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A selection of Rapa Scrapple brand merchandise for purchase at a recent tailgate. (Christina Tkacik\/The Banner)<\/p>\nJohn 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. <\/p>\n
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\u2019s Famous Seafood outside M&T Bank Stadium just before last week\u2019s Ravens game. <\/p>\n
The event was part of Rapa Scrapple\u2019s new push to expand the reach of one of Baltimore\u2019s favorite breakfast meats, seizing on a moment when eaters are more interested in offal than ever. <\/p>\n
\u201cScrapple\u2019s got a unique following in this area, and they\u2019re diehard fans,\u201d said Jeff Thomas, whose brokerage represents Rapa Scrapple at area grocery stores. The product often outsells sausage and even bacon in stores where it\u2019s carried, Curtis said. But now, Rapa is thinking even bigger. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to build out scrapple more these days outside of the breakfast arena,\u201d Curtis said. <\/p>\n
A new slogan, plastered on the Rapa Scrapple tent outside M&T Bank Stadium, was proof: \u201c100 years of breakfast\u2026and more!!\u201d <\/p>\n
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 \u201cscraps\u201d 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. <\/p>\n
The recipe hasn\u2019t changed in the century since the company was founded, said Donna Seefried, Rapa\u2019s vice president and general manager. Rapa\u2019s scrapple is highly seasoned, with notes of sage and warming spices. It also comes in turkey and beef versions.<\/p>\n
Today, scrapple is still adored by many in the Mid-Atlantic, with Rapa the preferred brand in the greater Baltimore region, Curtis said. \u201cRapa Scrapple is far and away the leading selling scrapple\u201d in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., he said. And Baltimore together with the D.C. area make up the company\u2019s No. 1 market. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the best one,\u201d 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\u2019s totally crispy, Sandlin prefers scrapple sliced thick, so it\u2019s still \u201ccreamy\u201d on the inside when it\u2019s cooked. \u201cIt reminds me of p\u00e2t\u00e9,\u201d said Sandlin, whose restaurants, including Sally O\u2019s in Highlandtown, specialize in modern riffs on traditional American foods.<\/p>\n
Yet even in Baltimore, it\u2019s not everyone\u2019s 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\u2019s been cooked inside a gym sock and then crusted over. <\/p>\n
When Sandlin has had Rapa scrapple on the brunch menu at restaurants where she\u2019s worked, it didn\u2019t always sell. \u201cI think it\u2019s very much an acquired taste,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
But among those who\u2019ve 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. <\/p>\n
A selection of Rapa Scrapple brand merchandise for purchase at a recent tailgate. (Christina Tkacik\/The Banner)<\/p>\n
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 \u201cnobody in Georgia or Florida knew about scrapple,\u201d he said Thursday as he stopped by the Rapa Scrapple stand. Living far from Maryland, he\u2019d developed his own tricks for transporting the product across state lines: \u201cYou never freeze the block,\u201d he said. \u201cYou cut it and freeze it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rapa sees changing diets as an opportunity to get more people on board with Baltimore\u2019s breakfast meat. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a big increased interest in organ meats,\u201d 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. <\/p>\n
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. \u201cPeople are more comfortable picking up the whole part of the animal,\u201d said Atwater\u2019s chef Ryan Scalfari, who grew up eating Rapa at home in Southern Maryland and still adores it today.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ORK7YBJFBZE4ZMSJP53BZWXKD4.jpg\")
Rapa Scrapple recently passed out samples of “scrapple fries” during a tailgate outside of M&T Bank Stadium. (Christina Tkacik\/The Banner)<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had it on a burger before instead of bacon, and that\u2019s very good,\u201d Sandlin said. <\/p>\n
And, unlike bacon, which is fattier, scrapple \u201cdoesn\u2019t feel as heavy or greasy,\u201d said 16-year-old Harford County resident Dillon Thomas, who eats the stuff regularly. And he has a steady supply through his father, Jeff. <\/p>\n
But, said Dillon: \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone else who eats scrapple that\u2019s my age.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[11066,3531,3529,3527,3530,3528],"class_list":["post-84968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-maryland","tag-featured-extrawide","tag-maryland","tag-maryland-dining","tag-maryland-food","tag-maryland-grocery-stores","tag-maryland-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117597458035112444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}