German recipes: pon haus and scrapple are considered the same thing by many. After doing a quick pon haus and scrapple recipe search on Google, I disagree. In fact, my pon haus recipe isn’t much like the recipes I found online either. My method of making pon haus is pretty simple compared to some.
Scrapple and pon haus do have one thing in common. They use broth from bones and other parts of a pig, that would otherwise be considered unusable. Some of the things people add to the broth making process make me shudder, each to their own I suppose.
Pon haus and scrapple are often made after butchering a hog. Into a pan goes things like the bones, pork skin, pork heart, pork liver, pork tongue—even pork brains. Gross right? Everything is cooked and then the broth is strained out and used.
While I can see the nutritious benefits to adding all of that into your pot, let me be clear and say I do not!
Making Pon Haus ~ My Way
I take all the bones that we cut the meat from and cut off the joints. I toss the joints and add the bones to my pan. I cover them with water and add 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, then simmer for several hours.
The vinegar draws the nutrients from the bones and the result is a highly nutritious bone broth.
Because I use just bones and not all the other stuff, I choose to separate the meat from the fat, bone and gristle. After picking out the meat, I strain the broth and remove the grease. The oxo fat separator you see in the photo below is amazing! (affiliate link)
I cut the longer pieces of meat into small pieces and set it aside for later.
One recipe makes a loaf pan of prepared pon haus and each recipe calls for 5 cups of broth. Now I have 9 cups of broth so I just add another cup of water and make two recipes.
Here is where my pon haus recipe is different from most. I use corn meal (fine ground is best, trust me on this lol), broth, meat, and salt. Very simple and easy to make.
At this point pon haus may be eaten like corn grits, but I prefer it fried. I pour my prepared pon haus into a loaf pan for chilling.
I place the pans into the fridge for at 3-5 hours. When I’m ready to fry it, I dump the pon haus from my pans and slice 1/4″ thick.
I fry my pon haus with a mix of coconut oil and butter until a crunchy golden brown. My bit of research shows that traditionally this is served with maple syrup. While I’m sure that would be good, I grew up dipping fried pon haus into egg yolks.
- 5 cups broth from pork bones (add water if needed)
- 2 teas. salt
- 1 cup finely cut and shredded pork meat if desired
- 2½ fine ground corn meal
- butter and/or coconut oil
- Bring broth (and water) to a boil
- Add salt and meat
- Whisking briskly, slowly add in your cornmeal
- Remove pan from heat and pour into a regular sized loaf pan
- Chill for 3-5 hours
- Turn pon haus out of pan and slice into ¼ thick slices
- Fry in butter and/or coconut oil until golden brown and crispy
Pon haus is an incredibly good-for-you meal. The bone broth and then egg yolks make it high in iron as well. Best of all? My only cost is the corn meal since the bones would’ve been tossed otherwise.
My advise would be to give it a try sometime. See if a local butcher shop would give you pork bones and then make your own pon haus. 🙂 Or if you buy your meat from farmers the way we do and butcher your own, DON’T toss those bones!
Share this inexpensive meal idea with your friends: This nutrious meal cost almost nothing to make! Visit @aproverbs 31 wife to learn more.
I grew up with scrapple, and have made it several times, but it uses whole wheat flour as well as cornmeal. Since trying to cut out gluten I’ve experimented some with other flours but none have worked very well. I’ve never heard of using only cornmeal but I’m eager to try this now! I also use beef for the broth. Thank you for sharing this!
I’ve never heard of using beef for the broth. 🙂 And just make sure to use fine ground cornmeal or a mix of fine and medium. I’ve always used fine in the past, but since I didn’t have any last time I made it, I used medium. It just wasn’t the same!
You ought to try millet flour sometime! Make sure you use some butter to fry it in!
Talking to my relatives who made ponhaus/scrapple when I was a kid say they used buckwheat, which is gluten free, in the recipe. That must be why it was gray in color. I have tried to make scrapple with only sausage, then deglaze the pan with water to make the pork broth.
I take the easy way out. Fry up a couple pounds of your favorite sausage. In a large pan put in a box of cream of wheat. Heat enough water to add to the cream of wheat until it sticks together. Kind of like left over mashed potatoes.Add the cooked sausage with the rendered fat and mix real good. Break up the sausage in little pieces as you fry it. Then put it in loaf pans that have been sprayed with Pam and store in the frig. Now the best part. If chilled overnight you can flip it out of the pan and slice it any thickness ou want. Then I layer it in another container that I seperate with wax paper. When frozen I take about six pieces and put them in my seal-a-meal. When somebody wants scrapple I just take some out and fry it. Sorry I am so long winded. We always put ketchup on ours.
