[Leica] Scrapple and SPAM

[rmcclure2 at woh.rr.com (rob mcclure)]

Marc,

As discussed when this topic "came up" (sorry, bad choice of words) a  
few years ago, I admitted to having grown up in a scrapple-eating  
family.  I liked it until I saw how it was made.  I will spare the  
details other than to say that dipping out the floating hair and other  
uncookable parts from the pot ruined my appetite for the stuff.  My  
Dad and Brothers, having missed the cooking demonstration, still love  
scrapple (and Haggis).  BTW, my Dad and Mom are also from Johnstown, PA.

Rob McClure


On Mar 28, 2009, at 2:24 PM, Marc James Small wrote:

> At 02:16 PM 3/28/2009, Phil Swango wrote:
> >I have an archaeologist friend who grew up in Yugoslavia just after  
> WW2.
> > She's quite a gourmet nowadays but has a special place in her  
> heart for
> >Spam.  The reason?  She has memories from childhood of getting Spam  
> from US
> >care packages, and it being the only meat they could ever get.
> >
> >I grew up in the US deep south but for some reason never heard of  
> scrapple.
> > I tried it when I moved to the east coast as an adult but didn't  
> like it.
> > Not crazy about Spam either.
>
> Scrapple is not a southern dish but rather one evolved by the Penn  
> Dutch in south-central Pennsytucky.  I grew up on the stuff -- my  
> Dad was from Johnsown, PA, and his mother was Penn Dutch.  A plate  
> of scrapple loaded down with some Karo Syrup and heaven is at hand.
>
> Scrapple is made from miscellaneous pork parts -- "all of the pig  
> save for the oink"-- in a cornmeal mush base.  The Scots do a  
> similar think with oddball sheep parts in an oatmeal base.  This is  
> called haggis and, again, is sheer heaven, especially when sprinkled  
> with some good malt whisky.
>
> I like SPAM and eat it regularly.  My Dad hated SPAM:  when he was  
> stationed at Fort Morrow on the Alaska Peninsula over the winter of  
> 1942/43, the last supply ship of the year came in the day before  
> Thanksgiving.  The guys all had a typical Thanksgiving spread as  
> only the US military can provide.  The supply ship sailed out late  
> Thanksgiving afternoon.  That night, the warehouse burned down, and  
> the only meat available was SPAM, which became the staple along with  
> powdered eggs until the following April, albeit Dad, as a Battery  
> Commander, got the Post CO to authorize the use of military rifles  
> for hunting, so Dad would take his Battery out occasionally to shoot  
> sea birds and caribou to supplement the SPAM.
>
> Marc
>
>
> msmall at aya.yale.edu
> Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information