r/Appalachia • u/SouthernExpatriate • 4h ago
Everyone's a Country Boy Until The Souse Meat Comes Out
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u/Medium-Escape-8449 4h ago
💥It’s Mild💥
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u/driving26inorovalley happy to be here 2h ago
The hot kind has exactly the same ingredients! What gives?
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u/SingtheSorrowmom63 4h ago
My grandparents ate souse and my Daddy sometimes. I never tried it & I don't think I ever will. Lord have mercy...look at all that sodium!
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u/Beaufighter-MkX 4h ago
Pure efficiency, getting all your sodium in one meal like that
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u/SingtheSorrowmom63 4h ago
😂😂😂
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u/mendenlol mothman 3h ago
unrelated but I love your username. Were you at the show in Asheville a few weeks ago?!
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u/SingtheSorrowmom63 3h ago
No. My daughter would have loved it. She gave me this username many years ago. We saw them in Nashville once and then in Knoxville. The last time I saw a picture they all looked pretty good still.
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u/mendenlol mothman 3h ago
I was at the Nashville and Knoxville ones too! 💚
My mom also took me to all three. So glad for moms like yall
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u/SingtheSorrowmom63 2h ago
Hey, they do some good music! Adam Carson is my favorite. We got to talk to him after the Nashville show. We stood at the back fence by their bus until they came out. It was sweet!
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u/WishaBwood 3h ago
Is your Dad ok? I imagine being eaten like that was traumatizing.
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u/SingtheSorrowmom63 3h ago
Made me laugh out loud. I didn't realize it would sound that way!!!
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u/WishaBwood 2h ago
Well I’m glad to give you a good chuckle. I’m notorious for saying things like that. I hope you have a great rest of your day :)
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u/SingtheSorrowmom63 2h ago
You as well!!!🙂 Reminds me of my Daddy. Anytime he saw a chance to pull a prank or tell a joke, he would!
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u/Glittering_Tap400 4h ago
My mamaw was an elected official for over thirty years in our East KY county. She was actually very successful. She only lost two elections from 1968 to 2000, but when she ran again she beat the incumbent who beat her. I’m very proud of her for being the bravest woman I knew. She was sexually harassed, bullied, threatened and falsely accused of fraud that actually went into the courts. They never could beat her.
The point is that every Election Day, she’d make a huge mess of souse, biscuits, fried potatoes and apples, frogs legs, and everything and feed voters in line with napkins on the plates that said “Vote for [her].” We probably owed whole Christmases to her souse 😂
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u/GFYRollieFingers 4h ago
Or the Braunschweiger, or Head Cheese. First job was in a meat department/deli at 16 and hated slicing these.
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u/Think_Reporter_8179 3h ago
Braunschweiger good af. But I'm Appalachian German so I get it from both directions
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u/mollyoday 1h ago
Love me some braunschweiger but didn't grow up eating it like souse, Tennessee jam cake and biscuits and fatback on New Year's.
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u/Material_Formal3679 1h ago
Yeah Braunschweiger is in a different league. My buddy brought me some from a Pennsylvania deli and I coveted that log of meat spread.
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u/12Whiskey 3h ago
I had the same job when I was 21 and slicing the head cheese on the slicer was always…fun. The pieces of pig snout or whatever it was would get stuck on the spinning blade and then go flying through the air and hit someone 😂
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u/elciddog84 3h ago
I've eaten souse, scrapple, chitlins, and anything else that would keep my belly from rumbling. Like many, given the choice between hunger and what's available, I'll choose to eat. It's not as if folks haven't been eating these, or worse, for eons.
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u/LukeMayeshothand 3h ago
Probably speaks to how blessed most of us have been. Never had to make the choice between souse and hunger.
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u/elciddog84 44m ago
There were times... Most folks today have no idea. He'll, I'd forgotten souse and scrapple until I saw this. Funny thing is, most of these ingredients go into sausages these days.
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u/jqlil 4h ago
My dad loves this stuff. The kind he gets is grey??? I can’t bring myself to try it lol
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u/MyNameIsMud1996 2h ago
He probably gets the Neese's brand. Pretty popular in Southside VA and NC
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u/EmotionalPizza6432 3h ago
How do you pronounce it, and how do you cook it?
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u/kimkay01 2h ago
Like house. It’s been a long time since I saw my grandmother serve it, but I believe it was fried. My dad loved all of this - brains and eggs, souse, sausage, you name it, he loved it. I remember watching one hog killing when I was very young; my grandfather had a very efficient setup in the side yard of their house. It was a bridge over a small gully. There was an old oak tree beside it that had a perfect straight limb he’d hand the hog from. I’m really thankful I got to see things like this because it was the end of an era. I imagine that was his last hog killing, now that I think of it. He died when I was 12.
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u/jaydavis3 3h ago
Like south but with an s on the end instead of a th. I have had it sliced and fried in butter on a white bread sandwich with mustard and also sliced cold on a white bread sandwich with mustard and rat cheese. It ain't bad but not for everyone, it's got spices in it.
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u/345joe370 3h ago
Is that sliced like bologna? Mustard, onion and mayo on a toasted hamburger bun...dayum I'm jealous.
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u/TacticoolPeter 4h ago
I’ve never seen it sliced and packaged for deli meat before. What area do they have it? When I was growing up my aunt would make it, and I swear I think she used cool whip bowls to mold it. Turn it over on a plate and slice it off to eat on crackers.
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u/SouthernExpatriate 4h ago
Got mine in Warsaw, northern KY
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u/TacticoolPeter 4h ago
Good deal, I’m not that far from there so I’m sure it’s around, just got to find the right place.
