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Philadelphia Scrapple

A savory loaf made from pork heads, water, spices, Indian meal, and buckwheat flour, sliced and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Buckwheat and flour work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 660 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Philadelphia Scrapple

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Remove the eyes, brains, snout, and other inedible parts from the pork heads.

  2. Place the pork heads in a large pot with 20 gallons of water and cook until thoroughly done.

  3. Remove the cooked heads, separate the bones, and chop the meat finely.

  4. Measure 15 gallons of the cooking liquid; adjust with hot water if necessary.

Make the scrapple

  1. Combine the cooking liquid with the chopped meat, white pepper, marjoram, and salt in a kettle. Bring to a boil.

  2. Mix the Indian meal and buckwheat flour together in a separate bowl.

  3. Gradually add the meal and flour mixture to the boiling liquid while stirring briskly to prevent burning.

  4. Cook until well done, then pour the mixture into greased pans to cool.

Slice and serve

  1. Cut the cooled scrapple into slices.

  2. Fry the slices like sausage. Serve hot.

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. Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Marjoram + buckwheattop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pork + marjoramtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together883 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pork + buckwheattop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork heads
Provide the meat and gelatin that bind the scrapple as it cools and sets.
Indian meal
Thickens the cooking liquid and gives the loaf its body so it can be sliced.
Buckwheat flour
Adds further starch to thicken the mixture and gives a firmer set when cooled.
White pepper
Adds warm, sharp seasoning to the meat and cooking liquid.
Sweet marjoram
Adds a floral, herbal aroma that flavors the scrapple.

The step that matters

Stirring in the meal and flour. Adding the cornmeal and buckwheat mixture to boiling liquid without constant brisk stirring causes lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pot. Starch granules swell and gelatinize as they heat, so they must be dispersed evenly before the mixture thickens.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, marjoram, buckwheat, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, marjoram, buckwheat, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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