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To Make Philadelphia Scrapple

A savory loaf made from pork heads, cornmeal, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Make Philadelphia Scrapple

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Cook the pigs' heads and any additional meats (feet, tails, scraps, liver, lard) until the meat falls away from the bones.

  2. Remove all bones, cartilage, and gristle from the cooked meat.

  3. Strain the cooking liquid to remove small bones.

Make and set the scrapple

  1. Mix the strained liquid with the ground cornmeal and season with salt, pepper, and optional herbs.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold and let it cool until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Meat + thymetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,008 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Thickens the cooking liquid into a firm mass that sets when cooled.
Pigs' heads
Supply the meat and gelatin-rich liquid that give the scrapple its body and flavor.

The step that matters

Strain the cooking liquid. Small bones and gristle left in the liquid can end up in the set loaf and be unpleasant to eat. Straining removes them before the cornmeal is stirred in, so the final texture is smooth and the cornmeal can bind the liquid properly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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