Oatmeal Scrapple

Scrapple is the great Pennsylvania Dutch breakfast meat (a way to use every part of the pig and feed a farmhouse table). This version uses oatmeal instead of the more traditional cornmeal, which gives it a coarser, nuttier texture and a slightly heartier bite.

The recipe is essentially a long-cooked pork porridge poured into pans and chilled until firm enough to slice. Lean pork and a meaty bone simmer together until the meat falls apart, then everything goes through a food chopper before getting stirred back into the cooking liquid with oatmeal, salt, pepper, and onion juice. An hour of slow cooking thickens it into a paste that sets up firm in oblong loaf pans.

The payoff comes the next morning. Sliced thick, fried in hot fat until the outside is dark and crackling and the inside stays soft, scrapple is the kind of breakfast that powers through a farm chore list.

Pro Tips

• Use a meaty pork shoulder or butt with bone in. The collagen from the bone is what gives the scrapple its sliceable, sliceable texture once chilled.
• Cook the oatmeal porridge slowly and stir often. The oats sink and scorch on the bottom of the pan if left alone, ruining the entire batch.
• Pour the hot mixture into pans lined with parchment or plastic wrap. Unlined pans grip the cold scrapple and you’ll wreck the loaves trying to free them.
• Chill at least 8 hours, ideally overnight. Warm or partially cooled scrapple falls apart in the frying pan.
• Slice ½-inch thick and fry in lard or bacon fat for the crispiest, most traditional crust.

Variations

• Replace half the oatmeal with cornmeal for a more traditional Pennsylvania Dutch scrapple flavor.
• Add 1 teaspoon of dried sage and ½ teaspoon of thyme to the simmering pot for an herb-forward, breakfast-sausage-like seasoning.
• Serve fried slices with maple syrup, applesauce, or a fried egg on top for the classic farmhouse breakfast plate.