| Vegan Philly-Style Scrapple |
I saw aphoto of some Vegan Scrapple the other day and thought that it would not meetthe mark with me.
But quitefrankly I can longer eat a lot of meat or meat by-products because of healthreasons. Organ meat from inside theanimal is supposed to be high in cholesterol.
So rather than be disappointed by yet anothertoo expensive “Vegetarian” meat substitute that tastes like Play-Doh(figuratively speaking), I decided to make my own Vegan Philly-Style Scrapple.
And thePhilly kind has always been the Pennsylvania Dutch version. The Pennsylvania“Dutch” were of course “Deutsche” (a corruption of the pronunciation over theyears) who came over at William Penn’s invitation almost as soon as he got herein the early 1680s.
A lot of thepresent Scrapple products do not measure up in my memory to taste like they didwhen I was a kid. Of course we are talking decades but the real flavor I missmost is the hot pepper flavor of fresh ground black pepper which the modernmachine made stuff seems to lack, perhaps lost in the shelf life marketingthing.
Scrapple inits inception was a product to use all the extra body parts of the pig thatmight not be used otherwise directly. The primary part of scrapple has beenbasically ground up pig’s liver and mixed into a basic corn meal mush orpolenta molded food product.Thischilled and sliced and fried on a hot iron skillet without a lot of fat tofacilitate cooking. A lot of that fat in scrapple was already in the product bygrinding up flesh and pig fat along with the liver. As such, a slice of scrapple on a preheatediron skillet has never needed additional fat in the frying pan when cooking ata low heat. The product should beself-lubricated in the frying pan.
I use someCanola oil in the recipe below to lubricate the molded polenta product in thefrying pan and cooked on a low flame once a higher pre-heated temperature hasbeen achieved.
I for thesake of looking for a similar texture to scrapple decided on mixing the cornmeal with Irish oats. I do not use the American style oats of any kind. Iwanted an original European style oats for taste and texture, far superior toany American big corp. processed oats.
I do notknow how to describe the kind of Irish oats (steel cut, quick, whole,old-fashioned etc.) I use in comparison to American style recipes. So for thesake of this recipe I mention a specific product and its cooking time, and I amcertain you may have your own favorite pure food oats product. The product isFlahavan’s Irish Oats and this particular box is available in American stores.They cook in three minutes.
The otherproduct I use is Indian Head Stone Ground Corn Meal for the polenta part of therecipe.
The recipe has twopots on the stove at one time. Per careful and take your time. Start with theCorn Mean cooking as it takes about 20 minutes and the Oatmeal cooking onlytakes three minutes.
The two grainmixtures will be blended together when the corn meal is done. Canola oil goesinto corn meal cooking with the boiling water mentioned below. Natural soysauce goes into oatmeal just before blending with cornmeal. The soy sauce isboth a seasoning element and for a natural traditional scrapple color. All dry seasoningand dry herbs go in last.
Start with assemblyof seasonings and dry herbs.
1 tsp. Marjoram
1 tsp. Thyme
1 tsp. Oregano
1 tsp. ground Sage
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Ground BlackPepper
Dash of groundAllspice
Set herb mixtureaside.
Start cooking thecorn meal
1 cup cold water
1 cup Corn Meal
Mix in pot.
Add 2 cups boilingwater from tea kettle
Add 1-1/2 tbs.Canola Oil
Cook, stirringfrequently, according to package instructions. Approximately 20 minutes.
Meanwhile combine 3/4cup Irish Oats with 1-1/2 cups cold water. Cook according to packageinstructions. Mixture has less water than recommended but you want an oatmealmixture thick with less water in terms of combining with cooked corn meal andmolding. Approximately 3 minutes. Set aside. Cover to retain heat.
Finish corn mealcooking.
Add 2 tbs. Soy Sauceand mix into oatmeal mixture.
Combine cookedOatmeal and Polenta mixture in pot.
Add seasonings andherbs. Mix. Pour into greased loaf pan. Let sit until completely cool. 1-2hours.
Cover. Put inrefrigerator overnight or 8-12 hours. Keep refrigerated until consumed.
Take out of frig. Unmold.
Cut into thin slicesor desired thickness. Cook in preheated iron skillet or flat iron griddle onlow to medium heat depending on how close you want to monitor cooking. Cookingtime approximately 10 minutes on each side.
Serve with ketchup,mustard, honey, maple syrup or whatever you desire. Enjoy.
Yum.
.
