Secrets of Jewish cooking

I like the food shows, and one of the best is Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. Each episode features Guy showing up at some hole-in-the-wall to sample the house specialty. Usually, he likes it, and indicates his pleasure with exaggerated facial expressions, moaning, and deep breathing. (I call the genre "food porn" for a reason.) The other night, Guy was in some dirty diner, located in Armpit, America eating scrapple.

Briefly, you make scrapple out of leftover scraps. [Unless it was first made by some guy named Scrapple, I presume that's the origin of the dish's name.] Start by tossing pork bones into a pot of hot water. After they've boiled for a while, remove the meat and puree it. Add some cornmeal to this disgusting slurry, and bake the whole, reeking, mess until firm. That's scrapple. Judging from how Guy's eyeballs bulged, he liked it. I thought the whole thing looked horrible, so of course I got on the phone to tell people about it. 

The first person I called, shared my disgust. The next, pointed out something interesting. "That's pretty much how you make gefilte fish"

And of course he was right.

---

Search for more information about so-called Jewish delicacies that are really peasant food at 4torah.com.