John Curtis used a paring knife to slice a gray-speckled loaf, then placed spears of meat into an air fryer set to 400 degrees. Within minutes, the unmistakable musk of scrapple cooking wafted in the wind.
Before too long, Curtis, sales manager for Delaware-based company Rapa Scrapple, had a plate of dappled-brown scrapple fries ready to hand out to attendees at the Tailgoat, a tailgating event sponsored by Jimmy’s Famous Seafood outside M&T Bank Stadium just before last week’s Ravens game.
The event was part of Rapa Scrapple’s new push to expand the reach of one of Baltimore’s favorite breakfast meats, seizing on a moment when eaters are more interested in offal than ever.
“Scrapple’s got a unique following in this area, and they’re diehard fans,” said Jeff Thomas, whose brokerage represents Rapa Scrapple at area grocery stores. The product often outsells sausage and even bacon in stores where it’s carried, Curtis said. But now, Rapa is thinking even bigger. “We’re trying to build out scrapple more these days outside of the breakfast arena,” Curtis said.
A new slogan, plastered on the Rapa Scrapple tent outside M&T Bank Stadium, was proof: “100 years of breakfast…and more!!”
Scrapple dates back to the late 1600s, when Dutch and German settlers used the abundant cornmeal they encountered in the New World to make the most of leftover pork parts, or “scraps” not fit for making sausage. Rapa was founded 100 years ago in Bridgeville, Delaware, by brothers Ralph and Paul Adams, who combined the first two letters of each of their first names.
The recipe hasn’t changed in the century since the company was founded, said Donna Seefried, Rapa’s vice president and general manager. Rapa’s scrapple is highly seasoned, with notes of sage and warming spices. It also comes in turkey and beef versions.
Today, scrapple is still adored by many in the Mid-Atlantic, with Rapa the preferred brand in the greater Baltimore region, Curtis said. “Rapa Scrapple is far and away the leading selling scrapple” in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., he said. And Baltimore together with the D.C. area make up the company’s No. 1 market.
“It’s the best one,” said chef Jesse Sandlin, who grew up eating it for breakfast in Baltimore. While many cooks like to slice it thin and fry it until it’s totally crispy, Sandlin prefers scrapple sliced thick, so it’s still “creamy” on the inside when it’s cooked. “It reminds me of pâté,” said Sandlin, whose restaurants, including Sally O’s in Highlandtown, specialize in modern riffs on traditional American foods.
Yet even in Baltimore, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. While my husband and toddler are both scrapple monsters who can devour an entire loaf in a weekend, I find that the flavor and texture remind me of cornmeal mush that’s been cooked inside a gym sock and then crusted over.
When Sandlin has had Rapa scrapple on the brunch menu at restaurants where she’s worked, it didn’t always sell. “I think it’s very much an acquired taste,” she said.
But among those who’ve acquired that taste, the appreciation is intense. Scrapple even has its own 43,000-member-strong fan club on Facebook, Scrapple Trail, where posters debate the best methods of cooking and argue about preferred condiments. But the dish also has regional variations. At its plant in Delaware, Rapa also manufactures other scrapple brands, including Habbersett, popular in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, and Greensboro, which is big on the Eastern Shore.
A selection of Rapa Scrapple brand merchandise for purchase at a recent tailgate. (Christina Tkacik/The Banner)
The meat product is largely unheard of beyond the region. When Drew Ridgell moved from his home on the Eastern Shore to the South, he found that “nobody in Georgia or Florida knew about scrapple,” he said Thursday as he stopped by the Rapa Scrapple stand. Living far from Maryland, he’d developed his own tricks for transporting the product across state lines: “You never freeze the block,” he said. “You cut it and freeze it.”
Rapa sees changing diets as an opportunity to get more people on board with Baltimore’s breakfast meat.
“There’s a big increased interest in organ meats,” said Tim Gephart, sales manager in training for Rapa. Young people in particular are reaching for offal, in part thanks to wellness influencers and social media. Proponents cite the benefits of the cuts, which are richer in B vitamins than muscle meat. One of the primary ingredients of Rapa scrapple is liver.
Aside from any potential health benefits, offal is trendy in the food world. The nose-to-tail culinary movement has highlighted the benefit of using all parts of an animal, not just the preferred cuts of meat. “People are more comfortable picking up the whole part of the animal,” said Atwater’s chef Ryan Scalfari, who grew up eating Rapa at home in Southern Maryland and still adores it today.
Rapa Scrapple recently passed out samples of “scrapple fries” during a tailgate outside of M&T Bank Stadium. (Christina Tkacik/The Banner)
In Baltimore, scrapple has already found its way onto the dinner menu at one acclaimed restaurant: Woodberry Kitchen, where it was previously featured in a riff on Spam musubi.
“I’ve had it on a burger before instead of bacon, and that’s very good,” Sandlin said.
And, unlike bacon, which is fattier, scrapple “doesn’t feel as heavy or greasy,” said 16-year-old Harford County resident Dillon Thomas, who eats the stuff regularly. And he has a steady supply through his father, Jeff.
But, said Dillon: “I don’t know anyone else who eats scrapple that’s my age.”
Dining and Cooking