What is National Scrapple Day?
On November 9th, the first pork dish to be invented in the United States is commemorated on National Scrapple Day. It is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings mixed with cornmeal, wheat flour, and spices, such as sage, thyme, savory, and black pepper, for those not familiar with scrapple. The mush is then turned into a semi-solid loaf, which can be cut and pan-fried.
Scrapple is also known by the Pennsylvania Dutch word pon haus, and the immediate ancestor of scrapple was the Low German dish panhas. Local settlers modified the dish to make use of locally available ingredients. Pannhaas, panhoss, ponhoss, or pannhas are also present in Pennsylvania's parts. Pannhaas, panhoss, ponhoss, or pannhas are still popular.
German colonists who settled near Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania, developed the first recipes for scrapple during the 17th and 18th centuries. Many people are strongly associated with scrapple with rural areas around Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, eastern Virginia, and the Delmarva Peninsula, despite such rich history.
- In both refrigerated and frozen cases, supermarkets provide scrapple throughout the region