It sounds good for sure.
We prefer the other due to how healthy the broth is and the fact that the boys cannot have wheat.
Can anyone tell me why would scrapple not get thick when put in loaf pan and chilled. Even 2 days later inside soupy like. Friends made it. Someone said undercooked another said overcooked. Any fix for this
Sorry for the late response. Likely there wasn’t even corn meal added as the corn meal is what makes it set up. At the point you mentioned above, I’m not sure if there’s a fix though. I’m sorry.
I am 92, so I go back to the days of butchering several hogs each winter. We made sausage that was cooked in a large Zink kettle. It was that broth that we stirred in white cornmeal. Now I just buy Jimmy Dean sausage, either mild or hot, depending which son come for breakfast and bring to boil 8 cups of water. Break up the sausage and boil . Simmer to reduce 5/6 cups of sausage broth,and then slowly stir in the cornmeal and stir vigorously to prevent clumping. until it pulls away from the pan, like a thick mush. Then place in pam sprayed loaf pan and chill.
You will most likely have to add some salt My secret ingredient is a scant teaspoon of allspice. I have a large electric griddle that I oil and heat to 350′. slice the pannas 1/4 inch and brown nicely. Serve with a side of fried eggs.
sounds a lot like the fried mush ( cold porridge) that I used to eat growing up. I have no clue how my mom made it, but we would have mush for supper one night and she would put the leftovers in a bread pan and chill. the next evening she would slice it and fry it.
We made fried mush as well, but that was just water and cornmeal. The bone broth and meat just made it so much better!
You mention egg yolks, but it’s not in the recipe, do you sometimes add it?
We dip the pon haus into soft cooked eggs.
This sounds just like the one my mom talked about grandma making when she was growing up. My grandpa (same side) made one later on that used pork sausage and All-bran. I’ve only made it a few times and tend to stick to fried corn meal mush but I love how this has protein already in it. 🙂
It’s pretty good, you should try it sometime.
“… cover with water and 1/4 of apple cider vinegar” How much water and 1/4 what of vinegar? Cup?
Yes 1/4 cup of vinegar. Ponhaus isn’t a fine science by any means, so when I say I cover the bones with water, that’s exactly what I do. I pack them in the pan and add just enough water to cover them all. The water will slowly boil down, but that’s fine.
Growing up in mid Penna, I remember putting buckwheat flour in ponhaus. Love apple butter on fried mush and ponhaus.
Also had liver pudding on buckwheat pancakes, covered with flour gravy, onions and stewed tomatoes-yum! yum! how I miss that. Does anyone have recipe for sous that my mother also made ?
I cannot help you there, but perhaps someone else can 🙂
My parents and grandparents both made this dish as long ago as my parents could remember and it was very close to your recipe. They were all raised on farms in Ohio. When I was a child, we lived in Colorado and not on a farm. Dad went deer hunting every year and mom would make ponhaus with the scrap venison meat (no organs, just meat). She used beef broth for the liquid and only corn meal. We add a few spices also. It is delicious. I have made it for many of my friends and served it with syrup. After the first bite without syrup, the syrup goes untouched!
Could you make this with a ham bone?
My grandpa made us ponhaus a lot growing up, but unfortunately, I never got to watch him make it. We loved it fried with maple syrup. This recipe seems exactly like his. I know he would buy inexpensive cuts of pork meat with bones and cook it down. I believe he always used white corn meal, as his ponhaus was very light in color. So yummy…this is definitely a memory food, and I am going to try it:)
I’m not so sure about a ham bone. If it’s a cured ham, probably not as it would have an interesting taste.
How long do you coo the pork and cornmeal?
Not very long. Just until it boils and then you will need to pull it off the heat pretty quickly as it will thicken and start popping and splattering hot mush everywhere.
I’m in my mid-seventies. I grew up on a dairy/hog farm in Ohio. Both sides of the family were Swiss/German farmers. The whole family gathered and we butchered butchered 7 or 8 hogs at a time. After that my great-granddad made lots of pon haus. We loved it fried and we always had a choice of maple syrup or apple butter to spread on it. I’m so glad to find this recipe for I have not had pon haus for at least 50 years. I left home for college in the West and never thought to ask for the recipe. Thanks so much.
