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With Scrapple, Traditions Mingle at Amis

Scrapple, eggs and peperonata.
Scrapple, eggs and peperonata. Photo: Courtesy Amis

Though we’ve spent considerable ink pixels on the Vetri family this week, we’d be remiss to not mention Amis chef Brad Spence’s housemade scrapple, a recent addition to his ever-evolving brunch menu. Spence likens the Pennsylvania Dutch delicacy that he grew up eating to the vast array of regional specialties that help define Italy’s proud, food-focused culture. “It’s not Italian, but it shares that Italian spirit of showcasing local traditions,” Spence told Grub Street. “We live here and scrapple is our tradition.”

Spence’s version of scrapple, which traditionally calls for every part of the pig except the oink, forgoes what he calls “all that weird stuff,” in favor of using more familiar cuts of pork sourced from local farmers.

“If it was just me, I would use all those other parts,” Spence said. “But some people get a little freaked out by that.”

And for the sake of putting an Italian spin on it, he substitutes polenta for the buckwheat flower and cornmeal combination that’s used to keep all of scrapple’s piggy parts in a nice tidy loaf.

“It’s an Italian ingredient,” Spence said. “So I guess I’m really bringing two traditions together.”

For each order, Spence and his kitchen crew dredge thick slices of the housemade scrapple in flour and fry them in olive oil and butter until crispy. He serves it with two sunny side up eggs from Gap, PA’s Green Meadow Farm and peperonata.

With Scrapple, Traditions Mingle at Amis