Hey, Dave. I love Scrapple. I can help you out with what it is. It is mostly the entire pig's head, rendered into goo and mixed with cornmeal and/or flour. So it has snout, eyes, tongue, lips, brain. Then organs -- offal -- are added. So heart, liver, kidneys, balls, etc.
Dave, a word. Suggest you not take culinary advice from a guy who calls roadkill, "street food." Look, I know there's an emotional tie here. Or maybe it's blackmail. I have it on questionable authority that during one hurricane you elbowed your way onto the Herald executives evacuation jet shouting,"Who pays the bills around here?!" So there is that. But there must be more. Every time your name has been taken in vain on his Substack, Weingarten just smirks knowingly. I have to assume this since I have never seen Gene Weingarten smirk. Nor have I ever seen Gene Weingarten --- in other than glamour shots that is, or what passes for them in his case.
I wanted to share the terrible news that lutefisk has made it all the way to California! I was introduced to it at my Norwegian husband’s Christmas Eve family dinner. It was not a pleasant meeting. The older generation put it in an otherwise delightful lefse (potato tortilla) and engulfed it in butter. We stopped at McDonald’s on our way home.
Minnesotans eat lutefisk, too or at least they did in the 50’s and 60’s. We had it every year for New Year’s Day. Mostly I ate the lefse. Afterwards my Dad and brother would watch football and my Mom and I would polish all the silver in the house which tarnished from the fumes of cooking lutefisk. Good times!
Many cities in Minnesota (including my own) have Lutefisk Suppers every late fall/early winter. I've been to several, and honestly when it's prepared well lutefisk is delicious - best served with melted butter on top.
I am from Minnesota and I am Norwegian and we had lutefisk at Christmas a couple of times when I was growing up. Everyone preferred Swedish meatballs for sure!
Wisconsin has its share of lutefiskers, as well, although many are tempted to try it [mostly owing to Garrison Keillor] in spite of its look, smell, taste . . . I mean it even sounds awful/offal.
I wonder, could it really be that much worse than that traditional Southern delicacy, chitlins? Chitlins is pig intestines, which is first soaked for a long time to remove the sort of thing you would expect to find in a pig’s intestines, and is quite aromatic as it cooks (I live in the South- trust me, it’s vile). People who like chitlins would probably ADORE haggis. It would catch on here. They would have cook offs of the stuff. The air around here would reek. This cannot be allowed! I’m writing my Congress critter Marsha Blackburn, who I’m sure will introduce a bill. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
As a proud North Dakota native of Norwegian and German heritage, let me remind you that the population of the state is closer to 80 than it is to 8! Growing up, most of the Christmas visits to my grandparent's house were ruined because grandpa insisted on our eating lutefisk. The only way we could get it down was wrapping the fish in lefse (think Norwegian soft tortilla), adding a heaping teaspoon of sugar, and trying to gulp it in one big bite.
During one of my four tours of duty in Germany, I drank a lot of ouzo and tasted snails. I enjoyed the snails but maybe only because of the ouzo. The snails are cooked in a very large amount of garlic and butter so that you practically can’t even taste them. Also, there is a heck of a lot of Scottish in my ancestry and I thank God that I wasn’t brought up eating haggis.
Some of us actually like scrapple. We just don’t want to know what it is.
Scrapple is delicious. It's everything but the oink!
Hey, Dave. I love Scrapple. I can help you out with what it is. It is mostly the entire pig's head, rendered into goo and mixed with cornmeal and/or flour. So it has snout, eyes, tongue, lips, brain. Then organs -- offal -- are added. So heart, liver, kidneys, balls, etc.
Balls? There's balls in scrapple?
If they're giving you brains, they are giving you balls, though that might not seem intuitively correct. Particularly to women.
