Pork Pudding?
July 27th, 2009 · 29 Comments · Posted in breakfast
Can you identify this pork product?
Apologies if this looks too much like yesterday’s post, but I direct your attention to the delectable brown blob on the right. I saw it recently advertised as “pork pudding” on our dairy’s website and had to know what it was. The “pudding” was so reasonably priced I ordered two. They arrived as small bricks, vacuum-packed, consisting of all the odd bits of the pig–the snout, the ears, the jowell, etc.
It looks for all the world the same as what we in this part of the country usually call “scrapple.” Cut a slice off the brick, then fry it with a little bacon grease in an iron skillet. Extremely flavorful, it does a great job of mopping up the yolks from the fried eggs.
This definitely falls into the category of, If you are going to kill an animal, be considerate enough to eat the whole thing. But have any of you ever heard of rconstituted pork bits called “pudding” before? I’ll have to call the dairy and find out who is responsible for this clever bit of marketing.
Ed, I’ll be interested in hearing what you find out
about the pork pudding. Scrapple usually includes
cornmeal, which we can’t eat. Does it have an ingredients list? If so, please post. Thanks! Cathy
Your pork pudding looks like it’s a close relative of our haslet, a traditional Lincolnshire pork ‘loaf’ made with liver, belly pork, breadcrumbs and loads of herbs and spices (must include lots of sage); and brawn, the meat from a cooked pig’s head set in jelly made with the trotters and highly seasoned with sage, bay and mace.
Of course we also have black pudding – that’s a whole new subject! And will provoke in depth discussion as to whether one prefers the Lancashire b-p (with chunks of white fat) or the Scottish b-p (with oatmeal and lots of spices). I’m married to a Lancashire-lad but prefer Scottish b-p.
And then there’s Pudding Lane, where the Great Fire of London started – ‘pudding’, offal and entrails dropped from the butchers’ carts as the made their way from Cheapside to the Thames.
There! you see – ‘pudding’ has always been pig’s bits fashioned into a ‘brown blob’. Sweet puddings are a relatively recent introduction 😉
Enjoy your breakfast Ed
Celia
Down here in Appalachia it’s not unusual to see a similar product described as “pudding” or “mush”. Generally, it’s scraps and odd bits of the hog cooked with cornmeal in broth then poured into a mold and refrigerated until set. It’s sliced and fried for breakfast beside eggs or on a hot biscuit with sliced tomatoes. Yum.
I immediately thought of black pudding or blood pudding made from pigs blood, which I was brave enough to try with a traditional Scottish breakfast in Edinburgh. It turns out according to dictionary.com, our word for Pudding derives from the french word boudin, which describes various types of sausage. There is even one definition for pudding as follows:
“A sausagelike preparation made with minced meat or various other ingredients stuffed into a bag or skin and boiled.”
A great book that describes using all the parts of the pig, as well as beef cow and sheep, is the River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
The first year I lived at the farm here is central Pennsylvania, my neighbors invited me over to a family hog processing. This is my understanding of the differences between products. When the meat was cooked off of the heads along with all the scraps it was sieved from the broth using a big basket as the liquid is poured from one kettle to another. The contents of the basket were poured out on a big table for everyone to pick through . With bones & gristle removed, the meat is run through a medium sausage grinder. If it is packed and processed at this point, it’s pudding. Back at the kettles, pon haus was being made by adding a mixture of corn meal, buckwheat flour, salt & pepper to the broth. It was then poured in loaf pans and allowed to set up. When the pudding was added to the pon haus before dolloping into the pans, then it was called scrapple.
