A Brief History of Spam

January 21, 2016 11:47 AM

For a six-ingredient food product, it's taken on a life of its own. Spam — the square-shaped mash-up of pork, water, salt, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrate — recently celebrated its 77th anniversary of being alternately maligned, celebrated, musicalized, or the subject of urban legend (one particularly pervasive myth insists that its name is actually an acronym for "Scientifically Processed Animal Matter"). And despite today's more locavore approach to food and some unkind memories from soldiers who were served Spam during WWII, Spam has entered its third quarter-century on the rise.
posted by sciatrix (81 comments total)

Although everyone agrees that Japanese Americans invented spam musubi, it's disputed whether it was invented in Hawaii or in mainland WWII internment camps. I've heard both versions.
posted by w0mbat at 11:56 AM on January 21, 2016

I eat spam, and I'm still alive. I like to think these two things are related.
posted by fimbulvetr at 11:57 AM on January 21, 2016 [15 favorites]

Ooh, a nice, thin slice of Spam browned and served on an English muffin with a runny fried egg and a bit of HP Sauce....mmmm, boy howdy.
posted by briank at 11:57 AM on January 21, 2016 [10 favorites]

After the post about backseatpilot butchering a pig and using as much meat as possible, I hope Spam will get a better reception. It's more appetizing than head cheese (a low bar, I know), and presented with rice and seaweed it looks downright elegant.
posted by Rangi at 11:57 AM on January 21, 2016 [4 favorites]

Spam in the back of my car, spam any place that you are...
posted by Melismata at 11:58 AM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'll have the Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Baked Beans, Spam, Spam, and Spam.
posted by SansPoint at 12:00 PM on January 21, 2016 [5 favorites]

My two boys (6 and 9) were astonished a couple days ago when I told them some people don't like spam. They couldn't comprehend why anyone wouldn't love the stuff, even though they know their mother always declines to eat spam.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:01 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'll have Spam Cupcakes.

shh, dear, don't cause a fuss. I love 'em!
posted by yhbc at 12:01 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

My dad grew up eating SPAM and it remains a comfort food in his house. In one of those acts of rebellion that persists through adulthood, I refuse to touch the stuff. My cousins (who did NOT grow up eating SPAM) love it during the holidays when they come over around breakfast time and my dad's there cooking up SPAM and eggs for whoever wants it. He was tickled when those same cousins took me out to their current favorite breakfast place in Chicago, Uncle Mike's Place, where they can get a traditional Filipino breakfast of... SPAM and eggs. (This is also perfect because to them my dad is "Uncle Mike", although he's not Filipino. Maybe I would have come around to SPAM in my youth if I had that garlic fried rice along with it.)
posted by jeweled accumulation at 12:02 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

I spent weekends with my father when I was a kid, and he tried, he really did. One of his SPECIAL dishes was a casserole that consisted of those large pasta shells meant for stuffing, onions, whole canned tomatoes, Velveeta, and cubed Spam. I can't even look at the word "Spam" without experiencing the scent-memory of that egregious concoction.
posted by Miss Scarlet with the Candlestick in the Lounge at 12:04 PM on January 21, 2016 [6 favorites]

Mmmmmm.... Jalapeño Spam, with a thin slice of raw onion.
posted by jgaiser at 12:05 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

When I was a kid, Spam was what we ate when we couldn't afford hamburger. It wasn't horrible but I can't say it's a fond memory and it's telling that I have never sought it out as an adult.
posted by doctor_negative at 12:05 PM on January 21, 2016

I was born in Hawaii and never saw spam musubi until after I moved to California in 1978.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 12:06 PM on January 21, 2016

Those SPAM Cupcakes actually look really delicious to me, as a SPAM connoisseur. I would make my own mashed potatoes as opposed to using instant boxed ones, which I'm not sure, but I think might actually be antithetical to the whole idea of SPAM (as in that it isn't processed food.).
posted by deadaluspark at 12:06 PM on January 21, 2016

I have never had spam and I'm still alive. I like to think these two things are related.

