Posted on 12/21/2023 12:33:15 PM PST by DallasBiff
Fresh head cheese is glorious. You can get some amazing head cheese in the midwest/Chicago area.
If ham were bad for you then why is it so tasty?
I wouldn't eat it at all. Then I discovered Coda Bakery in Albuquerque and Vietnamese sandwiches. I had one that had their version of head cheese on it. Tasty.
Yeah, I saw my father and grandmother make headcheese once, and that was it for me. My dad also used to get it from some German store it St. Louis, along with blood sausage. In recent years I had the Polish version of headcheese at a buffet and enjoyed it. It tastes much, much better than it looks. My wife, who is Serbian, says Serbs make that too, but she wouldn’t touch it.
Another,more-appetizing, thing made from the leftovers of a pig is scrapple, a Pennsylvania Dutch concoction. The scraps are boiled with grain, maybe buckwheat, formed into a loaf, and then sliced and fried. Jim White, who used to do the late night talk show on KMOX in St. Louis, was from Pennsylvania, sometimes talked about it. Apparently it’s a love-or-hate thing too. I found it at the breakfast buffet at a hotel on Delaware and decided to try it. I liked it. It reminded me of pork sausage patties.
There is a Dutch diner off I-81 in or near Fracksville, PA that serves it.
I always try to stop in there when I'm in the area. I order it with three fried eggs over easy so I can soak up the yolk with the scrapple.
Bon appétit!
If I ever make it back out that way, I would have it again. I like that kind of basic traditional food.
Mangalista
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