154 Singing Valleys 



To the glory of the pig, there is nothing of him that cannot 

 be eaten, except the grunt. Of all the foreign peoples who are 

 woven into the texture we call "American," none were more 

 frugal than the German Palatines who settled in Pennsylvania, 

 and are known erroneously as "Pennsylvania Dutch." In Bo- 

 hemia, and in the Rhinelands, these people had been taught 

 by necessity ways of making a hare go further than one would 

 think possible after it was dead. They had learned to take the 

 portions usually considered inedible and boil these into a broth 

 which they thickened with rye or oaten meal. When cold this 

 could be sliced like a meat. 



In Pennsylvania these wanderers found plenty they had 

 never known before. But that did not make them less frugal. 

 After butchering, the women made the sausage, and the blood 

 puddings. Then they took the hog's head and made it into 

 "ponhaws" doubtless a corruption of the two German words, 

 pfanne and hase (literally, panned hare). Today this is usually 

 called "scrapple." On the farms it is made in this way: 



Halve the head and clean thoroughly, removing the eyes and 

 brains. Put the head into a large kettle and cover it with cold 

 water. Simmer this gently until the meat separates from the bones 

 several hours. 



When cool, skim off the grease, take out the bones, chop the 

 meat and put this back in the broth, season with salt, pepper 

 and sage. Stir in enough coarse corn meal to make a mush and 

 boil slowly for one hour. Take care that it does not scorch. 



When cool, pour the ponhaws into greased pans and place in a 

 cool place. To serve, cut it in thin slices and fry crisp and brown. 



In Somerset County, Pennsylvania, the Dutch women are 

 even more economical. At butchering they cook all the odd 

 pieces of pig which can't be used in any other way into a 

 pudding a hard mass of chopped gristle and pork which only 

 a Dutch stomach can digest. It looks like a poor quality of 

 rubber. But the broth from the cooking of these left-overs is 

 thickened with corn meal and buckwheat flour, and this is 

 "ponhaws." 