I had it once. (I really just wanted the tin for a pen holder. Turns out it's also a great EZ-Pass container.) It wasn't bad, and I'm still kicking.

Oh, and I once ordered it as a pizza topping just because I could.

Huh. I may actually like it.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:07 PM on January 21, 2016

We never had Spam in our house when I was growing up. We had the more down-market canned meat, Prem. Even further down-market was Treet. You knew who the rich kids were, because their Moms packed Spam in their lunches.

I once made chocolate-dipped Spam cubes for a pitch-in holiday dinner at the studio. They were surprisingly edible.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:09 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

After the post about backseatpilot butchering a pig and using as much meat as possible, I hope Spam will get a better reception.

Honestly, after reading through Ruhlman's Charcuterie so many times, I've really developed an appreciation for things like Spam and deli meats like bologna. They're an excellent use of scraps that might have otherwise gone to waste (although these days they're probably more likely to be turned in to dog food or pink slime nuggets), and a success story in the history of food preservation. Spam isn't too far removed from fancy French terrines.
posted by backseatpilot at 12:10 PM on January 21, 2016 [12 favorites]

Spam is good, but low(er) sodium Spam is even better. There re some fancy luncheon meats out there (from Argentina, or more sketchily, China) that have a better mouthfeel/taste than Hormel spam.

Thinly slices and fried Spam is an acceptable bacon substitute, for my tastes. In a pinch.
posted by porpoise at 12:11 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

I live in Hawaii and I never ate spam until I moved here, but damn if a musubi (emphásis on the last sylláble, folks) isn't just the perfect thing. And available practically everywhere!

With the food thing really taking off around HNL, I'm awaiting our local version of the tattooed, bearded Brooklyn/Portland artisan charcutier, only for spam and Vienna sausage.
posted by deadbilly at 12:12 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty sure Klik and Kam are Canada-specific Spam competitors.

_{I think they're also the hosts of a morning drive-time radio show somewhere.}
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:13 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

I grew up eating Spam. My husband did not. Today, we both sincerely appreciate its occasional presence in our lives, and damn the naysayers! Spam fried rice is a dish of humble beauty and excellent flavor.

For those of you turning up your nose at it untried, please understand that you're definitely not supposed to eat it cold out of the can. The simplest (and arguably best) way to enjoy Spam is to slice it thinly, fry it in a pan until lightly browned, and serve with steamed rice and fried eggs with a splash of soy sauce.
posted by Diagonalize at 12:14 PM on January 21, 2016 [7 favorites]

I wretch at the thought of you filthy animals violating your face holes with this disgusting salted meat-gel you call SPAM! Not like me, a civilized, refined human being who prefers to dine on delicious Armour brand Vienna Sausages!
posted by cmoj at 12:14 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ugh. Klik and Kam are poor substitutes for the real thing.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:15 PM on January 21, 2016

Spam is also excellent cut into small cubes, fried up nice and crispy, then put on a bed of rice with a nice curry sauce poured over top.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:18 PM on January 21, 2016

Spam is a huge comfort food for me, thanks to having parents who were born and raised in post-WWII Hong Kong. Spam was prestige food for them, and they passed that onto their kids. Fried rice made out of cubes of spam fried in a wok until crispy, whatever was left in the rice cooker after dinner the night before, scrambled eggs, frozen mixed vegetables, garlic, ginger, and green scallions, a couple turns on a ridiculously hot wok, served in a bowl with a dab of ketchup?

I'll eat it until I HURT.

