Bill's Recipes

Scrapple

Julia Child's Scrapple Recipe
4 cups sausage meat preferably homemade, about 1½ pound
4 cups pork stock or beef meat stock
1 tablespoon or more fragrant sage leaf
   or 1 teaspoon ground sage
1 cup yellow cornmeal.
½ cup cold water
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
pepper

Sauté sausage meat in a large frying pan until it is no longer pink. Break up with fork. About 5 minutes. Drain out the fat.

Bring the stock to a boil adding sage to taste. Mix the cornmeal with the cold water in a bowl and then whisk in a cupful of the hot stock. Return cornmeal to stock and bring to a boil whisking slowly and cook for 5 minutes or more until mixture is thick, like cornmeal mush. Cover pan, set in a larger pan of simmering water and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from pan of hot water and boil over moderately hit heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until cornmeal is thick and heavy and holds its shape in a spoon — the thicker the better, so that it will unmold and slice easily later.

Beat the cooked and drained sausage meat into the cornmeal, breaking it up so that it will blend nicely and boil, stirring and beating for 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in eggs. Taste carefully for seasoning; scrapple is traditionally fragrant with sage and highly seasoned.

Oil an 8 cup loaf pan, line bottom of pan with wax paper, and turn the cornmeal mixture into it. Cover with wax paper and aluminum foil and bake for an hour or more in a preheated 350ºF oven until mixture is swelled and bubbling hot.

Remove from oven, place a board on top of the scrapple (over the wax paper and foil) and a 5 pound weight and let cool. When cold, remove weight and board, cover airtight and chill.

Once baked in its pan, scrapple will keep for at least 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. It can be frozen; however, pork products tend to lose texture and savor after two months in the freezer.

To serve run a knife around inside of mold, then set mold on top of stove to heat and loosen bottom; unmold onto a cutting board. Slice into serving pieces about 3/8 inch thick. Dredge lightly in cornmeal and brown on both sides in oil.

Serve for breakfast with fried or poached eggs, or fried apple slices; or use as a dinner meat, accompanying the scrapple with green vegetables such as broccoli or cabbage, or a green salad or cole slaw.