Scrapple

A favorite breakfast meat in the Mid-Atlantic area, scrapple is a loaf of pork and cornmeal that gets sliced and fried to a crisp. Unlike bacon, sausage and ham, which make nearly every pig-eating human happy, scrapple is a love-it-or-hate-it proposition. Originally a Pennsylvania Dutch dish (called ponhaus), scrapple’s lack of appeal stems mostly from its visceral essence. Taste and aroma are clear evidence that it is not ham, sausage or bacon; it is, as its name implies, pig scraps. Like such similar ignominia as goetta and livermush, scrapple tends to inspire lofty hyperbole among its fans. The overbearing praise serves as a preemptive strike against non-believers who wail about its it repulsiveness.