(On the other hand, I'll never understand my mother's love of Heinz pork and beans. She says it's because canned food was a treat, and tied up with how hard her working class mother had to work to support five kids in public housing with a shiftless husband. Weekdays, weekends, nights, Chinese New Year -- name it, she worked it. The only days she ever took off was one (1) day each year to take the kids to the beach, and any days that she couldn't work because of typhoons. In both situations, canned Heinz pork and beans figured.)
posted by joyceanmachine at 12:18 PM on January 21, 2016 [14 favorites]

Just had a spam musubi from the Berkeley Bowl yesterday (made with brown rich, natch) and it hit the spot! They don't use any sauce, but you get two slices of spam per musubi. Two thumbs up. As the haole said to me at a hula festival, spam musubi are Hawaii's energy bar.
posted by honey badger at 12:19 PM on January 21, 2016

Had it a bunch when I was a kid, but not again until last year at Roy Choi's Chego in Chinatown (LA) -- a Kimchi Spam Bowl that was just pure love.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:19 PM on January 21, 2016

After the post about backseatpilot butchering a pig and using as much meat as possible, I hope Spam will get a better reception.

People get really too touchy about offal. Like we could make hamburger meat so much more nutritious by grinding hearts and tongues into regular ground beef. But if someone got caught doing it? There'd be hell to pay.
posted by Talez at 12:19 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

I love Spam. Fry it up with an egg for breakfast. Grill it with some pineapple for a Spamburger. I organized a Spam-carving contest in high school.
posted by xedrik at 12:22 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

Spam is very salty, hence it's ideal combination with plain rice. I think you have to be a rice lover to appreciate the pairing, though.

And I love me some bologna/mortadella.

And scrapple.
posted by honey badger at 12:23 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

You all could afford the store-bought Spam? Man you had it good!
posted by thelonius at 12:23 PM on January 21, 2016 [5 favorites]

I've never had Spam, but I wouldn't be against it. But does it actually taste like ham? I'm not much of a ham fan.
posted by penduluum at 12:25 PM on January 21, 2016

The best breakfast I ever had was SPAM and scrambled eggs, cooked in an iron skillet over an open fire, at my campsite at 10,000 feet, in the darkness before dawn. If SPAM could always deliver that experience, I'd never eat anything else.
posted by SPrintF at 12:26 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

It doesn't taste like ham. It tastes like SPAM. Spiced Pork And haM.

Don't ask me, I just work here.
posted by deadaluspark at 12:27 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hey what the hell, I'll pick up a can next time I'm at the store. Life's too short.
posted by penduluum at 12:31 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

It only sort of tastes like ham. It's salty and meaty, but the consistency is nothing at all like ham. You have to chew ham, for example.
posted by Miss Scarlet with the Candlestick in the Lounge at 12:38 PM on January 21, 2016

Thanks, Sciatrix, that was . . .


Lovely.
 
posted by Herodios at 12:41 PM on January 21, 2016

I'm a vegetarian, but I always go to the Spam museum in Austin, MN, when I get the chance, because it is great.

They just redid it, so I don't know what's new, but I'll get back there soon.
posted by maxsparber at 12:41 PM on January 21, 2016

Junior year in college, circa 1989, I am the proud new owner of a Weird Al record.

Two friends, M and G, barge in to my dorm room in the morning while I'm still asleep. M: "Melismata, we have to listen to Weird Al's 'Spam' right now. We're arguing over the lyrics. I think he says 'The tab is there to open the can, The can is there to hold in the spam.' G thinks that he says 'The key is going to open the tin, The tin is there to keep the spam in.' We're not sure who is right." (Before the Internet, obviously.)

We listened to the song a few times. M: "huh, we were both right." A moment later: "Wait a minute. Does he really say 'Ham and pork'?" [We listen to it again.] "That doesn't make sense, because ham and pork are the same thing." G: "maybe those are officially listed ingredients." M: "Why would they do that? That's redundant." They argue about it for a while more.