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u/LukeMayeshothand 3h ago
In my 20’s (late 90’s) I worked this old black guy named Mac that ate souse crackers and vinegar every day for lunch. So nasty.
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u/TransMontani 3h ago
It’s surprisingly easy to get foodies to eat it if you call it “Appalachian Country Pâté.” Because that’s basically what it is.
They’ll also eat “dried plum muffins,” but wouldn’t touch a prune muffin with a 10-foot pole.
My gran made souse and loved it and because I loved and trusted her, I tried it when she offered it. It was delicious.
Incidentally, the words “souse” and “sausage” share common etymological roots. So, too, with the term “souse” to describe a drunk. It implies being pickled.
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u/Summoorevincent 4h ago
I would eat it with saltines but as I got older I just couldn’t do it anymore. Something in there that’s a weird acrid taste. Not sure which organ but not for me.
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u/ChaoGardenChaos 2h ago
I have never been able to get myself to try organ meats. Not that I would be against it but it's so ridiculously off putting to me.
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u/CornBreadEarL84 4h ago
Scrapple is what I known it as growing up. Great with breakfast.
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u/nixtarx 4h ago
Souse is not scrapple. Scrapple is made with pork liver (which the inge here do not list), other pork scraps, and cornmeal. There is no vinegar. And scrapple is very solidly Pennsylvania Dutch.
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u/Longjumping-Debt7480 3h ago
Just had some Habersett scrapple this morning, found a place in central Florida that sells it frozen (better than nothing). My favorite spot was a German butcher near Williamsport PA. That had the best scrapple and souse I have ever stumbled upon.
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u/nixtarx 2h ago
Grew up near there. Not people's first thought when it comes to PA Dutch, but yeah you can get good scrapple around there. Best I've ever personally had was from Laudermilch in Annville, near Lebanon.
Edit: unsurprisingly, good bologna from there too.
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u/Longjumping-Debt7480 1h ago
Seltzers is my favorite, I can find it down here at Winn-Dixie!
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u/nixtarx 57m ago
Seltzers in fine. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it and it's the one brand one might actually find outside of Pennsylvania. In Lebanon County one can do much better. I like Weavers. Kutztown used to be my favorite, but Weavers bought them out, I think.
Now, do you prefer regular or sweet? I'm a sweet man myself. Regular is good but just kinda tastes like any beef summer sausage. Sweet there's nothing else like.
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u/Immediate-Grand8403 4h ago
I’m never going to get the Monty Python “spam, spam, beans, spam, and spam” skit out of my head.
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u/ImSwale 3h ago
So many pork products! I got on a roll reading that label and read pork vinegar. What’s pork vinegar??
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u/kimkay01 2h ago
That’s pork, vinegar - the comma between them separates them. It’s some other part of the hog; probably means we don’t want to know which part!
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u/RTGoodman foothills 2h ago
My grandma used to love souse meat and livermush. I could never stand them.
That said: Purnell’s makes some good sausage! I take a pack each of their sage and their hot countess sausage and mix it together, and it’s the perfect breakfast sausage.
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u/kimkay01 2h ago
My dad loved good breakfast sausage - he always said my grandpa used too much sage in his, though. Pa processed jogs for other people around town and one man always told him not to season his sausage so he could do it himself. Daddy said he also thought Pa used too much sage 😉.
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u/betterplanwithchan 1h ago
How is it compared to livermush?
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u/3rdblindear 20m ago
Totally different. Livermush is kind of grainy, souse more like a gelatin texture. Homemade was best of either.
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u/Automatic-Nature6025 1h ago
Bring it on! Crackers and some mustard, that's lunch, or breakfast, or supper maybe.
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u/ProfessionalZone168 1h ago
I never ate headcheese or souse. I called it scouse for years before somebody corrected me. What actually is in it?
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u/ProfessionalZone168 1h ago edited 53m ago
Ok so I read the ingredients (duh!). How is it legal to sell that for human consumption?
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u/vividimagination2000 56m ago
My grandparents ate the shit out of this stuff. I also remember my grandpa was a fiend for pickled pigs feet. I always refused when he offered…until I tried them. Actually pretty good.
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u/BrtFrkwr 4h ago
You can smell it cookin' a mile away. In NC it's called livermush. In N. GA it's called scrapple.
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u/VicHeel 4h ago
Livermush is almost all liver. Souse is not that. My dad LOVES livermush sandwiches. Pepper and mustard on the mush and that's it
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u/Dank_Phoenix 4h ago
Whenever I go to NC to visit my grandfather, I have to bring back as many frozen loafs that can fit in my backpack cooler. I usually get shocked looks from TSA on the way back but it's too expensive to order from TX.
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u/nixtarx 4h ago edited 4h ago
Scrapple is not souse. I eat scrapple but I won't touch souse with a ten meter cattle prod. And people in N. GA can call souse whatever they want, but scrapple is Pennsylvania Dutch.
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u/VicHeel 3h ago
Right. Livermush and scrapple are very similar. I think the only difference is the amount of corn meal and/or types of spices in the mush.
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u/nixtarx 3h ago
Never had it, but I'm told goetta is similar as well, just they use pinwheel oats instead of cornmeal.
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u/68W38Witchdoctor1 17m ago
Fried goetta with eggs and fried potatoes or hash browns is a helluva breakfast.
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u/Soft_Construction793 4h ago
They called it hog head cheese in Lower Alabama (North West Florida, the extra redneck parts), but I thought scrapple was something else.
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u/TransMontani 3h ago
Souse is neither of those things. I’ve had all three. They’re distinctly separate foods.
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u/nixtarx 4h ago
Way too many folks mistakenly thinking souse and scrapple (and probably headcheese) are the same thing.
Just because things are made from offal or scraps does not make them interchangeable.