ALL my life ever sence i was a young boy groweing up in pa we bucher are owen piggs or hoggs eather way .to make sauge we get a old sal that was no good no more that was shot as we would say coudnt breed back .thats what we made sauge out of and scapple pudding out of baccon front sholder hams but hams .yes we use to cook off all the bones then put up on the table after it was cooked .pick off the meat off the bones to make pudding and then use some of the pudding to make scapple .so puddinding is your meat and scapple is brown sugar flower and corn meal pinch salt pepper and we have to stir it for ours it felt like in a big bucher kettle back and fourth so it wouldnt stick to the bottom of the kettle .then we scoop it out of the kettle and put it in to pans and let it set up to it cooled over night.we always did this in the winter time out side and always had 3 kettles going at all times got keep the fire going boil the water .do you no what craklens are ?thats after you press to make lare in the sauge press that the fat you press the liq goes in and comes out the bottom in to the lard cans then you let it set up and it get hard thats what you use to use for cooking .cranklings is left over in the bottom they usely wrap that up in newspaper thay allways say they used it for fox bait .when people traping.
I grew up in PA. My grandmother on my mothers side used to serve us both pon haus (what I now know as scrapple) and pudding meat. The pon haus was sliced and pan fried. The pudding meat was cooked in broth, this was then spooned over buckwheat pancakes, topped with raw onion and maple syrup. I know it may sound odd, but it was delicious. An Amish grocery south of Meyersdale PA used to sell it in frozen blocks or canned. I believe my grandmother made her own but wouldn’t tell me what it really was. I was a picky eater at the time.
I grew up in Pennsylvania. When butchering the hogs, there would be a hugh iron kettle filled with pork scraps and spices boiling. The pork pudding contained no cornmeal. It came in large crocks covered with an inch of lard. We kept it in the pantry during the winter. Mother would go and scrap the lard away and dig out some pudding. She would recover the remaining with the lard. She put the pudding in a strainer over a pot to let excess grease flow out of the meat. She put it into the oven till it was hot. She then served it between pancakes.
I would like to know where to buy this product. In Maryland it was stuffed in a ring like sausage. You cut the film off and squeeze out the product and I fried it with onions and bacon grease. No one here in MN knows what it is but they have something similar call potato pudding. Love to know where to order but can’t find it on the net.
Don’t know, Marge. I think you have to live in traditional Amish country to find this. But I could be wrong.
I just bought some pork pudding in Maryland from South Mountain Creamery (dairy delivery) and I came across this posting as I was trying to figure out what to do with it. They are at southmountaincreamery.com but this is the first time I’ve seen them offer pork pudding.
We used to get pork pudding all the time from South Mountain Creamery and I prepared it just like scrapple–thickly sliced and fried.
PORK PUDDING WAS FIRST CALLED ” POKE PUDDING”.. IN THE 40’S 50’S 60″s we had POKE PUDDING…. THEN IT WAS CHANGE TO POKE RING & PORK RING PORK PUDDING & RING PUDDING……………. HAD LIVER PUDDING…… BUT I’LL TAKE POKE PUDDING ANY DAY…… WE CAN’T FIND IT IN VA……….PLESE E-MAIL IF YOU HAVE IT………..THANKS
OH…. WE SERVED POKE PUDDING WITH FRIED POTATOES WITH ONION AND EGGS ONCE OVER LIGHTLY
Pan pudding, brand John F Martin. Is usualy cooked in a sauce pan with alittle water or chicken stock to a grainy paste. I eat it over pancakes or french toast with real maple syrup. i have heard of people that saute it with onions and make a sandwhitch. I eat fried scraple but not fried pan pudding
pork Pudding (Pan Pudding) is just the scap meat and spices with no corn meal or flower (scrapple has corn meal) John F martins meat packing produces it. you can check out their website http://www.johnfmartinmeats.com/ or call (717) 336-2804
I love pan pudding as I know it. My mother was from Columbia, PA and she always made it by boiling a diced onion in about 2 cups of water till the onions are translucent they added the pudding and cooked for about 7 minutes for the right consistency. She would spoon the pudding over bread or toast and top it with ketchup. I just love this old fashion breakfast. I see others have listed some other ways to make this. I will definitely tried these new ways. Thank you so much!
I sure have! In fact, I have some in the frig right now. It’s an Amish staple and since I live in Amish country, I have access to it all the time. It’s really good!
