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Pennsylvania Scrapple

A savory pork mixture made with head, liver, cornmeal, spices, boiled, sliced, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pennsylvania Scrapple

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the pig's head and liver as you would for head cheese.

  2. Chop the meat finely and return it to the boiling liquid.

Make the mush

  1. Stir in enough Indian meal until the mixture resembles mush.

  2. Add pepper, coarse sea salt, and sweet marjoram to taste.

  3. Boil for one hour, stirring often.

Set and fry

  1. Pour the mixture into shallow pans.

  2. Once cooled, cut into slices and fry until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Liver + marjoramtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together144 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pig's head
Provides meat and gelatinous body that helps the scrapple hold together when cooled.
Pig's liver
Adds rich, deep flavour and body to the meat mixture.
Indian meal (cornmeal)
Thickens the liquid into a mush that sets firm once cooled.

The step that matters

Stirring the mush while it boils. Cornmeal settles and scorches on the bottom of the pot if it is not stirred often, which gives a burnt taste and uneven texture. Frequent stirring keeps the starch evenly dispersed so the mixture thickens smoothly.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper. 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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