The Scrapple Off

Chefs Sam DiBattista and Justin Severino go head to head, cooking pig bits

Scrapple, the iconic food of the interior Mid-Atlantic region, is a hodgepodge of boiled leftover pig. The basic recipe is this: boil any porcine scraps—muscle meat clinging to bones, kidney, feet, skin, head or whatever else you have left over—mix it with spices and some cornmeal, wheat and buckwheat, and let the sludge cool. Then you fry it.

A simple description of the crispy brown mush that was popularized by Pennsylvania Dutch settlers doesn’t sound terribly delightful. Still, it’s always best to keep an open mind about these things, right? Some of the most delicious dishes are built on the throwaways. “Every culture, especially the poor people, always used the whole animal. We all have our version of this,” says Sam DiBattista, owner and executive chef of Vivo in Sewickley.

He was participating in a just-for-fun “Scrapple-Off” with Justin Severino of Cure in Lawrenceville.

“We love the leftover parts. Not everybody does, but that’s part of our tradition. Give me a pig’s head any day,” DiBattista adds.

Still, most of us aren’t farmers who need to economize every last scrap of the animal we raised. But that doesn’t mean that scrapple and its international cousins need to be something that’s just a county fair curiosity. “It’s the same reason charcuterie exists. It’s about preserving the animal and nourishing the family,” says Severino.

It’s about respecting the life of the creature on your plate. There’s no reason to be scared of eating a liver, a foot, or even a face. In fact, it’s a sign of the times chefs and, to a lesser extent, home cooks, are purchasing whole animals and using every last bit of it.

Since there isn’t the same time crunch that forced the Amish settlers to throw everything in one pot, chefs are eager to play a bit with what goes into their scrapple. In fact, when the two chefs got together for the “Scrapple Off” they both independently decided to embrace their Italian roots.

DiBattista prepared a terrine of pork shoulder and trotters (feet) spiked with early-season chanterelle mushrooms. Severino’s coppa di testa—better known as head cheese—turned cheek, tongue, and face fat into slices of rich salumi.

It’s a reminder that we ought to overcome our inhibitions and try something new. As Dibattista says, “Why would you want to waste something that can taste so good?”

Scrapple is brought to vivid life by Scratch Food and Beverage Chef Andrew Szuminsky. Click here for the recipe!

By Hal B. Klein // Photography by Adam Milliron