Um, I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but baby, well, it’s cold outside. Like snow day cold, like kerchief and cap and long winter’s nap cold, like the dog looks offended when I suggest that he go out cold, like effing cold.
So, I’m settling in. My slippers are in constant use. I’m breaking out some new pajamas. The larder is stocked and there’s a spare bottle of wine or two and a few DVDs around. And I am making scramble. Bring on the snow.
Scramble? Uh? What’s that? You talking about that scrapple stuff they eat down south?
Scramble is a kind of Chex Mix on steroids, but somehow so much more than that description would suggest. It is, truthfully, an old family recipe. But one that has gone long neglected.
Last summer, when I was visiting my Mom, I borrowed the little hard-bound green linen colored notebook in which my father had laboriously written his recipes, many of which he had gotten from his mother-in-law, my maternal grandmother. Among them was the recipe for Scramble, a snack which I had entirely forgotten. But as soon as I saw the recipe, I remembered my diminutive grandmother standing in front of a roasting pan almost half her size and stirring up mound of cereals and salty stuff into a savory, crunchy snack. My grandfather used to scoop it into cleaned out margarine tubs and enjoy it with his late afternoon martini. Sometimes he added M and Ms, but to the rest of us this was heresy. We preferred our salt unadulterated.
Truth be told, I didn’t like Scramble that much as a child. I did like picking out the pretzels and sometimes nuts, but the rest I could give or take. I decided to make some up this Christmas mostly from nostalgia and to send off to my siblings to see if it stirred their own memories.
But for my adult self, it turns out to be surprisingly addictive, a wonder mass of savory saltiness with a pleasing blend of textures. It’s great for grabbing on a quick, peckish pass through the kitchen and great for putting out (not in margarine tubs please!) with drinks. My children are more sophisticated than I was, I guess, as they are both quite happy to wolf it all down. Nick recommends it for breakfast. First thing in the morning, he’s on his customary morning perch on the kitchen counter, batting his eyelashes and cooing “Mama, could I have a little Scramble please?”
This is beyond easy to make, but a couple of caveats on ingredients. My grandmother’s recipe calls for a “small box” each of cheerios, wheat chex, rice chex and pretzels. Well, in the greedy 21st century, I have no idea what the 1950’s (or so) considered a small box. And when was the last time you saw pretzels in a box? (Another memory flash of navy blue boxes of Mister Salty pretzels: I believe Mister Salty was a sailor — you know, an old salt). But my guess here of 4-6 cups seems about right for the amount of oil. Speaking of the oil, I’ve swapped in canola for the Wesson suggested by the orginal recipe and that I believe was corn oil, with no discernible difference as far as my taste memory can tell.
Finally, the spices include garlic and onion salt, compounds that I’ve come to consider a bit of an abomination in recent years. What’s wrong with real garlic and real salt, for god’s sake? But hey, it’s a snack mix; compromise your standards a bit. I don’t think Alice Waters will be making any of this up. But I bet she wouldn’t mind some with a martini.
Scramble
4-6 cups Cheerios or other multigrain “O” cereal
4-6 cups Wheat Chex
4-6 cups Rice Chex
4-6 cups thin pretzel sticks
2 lbs. mixed nuts
2 cups canola oil
1 T worchester sauce
1 T onion salt
1 T garlic salt
1 T celery seed
Preheat oven to 200 degrees
Combine cereals, nuts and pretzels in a large roasting pan. Whisk together oil, worchester sauce and spices. Pour over dry ingredients and mix gently. Bake for two hours in the oven, stirring occasionally, until aromatic and crispy.
This can be eaten warm (and at least a little of it should be), but there will be mountains of the stuff, so store in plastic bags, glass jars or storage tins. Give away a lot of it or find yourself overstuffed and with greasy fingers, yet unable to resist going back to the kitchen for another handful.
Funny, my husband and I were talking about making Chex Mix yesterday–must be the weather. We’ll have to give this a try!
One of our neighbors always used to make this, and I always loved it. Even as a kid I liked salty more than sweet. However, the real impetus to post came from the need to deflect the blame for scrapple away from the South. I’m pretty sure that’s the fault of the Pennsylvania Dutch.
A belated response on this. More or less guilty as charged of regional confusion, although our friend Wikipedia tells me “Scrapple is best known as a regional food of Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.” I’m a Yankee, born and bred, so that more or less seems like the South to me.
My mother-in-law Stella brought this to our home so many times I have lost count–and served it always in her home. She’s from Texas and California and have no idea where she found it but it might have been from her caterer in Dallas. Anyway, its delicious and I loved reading your blog about Scramble!!
Scramble* is an old family recipe around here too. (I found this post by doing a google search to see if anyone else had ever heard of it!). Ours has ounce sizes for the different boxes of cereal, and they all amount to about half a box of today’s boxes. Our recipe replaces onion salt with “seasoned salt”, and omits the celery seed, but is otherwise the same. It is truly addictive!
We called it scrabble until my mother-in-law dug out her mother’s recipe and discovered that it was actually “Scramble”. Scramble, scrapple, scrabble – it’s good whatever you call it.
Maria,
I cannot thank you enough for posting this!!
My grandmother also made Scramble every Christmas in a huge black with white speckles roasting pan. She passed away many years ago, and for awhile, my mother still had this recipe. My mother’s health has declined over the years, and the recipe was lost… and so I sadly have not been able to pass this tradition along to my family.
Now I can… thanks to you! I almost have tears in my eyes from the happiness I have with finding this. It’s funny how food carries such memories…
Thank you for allowing me to continue the memories…
My mom made a recipe very similar to this. I have searched forever and this is as close to hers as I’ve found. I do remember her using seasoned salt instead of celery seed too. I think I will try this one and see if it’s as close as it seems. Thank you so much you have saved the holidays for me lol
The original recipe was on the Cheerios box! It had all three Chex cereals in it. I pulled it up on safari a couple years ago, can’t now, probably because Chex co. didn’t like that! The old recipe is unbeatable, I think!
Just sitting here enjoying the scramble that my mom brought to me at thanksgiving!! My grandma Campbell always made this and brought or sent it to us. As she got older and passed last April, my mother has taken on the tradition. Our receipe came out of an old newspaper and also used ounces for cereal. We also add seasame sticks and some bagel pieces. And it is season salt instead of onion and no celery salt. Also 2 tbsp of worchestershire. Any way you make it it’s the best and I can’t eat it without thinking of my grandma Campbell!!
my mom always made this too,however,I dont remember the celery seed.i do remember she used seasoned salt.We would make it on a Saturday when we all would get together for the day and we would take turns stirring every 15 minutes. It was great fun and so good thank you for bringing back a nice memory.
I am making Scramble right now. I’ve been married for 40 years and I got my recipe from my first cook book – Better Homes and Gardens. We make Scramble every Christmas and just decided we wanted MORE!