Sussex menu: Fresh produce, scrapple, crabs, chicken

What is your favorite food unique to Sussex County?

It's hard to pin a certain food to a geographical area because it's not always easy to track down the history.

But, there are some foods accepted as official Sussex County delicacies no matter where they originated.

At the top of the list is scrapple. Although the popular meat did not originate in Sussex County, it's become our adopted official meat product.

The county is home to RAPA Scrapple on Railroad Avenue in Bridgeville, the world's largest scrapple producer. Started by Ralph and Paul Adams in 1926, the original recipe has not changed.

So what's in scrapple? Those who love it tell others not to ask that question and just enjoy it.

Here is the official list as offered by RAPA: pork livers, broth, hearts, fat and skins, white corn meal, wheat flour, salt and spices. In other words, whatever is left over from a pig.

RAPA has branched out over the years and now offers varieties of scrapple, including hot and spicy, turkey, beef and scrapple with bacon. Their Greensboro Blend is touted as the prime rib of scrapple with a blend of pork and beef.

Many people in eastern Sussex County are partial to Milton Sausage and Scrapple.

Scrapple was brought to America by German colonists in the Philadelphia area in the 17th and 18th centuries. It's considered an ethnic food of the Pennsylvania Dutch, including the Amish and Mennonites.

It doesn't get much better than thinly sliced, crisp scrapple with home fries, scrambled eggs, or eggs over easy, for breakfast. And scrapple sandwiches, only on white bread, are considered a must-eat food at events in the county and southern Delaware.

It's such a favorite that the folks in Bridgeville highlight the pork product during the Apple Scrapple Festival each year. It's become one of the most popular festivals in the county.

Any kind of chicken

Because Sussex County is largest chicken (broilers) producer in the county, just about anything involving chicken is a Sussex staple. Fried, barbecued, baked, roasted, grilled, braised and smoked – it's all good. And for those of you who are adventurous, there is always beer can chicken cooked on the grill.

Chicken and slippery dumplings are unique to Sussex County, and for decades, churches competed to see who had the best slippery dumplings cooks. Church suppers nearly always featured chicken and dumplings.

There is an art to making chicken and dumplings, and I fear that as time goes on, fewer and fewer will get to enjoy this Sussex dish.

Served on the side – or mixed together if you are truly Sussex – with baked chicken, the dumplings are made by cutting the rolling out dumpling dough which is cut into squares. It's then cooked with chicken broth, which in turn makes the dumplings slippery.

Get some barbecue

If you haven't stopped by a roadside chicken barbecue (known as BBQ), you haven't lived the complete Sussex experience. Many organizations in the county use chicken BBQs as fundraisers. The biggest, and many say the best, is the weekly Greenwood Volunteer Fire Company barbecue on Route 13.

As the chicken cooks, the smoke and aroma drifts through the Sussex countryside beckoning all to partake.

Nearly every town, city, crossroads and village in Sussex has somebody cooking and selling BBQ chicken during the summer.

Craving blue crabs

Besides chicken, most Sussex Countians love blue crabs. It's doesn’t get much more Sussex County than a meal of steamed crabs and corn on the cob.

I bet you can't list the number of restaurants in the area that serve crabs because there are dozens of them all over the county. Although steamed crabs are the most popular, there are dozens of other way to prepare and enjoy crabs, including cakes, softshell, soup, dip, imperial and even mac-and-cheese.

Picking apart a crab – to get all the good stuff – is an acquired technique that is passed on down the generations.

To truly enjoy the crab experience, you have to allot a great deal of time and must have plenty of craft beer brewed in Sussex County to wash them down.

Blue crabs, which are found in the Chesapeake and Delaware bays area, are by their name tasty. Their scientific name is Callinectes sapidus, which translates to beautiful swimmer that is savory.

Crabbing is a Sussex County rite of passage. Dangling a line in the water with a chicken neck attached is cathartic to many people, especially those who don't want to pay the high price for crabs.

In love with sweet corn

Although not unique to the area, many Sussex Countians seem obsessed with sweet corn, at least in the Lewes area. Social media is flooded with posts every summer from people asking questions about The Corn Man, which is actually Freeman Farm corn, and it’s usually women running the stand.

When the family moved from their longtime location at the intersection of Robinsonville Road and Plantation Road, people went into a frenzy. When they discovered the new location is about a mile down the road, all was right with the world again.

It's also a major event when the Brittinghams announce they have sweet corn ready at their popular market in Milton.

Markets and more markets

Cape Gazette recipe guru Denise Clemons helped me compile a list of other Sussex foods, including tomatoes, beach plum jam, muskrat, shad, peaches, watermelon, blueberries, strawberries, squash, cucumbers, lima beans and Delaware Bay oysters.

Where else in the world is a tomato sandwich considered a meal?

We are lucky to have weekly farmers markets in nearly every town and city offering Sussex vegetables and fruits as they ripen each season.

And if you can't get enough, there are retail farmers markets scattered throughout the county. Route 404 between Georgetown and the Maryland state line is by far the top location for markets.

The markets serve as not only a place for great produce, but also remind us how important the agriculture industry is to the county. There are more than 50 summer farm markets throughout the county listed on the Delaware Department of Agriculture website.

Those great beach treats

Then there are the iconic beach treats enjoyed by thousands, including Thrasher's French Fries, Dolle's saltwater taffy and pizza from Grotto and Nicola.

I'm not forgetting the popularity of the many craft beers and spirits brewed throughout the county. That's a topic for another column.

Let's face it, Sussex County may not be the gourmet capital, but for down-home cooking and fresh produce, it can't be beat.