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TIL that eating dirt was common in the U.S. South until the 80s. People ate a handful a day, often seasoned with vinegar and salt. (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 months ago* by to c/til@lemmy.world
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https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/13/us/southern-practice-of-eating-dirt-shows-signs-of-waning.html

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[–] 61 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

Let me tell you about scrapple.

I, as a life-long midwestener moved out to the "south east" Atlantic coast for a bit. Stopped in a diner one morning and got some breakfast, and they asked if I wanted scrapple with my breakfast. Not my first time seeing it on a menu around there, so I asked what it was, and they told me it was like an omelet, but made with apple and potato shavings. "Alright" I say, as I am open to trying new foods...

"What in the whole grain pancakes kind of fuck is this?!" I thought when my plate arrived. It was quite literally cutting board scraps, with like one scrambled egg added to bind it all together. Literally rough and dirty potato skins, and the ends of tomatoes, I literally found a fucking apple stem in mine. I figured they were playing some kind of joke on me, but I looked around, and other people had the same thing, and they were eating it the fuck up. So I gave it a try. Needless to say, undercooked potato and apple skins were not appetizing. The texture was like eating slices of bicycle innertube, and the flavor was akin to licking a well used, but unwashed cutting board.

Anyway, that was my first and last time trying scrapple. Learn from my mistake, you have been warned.

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  • [–] 25 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I've actually seen "scrapple" at the grocery store, but that was a sausage-shaped loaf of hydrated corn meal, bacon grease/lard, and the barest whiff of seasoning to make it resemble food. My girlfirend's mom was from the poor south, and actually craved this meal from time to time.

    This rendition was also very lackluster. You couldn't beat the price, as it was cheapest thing in the breakfast isle by a wide margin, but it sure as hell tasted like it.

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  • [–] 28 points 3 months ago* (3 children)

    I ate "scrapple" once and it was delicious. Maybe it was cooked better?

    I was visiting my ex's relatives in Philly and one insisted that I come with them to a diner before I left. "You have to try scrapple, but I won't tell you what's in it till you do" grin.

    I agreed without hesitation. I'm Creole. I'm from the swamp. I eat spicy-hot boiled hard-shell roaches, and raw mud-snot still in their teetees for flavor, and alligator assholes and rice in pig guts. Anything can taste good if you season it right, and if it doesn't, it's not worse than things I love already.

    The scrapple I had was delicious. It was also the most seasoned thing I had eaten up there. It wasn't "spicy", but there was a wide variety of spices and it was extra peppery. It tasted like very fatty/greasy, slightly sweet, peppered breakfast sausage. She told me what was in it while i was eating it, looking all mischievous. Then I gave her the above line about my heritage, laughed, told her that just makes it more amazing, and kept eating.

    She looked both slightly disappointed and filled with admiration. She loved it too, and I think I gave what was for her a shameful delight, a little more power and pride.

    I'd eat someone's favorite mud if it tasted good, and my guts would probably be stronger for it, gaining flora they have been missing for at least two generations.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I’m Creole. I’m from the swamp

    Y'all have a rich culinary tradition that is world-renowned for its ability to pull amazing flavors out of everything, including the trees! I'm not at all surprised that the Creole rendition of this breakfast dish was top shelf.

    I eat spicy-hot boiled hard-shell roaches, and raw mud-snot still in their teetees for flavor, and alligator assholes and rice in pig guts.

    If you told me that said dishes were the real deal, prepared in a traditional manner, I'd tell you right then and there that I'll be having seconds. Hell, I'd beg for cooking lessons.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    No way I hell am I making some dishes but as you said, if someone prepares for me one that I'd normally be turned off from, I'll enthusiastically join in (though I probably will wait for them to take the first bite)

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Was it also potato and apple or is “scrapple” a general purpose term for an omelette made out of whatever scraps are available?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    I think scrapple is just seasoned scraps. I didn't know what was in my scrapple exactly. I was told it was assholes and eyeballs, the ends of fruits and vegetables, and all the junk from the food no one eats.

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  • [–] 21 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Scrapple is made from the stuff that's not good enough to go in to hotdogs.

    Source: I'm Pennsylvania Dutch, we invented it.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 months ago

    I'm not too sure about what the version of scrapple you received was, it sounds like some kind of bastardized hash, but scrapple is a common breakfast thing in the Mid-Atlantic/Delaware valley area.

    The version I'm familiar with as a Philadelphian, admittedly doesn't sound a whole lot better on paper, but the actual eating experience sounds a lot more pleasant. It's basically pork scraps and organ meats simmered down until they're falling apart and mixed with cornmeal and buckwheat then formed into a mushy loaf, which is then sliced and fried.

    You're not going to identify any particular piece of pork or anything else in it, it's a pretty uniform grey mush, and the only real texture comes from frying it to give the outside a nice crispiness. Nothing tough or chewy about it, you barely need to chew it, the texture is probably more like polenta (which it kind of is) than anything else you might be familiar with. It also usually doesn't contain any apple or potatoes.

    It's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you find yourself near Philly don't let whatever you were served in the south turn you off from trying actual scrapple.

    Parts of Ohio have goetta, which I think is supposed to be pretty similar to scrapple but with oatmeal instead of corn meal.

    I've also heard of "livermush" and "liver pudding" being served in some parts of the south, which honestly sound like dead-ringers for scrapple to me, though I have some friends from the south who insist that they're different from and better than scrapple.

    I feel like whatever you were served was some southerner trying to recreate something they heard described one time but never actually tried themselves, or just slapping the name on something without knowing that there's another dish out there with the same name.

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