This was popular in the colonial days. Can't say for sure if it was eaten during the Depression, but it sounds like a good candidate Scrapple Recipe from 1936 "Separate one hog’s head into halves. Take out the eyes and brains. Scrape and thoroughly clean the head. Put into a large kettle and cover with 4 or 5 quarts cold water. Simmer gently for 2 or 3 hours, or until the meat falls from the bones. Skim off grease carefully from the surface; remove meat, chop fine and return to the liquor. Season with salt and pepper to taste and 1 teaspoon of powdered sage. "Sift in granulated yellow corn meal, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened to the consistency of soft mush. Cook slowly for 1 hour, watching carefully as it scorches easily. When sufficiently cooked, pour into greased oblong tins and store in a cool place until ready to use. Cut in thin slices and fry in hot fat until crisp and brown." Modern Ingredients: Left over pork scraps, or sausage Corn meal Or you can buy it now.
My grandma made scrapple during hog-slaughtering time when I was a kid. Can't say that I ever tried any, though. They used every part of the pig, from the oink to the hooves.
I love me some scrapple. My mother has made it (my dad was from a Dutch part of Pennsylvania and his parents were German), but I don't know where she got the bits & pieces...we lived in rural areas but never on a farm. She also made loaves of corn meal mush to fry for breakfast...with syrup. I never liked it as a kid (I think it was a smell/appearance thing), and have not encountered it as an adult. I've bought the RAPA brand of scrapple every once in a while throughout my adult years. There's an Amish store about 45 minutes away from where I now live that has their own scrapple. It's pretty good. If you eat breakfast meat, scrapple's not a bad option. Because it's flavored broth bound with corn meal--and tiny scraps of meat--the fat & cholesterol profile is way better than sausage or bacon. And the spices make it tasty. Some folks pour syrup over it, probably viewing it as an upscale version of mush. I never have. I slice it, dredge it in flour to put an extra-crispy crust to it, then fry it in butter or bacon grease or oil.
Wow! I had never heard of Scrapple before. Just ran across it by accident because I was curious what kinds of foods were popular with early settlers to the US.
I wonder if it's a regional thing. And I wonder if you would see it in your grocery stores where you live. The Germans in Pennsylvania also call is pan haus (which I always heard pronounced as "pawn hawce.") It's interesting how so many foods were born of "waste not/want not." I gotta believe that biscuits were created as a way to use up calorie-rich fat. The same goes for gravy.
My relatives were German/Dutch/Scotch, and my dad's side goes back to Pennsylvania, where the ancestry trail stops dead. But I can't remember any of them ever talking about having hogs for butchering. I think they were mostly chicken folks. Much cheaper and more efficient, seems to me.
Gee, we may be related. A sister once did the Ancestry thing, but I don't know how far back she got on my father's side. My mother's side is all messed up, due to weird stuff going on as well as records being destroyed in the war. Regarding your Germans...Scrapple might have been a food they sought other means to make besides using their own slaughtering odds & ends. We did. Knowing your heritage, I'm surprised this has never been on your radar screen...or on your table. I was gonna wonder if scrapple might have fallen out of favor subsequent to my father's generation (meaning your dad may have been a little younger) when I discovered the still-vibrant annual Apple Scrapple Festival in Bridgeville Delaware. The two largest scrapple manufacturers relocated there from Pennsylvania.
My experience has been with Souse. In 1983, we were on strike for 6 months. We had a food co-op set up among the members and one of the items we got was Souse. The pieces were held together by a jelled binder. The other odd food was a whole chicken in a can (Generic brand). "Souse is a variety of head cheese found in Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine. Head cheese is not a dairy product but rather a product made from (tah dah…) the head of an animal (usually pig or calf) along with some other left-over “scraps” that remain after butchering and often include the feet, tongue, and heart".
I recall having had something similar, but I cannot quite recall specifically what. Given my dad's background, it very well may have been souse. Gelatin's supposed to be good for you, but it really needs a better marketing plan.