You are very welcome!
Like I mentioned in my post, we always dipped it in egg yolk, but the last time I made it, we tried syrup and OH MY GOODNESS! It was fantastic with syrup!
Can’t wait to try your recipe. My husband grew up using syrup but I grew up using gravy. So good.
Awesome story! Thank you
Sounds like a recipe my grandmother used to make. Like you, I dipped mine into eggs. I also remember that my grandma would add sage to the recipe, and she would drench the slices in flour before she fried them.
Thanks!
Bonni
I’m from North Carolina and grew up on livermush. Very similar with the exception of the meat choices because my grandmother used mostly pork liver with pieces of pork meats that were usually pretty fatty.
My grandma used to make ponhaus from leftover Sunday dinner meat like pork roast, beef roast, and my favote turkey..us kids ran the hand crank grinder and she made me stir the mush in big pot because I was tall. We ate it fried in butter with dippy eggs or with syrup..gram was french and pops was German so I don’t know where the recipe came from but we are from mid north western pa..I haven’t had it for years but am considering making it with leftover turkey this thanksgiving
Late response but I’m curious how it worked?
I grew up with Pon Haus also and we added spices. Allspice and a dash of ground cloves.
Interesting recipes- being born in West Virginia I have never seen these recipes for “puddin” or ponhaus. When we butchered we did strip only meats and fats from bones, very little gristle or sinew, this was cooked in a big iron cauldron o “render” the fat which was scooped into containers and kept in the smoke house. The remaining meats left over were scooped into small pans and the fat congealed, and was also put into smokehouse. Then water was put into the cauldron and brought to a boil, cornmeal was added to soak up the grease and cook the cornmeal and spices til it bubbled the put into tins and yes into the smokehouse. lasted all winter. Fried scrapple with eggs, pancakes or just by it self. Fried egg and scrappkenon toast is scrumptious. Now that I have made myself yearn for either does anyone know where in Mississippi or Louisiana I can find it?
Thank You Kendra!
This is the first recipe that is almost identical to my late mother’s. We also did not make “scrapple”! Scrapple is not nearly as flavorful and the nutrients would not seem to be as high as well. Your recipe is the way it is made in many parts of Missouri and is absolutely delicious, especially with eggs and served with fresh cracked pepper. We use pork only, and have a preference for neck bones with their “built-in” gelatinous qualities that help set the batch. Otherwise we use the same procedures.
Nice job with this!
That’s awesome! We love pon haus and just made it again this week!
We recently raised and processed a pig for the first time. I’ve been looking for all sorts of recipes for the head, liver, and bones. Can’t wait to try this with the back bones! Thanks for sharing.
Oh how fun! We have land now and have considered raising a pig ourselves. Not sure if we really want large animals or not right now. Enjoy your Pon Haus!
Sounds really good and I have tried making before but not exactly like yours. Was just thinking I wonder if you could use this and make some type of casserole dish. Its just an idea of mine. Have you ever come up with and made something similar.
No… cannot say that I have. Some people just eat the pon haus like grits though, warm and unfried.
I looked up this recipe as a result of purchasing at a thrift store a recipe book. It is the 1976 Bicentennial Cookbook by Home Economics Teachers. I had never heard of panhaus./scrapple. I am definitely going to try this. Have you ever tried roasting the bones first?
I cannot say that I have tried it. Heard of it though.
My mother would make pon haus when my siblings and I were kids (over 50 years ago) and I’m certain that her recipe was close to the ones here, but did use sage as well as a small amount of pork liver. We would slice it and fry it and eat it with soft fried eggs.
I’m 76 and Mom always made pon haus I haven,t made it for years, your receipe is like mine, we had baby back ribs which I boil first befor putting on grill, I use that broth for my pon haus. Nothing goes to waste in my family.
someone asked my question about roasting the bones first, because in the photo it looks like they were, but you’ve said no.
my other question: why toss out the joints? I don’t understand that part. I’ll have to go to a butcher for the bones and won’t have a saw for cutting them, so I want to make sure I can get the right ones. just any fresh meat bones? (I’ve always make ham stock with smoked hocks or a smoked ham bone.)
I think it’s because of the synovial fluid in joints. I’ve always heard my grandparents and mom say it makes the broth bitter or something. I use the joint ends sometimes but I cut them open and rinse if that makes sense.
No clue if it effects the taste or not, but not really interested in finding out either lol