton, venison, ham, terrapin, calf’s head dressed as terrapin, Pennsylvania Dutch specialties such as scrapple and succotash, moss rose cake, peach charlotte, Confederate pudding and Jeff Davis pie, grape pie, and ice cream.
This makes sense since he is also our only President from Pennsylvania, a state that knows a thing or two about scrapple. From PA to DC, Buchanan proudly brought one of his boyhood comfort foods along.
Read More...Topics: eating scrapple, scrapple history