Bacon Scrapple

This recipe is from The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham.  There are lots of breakfast recipes in that book that will make you hungry no matter what time of day it is.  I took this up to Vaughans' this weekend and it disappeared like snow in a ditch.  Crispy on the outside, tender in the inside, and SO GOOD!

Bacon Scrapple

½ pound sliced bacon	1 ¼ tsp. salt
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal	½ tsp. coarse-ground pepper
1 cup cold water	1 bay leaf, crumbled
3 cups boiling water	Reserved bacon fat

Fry the bacon until crisp, pat dry of excess fat and chop into small pieces.  Reserve the fat from the pan.  Stir the cornmeal into the cold water (always stir cornmeal into cold liquid before adding it to boiling liquid to prevent lumps).  Boil 3 cups water.  Stir in salt, pepper and bay leaf.  Stir in the cornmeal and ¼ cup bacon fat, lower heat to medium, and cook, stirring often.  (Cornmeal will sputter, so be careful).  Cook for about 20 minutes, until mixture is no longer runny and plops off spoon.  Remove from heat and stir in bacon pieces.  Press mixture into greased bread pan and chill for at least 4 hours.  Cut into thin slices, and fry in bacon fat until brown and crisp around the edges.  Serve hot.