Dave, a word. Suggest you not take culinary advice from a guy who calls roadkill, "street food." Look, I know there's an emotional tie here. Or maybe it's blackmail. I have it on questionable authority that during one hurricane you elbowed your way onto the Herald executives evacuation jet shouting,"Who pays the bills around here?!" So there is that. But there must be more. Every time your name has been taken in vain on his Substack, Weingarten just smirks knowingly. I have to assume this since I have never seen Gene Weingarten smirk. Nor have I ever seen Gene Weingarten --- in other than glamour shots that is, or what passes for them in his case.
https://www.riverreporter.com/stories/scrappled-brains,58357
and for further foods only Weingarten should eat here's: https://substack.com/@snarkynewcomeropinesbasically/note/c-104155635?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=z8y8
I’m so glad you’re back, Dave!
Happy to see nothing has changed. I started laughing as soon as I saw the headline. First time I've felt happy since the election.
I just laughed all the way through this the exact way I always laugh at your writing. It’s been awhile. So thanks, Dave.
I once ate a tarantula. Dave sent it to me in the mail. There are photos to prove it.
For some reason you ate the tarantula with your shirt off. Which, no offense, was more disgusting than the actual tarantula.
I wore a tie.
That did not make it OK.
Probably tastes like crab, since they’re related,
I remember that, and did you say it tasted like a large spider?
I wanted to share the terrible news that lutefisk has made it all the way to California! I was introduced to it at my Norwegian husband’s Christmas Eve family dinner. It was not a pleasant meeting. The older generation put it in an otherwise delightful lefse (potato tortilla) and engulfed it in butter. We stopped at McDonald’s on our way home.
So good to read your theraputic writing once again. The laughs make me feel better than any known medication.
I have a good friend who is Norwegian American. She refers to lutefisk as, "The piece of Cod which surpasseth all understanding."
Minnesotans eat lutefisk, too or at least they did in the 50’s and 60’s. We had it every year for New Year’s Day. Mostly I ate the lefse. Afterwards my Dad and brother would watch football and my Mom and I would polish all the silver in the house which tarnished from the fumes of cooking lutefisk. Good times!
Many cities in Minnesota (including my own) have Lutefisk Suppers every late fall/early winter. I've been to several, and honestly when it's prepared well lutefisk is delicious - best served with melted butter on top.
I hate to tell you but lutefisk is frequently eaten in Minnesota. I can’t say it’s popular, but it’s eaten.
I am from Minnesota and I am Norwegian and we had lutefisk at Christmas a couple of times when I was growing up. Everyone preferred Swedish meatballs for sure!
Wisconsin has its share of lutefiskers, as well, although many are tempted to try it [mostly owing to Garrison Keillor] in spite of its look, smell, taste . . . I mean it even sounds awful/offal.
I wonder, could it really be that much worse than that traditional Southern delicacy, chitlins? Chitlins is pig intestines, which is first soaked for a long time to remove the sort of thing you would expect to find in a pig’s intestines, and is quite aromatic as it cooks (I live in the South- trust me, it’s vile). People who like chitlins would probably ADORE haggis. It would catch on here. They would have cook offs of the stuff. The air around here would reek. This cannot be allowed! I’m writing my Congress critter Marsha Blackburn, who I’m sure will introduce a bill. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Just to show that no one is safe, when we were in Edinburgh last May, MANY restaurants had vegan haggis on the menu.
As a proud North Dakota native of Norwegian and German heritage, let me remind you that the population of the state is closer to 80 than it is to 8! Growing up, most of the Christmas visits to my grandparent's house were ruined because grandpa insisted on our eating lutefisk. The only way we could get it down was wrapping the fish in lefse (think Norwegian soft tortilla), adding a heaping teaspoon of sugar, and trying to gulp it in one big bite.
OMG sugar with lye. Condolences.
Yes, and I don't believe they cancel each other out!
Ah, it’s so nice to have Dave back writing columns.
OMG how I've missed you. Welcome back!
During one of my four tours of duty in Germany, I drank a lot of ouzo and tasted snails. I enjoyed the snails but maybe only because of the ouzo. The snails are cooked in a very large amount of garlic and butter so that you practically can’t even taste them. Also, there is a heck of a lot of Scottish in my ancestry and I thank God that I wasn’t brought up eating haggis.
Are you sure you weren't actually in Greece and France, rather than Germany?