ALLENTOWN, PA. — In a matter of minutes, Josh Kradyused his hands to stuff close to three pounds of scrapple into his mouth.
Months of stomach expansion training led up to that victorious moment.
Two seats down, Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk stuck a fork in the meat and took much smaller bites.
It turned out Krady had a stomach of steel as he placed first — beating out 22 other competitive eaters at the Allentown Fair's inaugural Scrapple Eating Contest held Saturday at the Astound FarmerRama Theater.
For longtime residents of the Lehigh Valley and beyond, scrapple is another protein option during breakfast. For those new to the community, scrapple is defined by Merriam-Webster as a seasoned mixture of ground meat (such as pork) and cornmeal set in a mold and served sliced and fried.
Krady gobbled 2.569 pounds of cooked pork skin, pork liver, ground pork, salt, pepper, gluten-free buckwheat flour, and gluten-free cornmeal, courtesy of Stoltzfus Meats in Lancaster.
Keith Croissette of Hereford placed second eating 1.79 of scrapple, and Cory Roman of Barto devoured 1.78 pounds and placed third.
@JoshTheGoatFC Josh Krady is the goat at @AtownFair scrapple eating contest gobbling almost three pounds of the breakfast treat 🐐 pic.twitter.com/CVl1bFbxeq
— Micaela Hood (@micaelahood) September 1, 2024
The rules were simple: Each contestant had two minutes to eat as much scrapple as possible, without "upchucking" the food (yes, there were buckets on-hand just in case).
"So many people were asking us, what is scrapple? What goes into scrapple, especially people who are not from this area who have never heard of it."Zach Stoltzfus, Stoltzfus Meats and Deli
The eaters were allowed to drink water in between chews and top the breakfast delicacy with their choice of condiments like ketchup or maple syrup.
For Krady, the opportunity to consume H20 came in handy.
A competitive eater with his own YouTubeand TikTok channels (his handle is Josh the Goat) he's taken part in hot dog, taco, hamburger eating competition, but only came in second place both instances.
The tacos, he said, were the worst due to the texture.
"It was hard shell tacos. They didn't let us use liquid. It was terrible," he said. "But I came in second place, so it was worth it."
Zach Stoltzfus, of Stoltzfus Meats, served as emcee of the event and offered up fun facts about scrapple, which traces its origins back to the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish.
Scrapple gaining in popularity
The Stoltzfus family has had a vendor space at the Allentown Fair close to four decades where they sell meat products, and, you betcha, scrapple.
"We made a YouTube video about how our scrapple's made. So if anyone's interested in watching that, they can just go to YouTube and type in Stoltzfus scrapple," Stoltzfus said.
"One of the reasons we made it is because so many people were asking us, what is scrapple? What goes into scrapple, especially people who are not from this area who have never heard of it."
Stoltzfus Meats ships their version of scrapple within the U.S.
"Interestingly, it is catching on in other places like Charleston, South Carolina. There's quite a following for scrapple, and it is the number one most popular product that we ship from our online store," Stoltzfus said.
"I think part of the reason why is people can't find it in their grocery stores. So we've taken scrapple on QVC and sold out. It's growing in popularity. So who knows, maybe this is just the first of many eating competitions to come."
