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Scrapple

Scrapple is a pork head and cornmeal mixture cooked and chilled into a loaf.

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 ↓

Scrapple

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Boil the cleaned pig's head in enough water until all the meat leaves the bones.

  2. Chop the meat finely.

  3. Chill the cooking liquid until the grease can be removed.

  4. Bring the liquid to a boil.

  5. Add the chopped meat.

Make the mush

  1. Season with salt and white pepper.

  2. Slowly add the corn meal.

  3. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to boil.

  4. Cook for one hour.

  5. Stir for the first ten minutes.

  6. Let it simmer.

Mold and chill

  1. Pour the mixture into molds.

  2. Chill thoroughly before serving.

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. Corn + marjoramtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Corn + thymetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together364 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. White pepper + marjoramtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's head
Supplies the meat and collagen from bones and skin that gives the set loaf its body.
Corn meal
Its starch thickens the cooking liquid as it heats, giving the mixture structure that firms when chilled.

The step that matters

Slowly add the corn meal while stirring constantly. Corn meal added in a stream and stirred continuously disperses evenly. Dumped in at once, its starch clumps before it can hydrate, leaving lumps and an uneven texture.

“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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