I think it's largely a linguistic problem..."scrapple" is a hideous-sounding word. I've successfully served this dish as "breakfast meatloaf" to people who squeal like five-year-olds at the word "scrapple". When you frame it as "fried herbed polenta with braised pork", it sounds like something out of Food & Wine Magazine. Words matter, yo.
At its core, scrapple is nothing more than a grain (like cornmeal) cooked with broth and herbs (this is called "polenta" if you're Italian or "cornmeal mush" if you're Southern American, and I never hear "Jimmy's in my AIR SPACE!" squealing about those dishes) and some finely chopped meat, usually from a very bony part that's hard to cook in any way other than boiling (i.e. the "scraps" of the animal), then chilled in a loaf pan, then sliced and lightly fried. The exact blend of grains (sometimes buckwheat is used), the particular herbs and what meat "scraps" are used may differ.
I've made this recipe with pork neck bones, pork shoulder and beef oxtail. I like oxtail the best...the more bony the part, the more gelatin is extracted in the cooking process and the richer the final dish is. I've not done it, but I would imagine this would be an ideal way to use parts highly gelatinous parts like trotters or pig ears without the dish being too, well, trotter-y or ear-ish.
I also like getting the meat part cooked in a crockpot because who has time to sit around for 2-3 hours babysitting a simmering pot o' oxtail? Crockpot-ing also keeps the meat especially tender and easy to pull off the bones.
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