If you grew up near Philadelphia chances are you have either eaten or heard of scrapple. It has been a favorite of mine since childhood. Early on in my gluten-free life I decided I would need to recreate this favorite food that was safe for me to eat. So using the traditional ingredients minus the wheat flour I shared my Scrapple with you and have been making it ever since.
Lately our house has made more of a shift to a Paleo/Primal diet. We’ve cut out all grains which meant the cornmeal in my scrapple had to be changed. The flour I use most often in the house is almond flour. I’m very thankful for Elana Amsterdam and her blog Elana’s Pantry and her book The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook
So out of curiosity I thought I would change up my recipe and swap out almond flour for cornmeal and add in another ingredient that also has a great deal of nutritional benefits. The result was better than I had hoped for. We actually like this new scrapple a lot better than my original. It just goes to show you that you must try new things even when you are unsure of the results, especially in the kitchen.
orange/beet, carrot/orange, kiwi/cucumber
Serve this up for breakfast, lunch or dinner with a bit of fruit and vegetables or you can always drink your fruit and vegetables.
Now a note on bacon. There is bacon in this recipe and I want to be very clear on what I consider to be the proper type of bacon to keep this recipe Paleo/Primal. You can buy uncured bacon from pastured pork without nitrates. Pay attention to the salt content too.
Scrapple Paleo and Primal Style
Ingredients:
3-5 pound organic bone in pork butt or shoulder (same thing)
1 package organic bacon (nitrate free)
1 package organic chicken livers
2 bay leaves
4 sage leaves or 1 tsp dried sage
4 sprigs of thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 cup filtered water
Instructions:
Place all ingredients into the crockpot and set on low for 12-20 hours. I know that may seem like a long gap and the reason is if it cooks longer it won’t be a problem but you want to get in at least 12 hours. If you are an overnight cooker like me I put this on after dinner and take it out after breakfast the next day.
Creating the Scrapple loaves
Ingredients:
Crockpot ingredients keeping liquid separate and removing the bone
1 1/2 – 2 cups almond flour (Honeyville is best and I don’t think Bob’s Red Mill will work)
2 tsp sage
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp savory
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Celtic Sea Salt to taste
Directions:
Place all of the meats and spices into a food processor and grind until smooth.
Put this into a large heavy pot, add in the almond flour and gradually add in the liquid. Let this combine and start to thicken up.
Take out a tablespoon and fry it up to see if you like the seasonings. You can adjust if you want more salt, sage or peppers. Add in more seasonings if you need and test again. Remember you can always add in more but once there it can’t be removed.
Once you have the taste you want line your loaf containers with plastic wrap so removal of the scrapple will be easier. Spoon the mixture into each container. Give them a tap on the countertop to help get rid of air bubbles. Cover the top with plastic wrap.
Place into the refrigerator to set up. This will take a good 10 hours. You can leave it for the next day.
When you are ready to eat slice up a loaf and place it into a cold frying pan. Turn the heat on medium high and brown on each side. Now you can serve with some scrambled eggs, fruit and vegetables. There are many folks that like ketchup with their scrapple but I was never one.
Notes:
If you are out of sage, thyme and savory I have substituted some poultry seasonings once but you really do need more sage in the mix.
I like to sprinkle salt on the top of mine after it is cooked as I usually don’t add in more to the mixture besides what is in the bacon.
I keep the extra loaves in the freezer and take out as needed.
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Wonder if you can do this with liver pudding/mush…
Mmmm! I love the sound of this! Might try it with lamb, rosemary and garlic though as I'm not a huge pork fan (or rather, it's not a huge fan of me). Sounds like something you could eat for breakfast. lunch and supper? x x x
Scrapple's a new one to me! So is liver – hmm, still not sure on that one.
I grew up in Wheeling WV, eating scrapple several times a week. Of course I haven't had any since going GF 18 months ago. Thank you, thank you, thank you. One more comfort food I can add to the recipe box.
I can verify that this is delish. I grew up on scrapple and hadn't had any since 1997! Diane made it this weekend and I was lucky enough to be able to eat some.. When I was a child, we would put maple syrup on it.
Excellent! For those that don't know what scrapple is, it started with . . . well scraps after slaughter, plus the head, plus organs. So this is MUCH nicer, even with the chicken livers. We always had ours with apple butter – leave the ketchup for hamburgers!