Laura Lee, who bagged second place in the Dining@Large scrapple poetry contest with "Piedmont Pastoral," has claimed and cooked up her winnings: 2 pounds of Truck Patch Farms scrapple. After unseemly arm twisting on my part, the poetess agreed to write up this guest scrapple review. Here's the other Laura. LV
This past Sunday, I collected my prize winnings through a clandestine arrangement wherein LV arrived early in the morning at the JFX Farmers' Market to pay for the scrapple. She had disappeared from the scene by the time I got there and made my way to the Truck Patch Farms people, who graciously handed over the merch, no questions asked.
Finally got around to cooking it up last evening. It certainly held well in its tin foil loaf pan, and I was able to easily slice it. The consistency was very tender and fresh, and it emitted that unmistakable scrapple aroma as the slices browned in a hot, dry skillet.
I served my family a morsel of this cornmeal-encrusted delicacy as part of a tasting menu which included a single hash brown wrapped in a slender strip of sautéed onion alongside a tiny plover egg, sunny side up, with ketchup dipping dots.
No, not really. Plentiful portions of scrambled eggs, potatoes, and onions accompanied the hearty slices of scrapple. My kids ate them all greedily, though the nine-year old found the scrapple to be particularly peppery. It was, but it had a meatier taste than commercial scrapple, was less salty, and tasted healthy.
This Pennsylvania pate may not win over the legions of scrapple haters, but Truck Patch Farms will definitely be getting another visit from me.
Sun photo by Kim Hairston