Courtesy of commenter MR, The history of Spam! Complete with recipes!
I didn’t know the bit about its part in WWII (“It’s why war is hell.”) but am not surprised that Spam has recently become a part of ironic hipster cuisine. Personally I like it – when I can get it, for it’s a bit pricey for my regular budget – for the very reason it was created: It’s tasty when prepared, lasts forever on a shelf, and needs no refrigeration. Also the article confirms my impression that it’s really not as toxic as most canned meat, er, products.
I usually cube mine with potatoes and onions or eat slices with my most common breakfast, open faced with fresh bread and eggs. Fry the slices separately while you toast one side of your fresh-sliced bread on the griddle. Then butter the griddle, break one egg on the griddle for each slice, break the yolks, lay a slice of Spam and a slice of bread on each egg and fry them together. Delicious, quick, and guaranteed to get your dogs’ attention from a mile away.
I love Spam. We ate it a lot as a child and it was a lot cheaper back then. I love Spam sushi. You can buy it in any corner store and gas station in Hawaii. I sometimes cook thin slices to go with eggs for the grand kids. I tell them it’s ham and they love it.
The article caused me to crack a can for lunch and make a sandwich.
Have a can ready to put in batter and fry, see previous reader posts, gotta try that. Maybe with a corn pudding. Or fry some up and put it in the bottom and on the top of a pan of corn bread. I enjoy it. It’s nostalgic comfort food and I always have a few cans in the pantry.
Chorizo and Jalopeno Spam – I gotta’ get out more! What they need to do is get into a deal with Tony’s and they’d have another winning product!
Might not do as well stateside – but another good one would be Huy Fong Spam!
I gotta’ quibble with one thing in the article – they say Spam is inexpensive. Where I shop it would run $3.50-4 a pound. I’ve got a freezer (or so…) full of good cuts of store-bought meat that cost $2.25-3 @ pound – most of them boneless. But when the power goes out the freezer’s worthless – that’s the beauty of Spam.
I keep a number of tins of the cheap generic ‘luncheon meat’ that the grocer stocks on hand – about a buck less @ tin than the Spam – but it will never develope that smell that Spam does when you pan fry it.
An egg/corn batter – like what you’d use for catfish – that would be interesting for Spam. I’d at least try it if someone else were cooking it. 🙂
Spam is too high brow chow for us too. Treet on the other hand is a camping staple. We call it ‘Wetback MRE’, sliced and grilled and put on toasted bread or tortillas, its pretty awesome to chew on.
Its hereditary I guess. My Dad had to commute to his job, and for many many years, a can of Treet and 1/2 loaf of bread, plus lettuce and tomato was his lunch, eaten at the office. One sandwich, a Coke and the rest of the hour spent reading – 30+ years of lunches, pretty much !
I recently had a can of Chorizo Spam that someone sent me. It was…different, not bad, but not what I consider an improvement on regular Spam. I’ve never found a flavor I really prefer, and there have been a few I didn’t care for. But then I’ve always drunk my coffee black, because “If you wanted a cup of cream and sugar, why didn’t you just do that?”
I have heard rumors of bacon spam. I keep looking for it but haven’t found it yet. Bacon is my favorite meat. Spam to me is a treat. I can only hope that bacon spam lives up to my dreams. But I have to find it first.
@GoneWithTheWind
Please note Bacon Spam does in fact exist.
Bacon Spam should be something one can produce at home. Cook back, crumble it up, mash Spam, mix together, shape, and cook.
Granted, I haven’t tried this. I don’t know if I’ve ever even eaten Spam. Might have to pick some up at the grocery store.
I had never eaten Spam until last year. It gets so much coverage on prepper forums that I figured I had better stock it. I tried one can and boy did I like it!! And boy did it not like me. Just too fatty for what I’m used to, and the bowels were in an uproar for days. If you’re not used to it, I’d suggest sneaking up on it gradually to get aclimatized. Guess that’s part of the store what you eat and eat what you store.
As a child of a WWII vet, who served in the South Pacific, there were foods that never saw the inside of my childhood home. Spam was one item and the other was lamb/mutton.
The best way I have tried Spam is Musubi, i.e. Hawaiian Spam sushi, stuff’s delicious and easy to make.
The only thing in SPAM that isn’t totally wholesome are the nitrites that are used to cure the meat.
The rest of it is just pork and seasonings.
Nitirites, as it were, are going to be in pretty much any cured meat – they are not unique to SPAM. Ham, sausage, salami, bacon, cured fish – the list goes on. SPAM is not the devil it’s been made out to be.
Last time I tried Spam, I made the mistake of trying the “Lite” version. Completely inedible. Gave it to the cat, she tried to bury it. However… fifteen years later and egged on by your post, I picked up a can of the regular type and pan-singed slices of it for supper. Pretty damn good! Looking forward to having the other half of the can with eggs tomorrow morning.
Way better than I remembered it being from childhood. Thanks for getting me to try it again, I’ll be keeping it in the cupboard from now on.
Yeah, I’ve never fully understood the reasoning behind Spam Lite. Even the dogs give me funny looks when I offer them that.