Recipes -

As Americans, we celebrate Thanksgiving by eating large quantities of food. We all know what’s on most people’s plates at Thanksgiving (spaghetti, ice cream, jelly beans and walnuts - lots and lots of walnuts).

While on the internet today I found a site that invites people to send in their most outrageous recipes. The one caveat to these recipes is that the food has to be something you either have eaten, or enjoy eating regularly.

If you have an outrageous recipe, feel free to tell us about it!

Granny's Oldtime Recipes

Scrapple:

1 hog's head

4 to 5 quarts cold water

4 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons powdered sage

yellow corn meal (about 3 cups)

Separate one hog's head into halves. Remove eyes and brains. Scrape head and clean thoroughly. Place in large kettle and cover with 4-5 quarts of cold water. Simmer gently for 2 to 3 hours, or until meat falls from the bones. Skimm grease carefully from the surface; remove meat. chop fine, and turn liquor. Season with salt, pepper, and sage to taste. Sift in corn meal, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened to the consistency of mush. Cook slowly for 1 hour over low heat. When sufficiently cooked, pour into greased oblong pans and store in a cool place until ready to use. Cut in thin slices and fry until crisp and brown. Makes 6 pounds.

Headcheese:

1 hog's head (only 1?!)

1 hog's tongue

salt and peppersage or chili powder

Clean and scrape hog's head and wash thoroughly. Wash and trim tongue (how do you trim a f'ing tongue?!?!). Cover head and tongue with slightly salted water and simmer until meat falls from the bone (hold on, I'm dry-heaving). Drain meat, shred, and season. Pack tightly in bowl, cover, and weigh it down. Let stand 3 days in a cold place. Slice. Makes 6-8 pounds.

Scrambled Brains

"When I was growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house. I remember that very often on Sunday mornings and occasionally for dinner, my grandmother would fix an appetizing dish consisting of scrambled eggs and calves brains. Now, this I was told is a delicacy, who made this so I can't imagine. I can remember that the brains were mixed into the eggs and were rather hard to distinguish, except for the paler color. While I suppose it wasn't horrible, for a child it was a rather traumatic experience being expected to eat this stuff. On the other hand, another regular dish at grandma's was something called blood sausage, which is indeed made of pigs blood, barley, and spices and when cooked is a black looking sausage. To this day it is one of my favorite things, but for some reason it's very hard to find. Hmmm... "

submitted by: Carol Nizzi

Head Cheese and Hog Maw

"I was really interested in reading those recipes and must add my own. Being Pennsylvania Dutch, I grew up on pigs stomach, pickled pigs feet and some disgusting concoction called head cheese, which looks exactly like a combination of snot mixed with rubber cement. I don't have the head cheese recipe, but I do know how you make pig stomach, which by the way I absolutely love. The problem is that although it's not a one person meal, no one will taste it to see if they like it. I was a little reticent myself, but it is sssoooo good. By the way, to the Pennsylvania Dutch (for which this dish is a norm) it is called "hog mawl" You order the pig stomach from the butcher. He has to soak it to kill off the enzymes. You chop up equal parts of potatoes, onions and country sausage (not breakfast links or Italian, it's a main dish sausage). Stuff the stomach and bake until it is brown and crispy on the outside. To serve, you slice it just like roast. Hmmm... Good." - submitted by: Claudia

by File Boy