Being originally from Pennsylvania, before we moved to Florida when I was 6, I was pretty much raised on scrapple. If you don’t know what scrapple is, you don’t want to know. You certainly don’t want to know what’s in it. And if you didn’t eat it as a kid, don’t even consider it. Winn/Dixie started carrying Jones brand scrapple a while back, frozen. Geeze. First of all, nobody named Jones knows how to make it. It is, in my epicurean estimation, crappy. You have to have a name like “Streb” to make good scrapple. Today I drove down to Sarasota to Yoder’s Amish Market. It’s about 20 miles from where I live in Palma Sola. I bought three pounds. I can hardly wait till tomorrow AM. Frau G won’t touch the stuff.
Grew up in Pa Dutch country. My brother & father ate it regularly- though you have to have the Karo syrup to top it off.
I liveed just outside Chester PA till I was 6. Scrapple and Kielbasa were staples. Another thing I remember my mother making was gravy bread. We didn’t through food away back then. Left over gravy and bread. I made some the other day I had forgotten all about it. I put ketchup on my scrapple.
It sounds sort of like Spam. I love Spam, but I bet it is nothing like it. When I was a kid, we lived in Hawaii for a couple of years. That is where my mom found Spam and served it to us, yummy!
Not at all like Spam. We had that often when I was a child as well. As I understand it, scrapple is made of pig lips and other pig parts you don’t want to know about, plus flour or some kind of meal. I had it fro breakfast this morning. As I remember, the George and Gracie radio show had Spam as a sponsor. It came about during WWII fort the troops.
Fried livermush sandwiches with homegrown tomato and Duke’s Mayonnaise. Comfort food.
I’ve heard of livermush. It’s got to be worse than scrapple aith a name like that
I grew up in South Jersey near Philly, so we frequently had scrapple, although I never asked ‘what brand?’. I live in New England now, and occasionally find Jones brand scrapple. Given that scrapple is ‘whatever is leftover except the oink,’ as a scrapple junkie I’ll take what I can get.
My grandmother in Schenectady used to buy Kielbasa at the Polish market. What passes for Kielbasa where I live now is disgustingly bland.
My Aunt Bess lived in south Jersey just south of Philly. Her husband was Mayhew Munyon – That’s where I got Effie’s last name. Another thing you can’t get anywhere else half as good as you can get there are the subs. I think the difference is that there was a Polish influence. I remember when I was a kid my mother came home and said that she found the secret ingredient that makes them so good. Oregano. And she was right. A good sub needs lots of oregano.
Re oregano on a sub: ha! I agree 100%; although I’d add that the meat has to be sliced fresh, and — if it’s an Italian sub — it has to have oil, not mayo.
Jersey Mike’s makes a great Italian sub, though you have to ask for oregano.
I’ve been to sub shops where I have to tell them no mayo. Geeze! And then I have to beg them to put on lots of oregano. When I was a little kid we got the best subs in Browntown, a neighborhood in Wilmington Delaware. That’s where my Aunt Ethel lived. They were good in Chester PA, too. I had a terrific sub in Jersey, south and east of Camden 35 or 40 years ago. It must have been great if I remember it so well.
Re the mayo thing (are sandwich makers now trained by the Mayo Clinic?) — I think this is a proper statement of the rule against using mayo on ‘real hoagies’ [note: this is a for-pay site with limited free reads]:
https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/story/opinion/columns/2017/11/26/if-you-put-mayo-on/16964391007/
I do, however, take one exception to the rule, which is that I like oil-only, not oil and vinegar.
But yes, mustard is for soft pretzels (and hot-dogs!!), and mayo is for tuna and chicken salad.
Sadly, these says you have to say ‘NO MAYO!’ first, and maybe multiple times, in the process of getting a sub/hoagie made correctly.
As you say, it’s also true that you have to ask for oregano, and say how much. But at least they don’t charge extra; but it can be a shock if they look at you funny and ask, “What’s oregano?” But those are the places that ask, “Do you want mayo, or extra-mayo?”
The guy from Bucks county has it right. Have you seen that Jersey Mikes commercial where they drown it in vinegar. What’s the matter with those people? I’m with you. I only like a little vinegar. Speaking of mustard and mayo, I make a terrific tartar sauce.
Yer Aunt Bessie and Uncle Mayhew:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26712246/mayhew-munyon
from here (maybe?):
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pedricktown,+Oldmans+Township,+NJ+08067/@39.7628242,-75.4246942,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c6e113bde73b31:0xae4725236e39d76!8m2!3d39.7665418!4d-75.4143898?hl=en
Thank you so much. I’ll send the link to my sister.
Thank you so much. I’ll send the link to my sister. When I was a little kid we took the ferry from Chester and then drove to their house. My Aunt Bess was a terrific cook. We’d go there for an early supper. She would have chicken and dumplings, a pot roast and another main dish that I don’t remember, plus tons of veggies and desserts. I guess that she was a farmer’s wife she was used to cooking like that. Thank you so much.
My pleasure to repay, in small measure, all the laughs from your strip over the years.
When I moved ‘up nawth’ from Jersey, for a year or two my brother would cut out and send me Ernie strips from the Philadelphia Inquirer. For many years I didn’t miss Jersey as much as your strip … but over the last decade or two away, it’s grown (back) on me, mostly due to visits to see family and friends (and hunt for ever harder-to-find good used-book shops).
I lived in Burlington County, but some visits with a friend were much further south, toward Vineland, though never all that close to your Aunt Bessie’s locale.
Your Aunt Bessie’s ‘town’ reminds me of several similar small population, unincorporated towns in Burlington County that my family used to drive through now and then, like Jobstown. I was through it earlier this year and it looks the same as it did 50 years ago.
Speaking of ferry’s, did you take the Chester-Bridgeport Ferry:
http://www.oldchesterpa.com/chester_bridgeport_ferry.htm
that was, I presume, put out of business in 1974 by the Commodore Barry Bridge:
http://www.oldchesterpa.com/chester_bridgeport_ferry_folger.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_Barry_Bridge
Thanks for keeping your strip (in re-runs) alive with this website.
It probably was the Bridgeport ferry. I was too small to know. It was a very short ride. Aunt Bess was one of my mother’s half sisters. She was a teenager when my mother was born in 1909. Thanks for the info.