Scrapple and Pudding are very similar, but are not the same product. Scrapple has cornmeal/flour of some kind included in it. If you’re looking to try a good, authentic scrapple or pudding – try Stoltzfus Meats. They have a retail location in Intercourse, PA, or you can buy it through their website to ship anywhere in the continental US – http://www.stoltzfusmeats.com/shop-online
Thanks for the link, Jacki!
Not a problem, Ed! I should also mention that Stoltzfus’ scrapple is also gluten free (made with buckwheat flour), in case that’s of interest to anyone!
In this westernmost county of Maryland & the surrounding rural area, “puddin” is considered very good eating with buckwheat pancakes. It is made from the bpoled bones of the pig head, some pork skin (rind), & some liver. The resulting very tender mass is salted, peppered, deboned, ground, & put into bread pans to harden. It can be eaten fresh, or frozen for eating later.
Found a Fireman’s wives cookbook from the 80s years ago in Canton, PA that had a recipe for scrapple that called for Pork Pudding, but nobody knew what it was. Glad to know what it is!
I’m trying to find how to prepare puddin. But all I can find is from the butchering to the the product. Not once you want to put it on the stovetop. My grandmother used to make it all the time. But it was 10 – 15 years ago and don’t remember if she put anything in it or for how long it was in a sauce pan. Can any one help?
Pudding seems to be the pigs head boiled to the the meat off and mixed with oatmeal and salt and pepper and then put I a loaf pan, chilled, sliced and fried.
Scrapple is the broth from cooking down the bones from the pig, but not necessarily any additional meat scraps added and then thickened with corn meal and various spices, depending on the cook. Then it is put in a loaf pan and chilled, sliced and fried.
So.. the pudding would be a meat and oatmeal mixture with only salt and pepper, so more meat flavor.
Scrapple would have little or no meat, just broth and spices.
They would taste different.
Thanks for all the info! Having grown up in PA, I have heard all these different names but have come to the conclusion that what is in these tasty dishes is a very individual choice of the local community or butcher or owner of the hog.
Most people have a special way to cook or serve each type of pudding or scrapple. However, for me there is only one way to cook scrapple:
Slice off a half inch thick piece, use your favorite oil/lard and fry it over medium heat to a crisp on one side. Flip it over and cut in half to make two pieces. After those sides have fried to a crisp, squash them down to about 1/4 inch. Continue to fry and squish and flip.
The key is to wide up with crunchy outsides and a soft inside. Don’t over fry it or it will be just like eating greasy dirt. Under fry it and it won’t release the great flavor of scrapple. A slice should be crispy on the outside but it should not break if bent in half. This takes a couple of tries, but is well worth it, so don’t make too much the first time.
P.S. Eat with salt and pepper or pancake syrup.
My father asked me to get two of what they call trays (weigh about 7 pounds each) of pudding – Martin’s grocery in Staunton VA sells them and will cut them into bricks for you. No corn meal, zero carbs or sugar in true pork pudding. Then dad kettle cooked some fresh pork scraps in, more than doubling the product. We used to slaughter hogs when I was a kid, so dad’s work more than returns the old time process. He’d grill crepe style, thin pancakes rather than fluffy ones and top them with pudding for a cold weekend treat. Contact the Staunton VA Martin’s meat department and ask for the brand of pudding (I think they also sell pon haus too) but the pudding is definitely the real deal and they list the ingredients on packaging.
Post script: He gave me a brick and the product has no onions and less salt (for whatever reason they feel a need to over salt most everything these days). Pudding freezes very well so if you purchase a tray (they cost less than $16 for 7lb) cut into bricks tightly wrap to counter freezer burn and freeze. When you’re ready thaw or microwave soften the brick and pan fry yellow onions, then add the pudding, maybe a lil water and simmer in a tightly covered iron skillet for a very slow simmer at least 10min, not very long. Sometimes he heats pan hotter and the bottom browns and then he stirs and covers again.
Thanks for the great comments