The next day, we all go to the supermarket. M grabs a can of Spam. "Holy !@#$, it DOES say ham and pork!"
posted by Melismata at 12:43 PM on January 21, 2016 [8 favorites]

Yeah, eating spam and pink goo nuggets are my contribution to reducing my carbon footprint by using meat more efficiently. And also a small rebellion against bourgie roommates.
posted by the lake is above, the water below at 12:52 PM on January 21, 2016 [4 favorites]

Ham is pork that has been preserved through salting, smoking, or wet curing. Pork is ... not.
posted by maxsparber at 1:03 PM on January 21, 2016

My roommate makes Spam Musubi once or twice a year. No matter how much he makes, it's gone in 2 days or less. Amazing stuff.
posted by Hactar at 1:05 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: surprisingly edible
posted by slogger at 1:23 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

I want to see the Spam convention applied to other meats. Bring on the Speef, the Spish, and the Spurkey.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 1:36 PM on January 21, 2016 [7 favorites]

About once a fortnight my junior school dinner was a slice of grilled spam with a little heap of sliced onions in the middle, served with oven chips. Awful muck.
posted by biffa at 1:36 PM on January 21, 2016

I love SPAM but it's a holdover from when I would go camping as a kid - it tastes different fried over a fire, or that's my story and I'm sticking with it anyway.

There are easily worse canned meats, the one on the shelves that are just like "potted meat product." You know what you're getting with SPAM, and even KLIK, though not KAM.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 1:40 PM on January 21, 2016

SPAM: the king of shelf-stable, non-jerked meats.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 1:42 PM on January 21, 2016

My dad was a Spam-head, and I always liked it (with a little maple syrup, natch), but I also have never bought it. Except as musubi, which is also good and maybe a thing I can learn to make this year.

But does it actually taste like ham?

It's more like a mild bacon.
posted by rhizome at 1:50 PM on January 21, 2016

Unfortunately, Spamarama is no longer a with us, shutting down after 2007, but I attended several, & actually enjoyed some of the potted pork by-product renderings there. I worked with John Meyers at Xalapeño Charlie's back in the day, & he took the trophy for best overall many years in a row - great cook & also a garnish chef who could make a swan out of a canteloupe, & taught me how to make a mouse out of a whole pickled jalapeño, so that's a thing.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:53 PM on January 21, 2016

You all could afford the store-bought Spam? Man you had it good!

I know! When I was growing up, we had to make our own out of travelers meat we found laying around.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:08 PM on January 21, 2016 [6 favorites]

Mmm, Spam omelet with sauteed mushrooms and habañero jack cheese. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:11 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

Back in childhood my parents made on rare occasions this recipe.

Can of spam ground up
One onion chopped
Velveeta cheese grated.

Mix it all up.
Put on open sides of a hamburger bun

Broil

Feeds four.

I vaguely remember it being tasty.
posted by njohnson23 at 2:28 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

I want to see the Spam convention applied to other meats. Bring on the Speef, the Spish, and the Spurkey

Spurkey is easy. Mom did it every Thanksgiving. She'd pick the carcass for every last scrap of meat, then boil up a little water, with Knox gelatin, and a little salt. Mix gelatin with meat scraps, form into a tupperware rectangle thing. After it sets, the loaf is sliced for sandwiches.

Truly delightful.
posted by yesster at 2:31 PM on January 21, 2016 [4 favorites]

And I think the term of art is "Comminuted Meat Product."
posted by yesster at 2:41 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Spam is on the list of things that my mother refused to cook because she had to eat too much of it growing up poor in the 40s and 50s. I've never had it, which is mostly related to her never cooking it and my going vegetarian after moving out of the house.

I'm not a vegetarian anymore, and trying spam has always been on the back-of-my-mind list of things that I figure I should get around to doing sometime, like getting a tattoo, and visiting Houston.
posted by mudpuppie at 3:22 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

If one were to wish to try some Spam, who has never had any, which version should one try?
posted by Splunge at 3:28 PM on January 21, 2016

I live in Hawaii and I never ate spam until I moved here...

I just left Princeville HI. We ate at Tiki Iniki, Todd Rundgren's restaurant. I had a bite of his recipe: a hamburger with spam mixed in. It was good. But I couldn't help wondering if such a mass-produced canned food ultimately arrived from a creature that had a life somewhat along the lines of those pigs living in those tiny pigsties where the poor animals can't even turn around.

[shudder]
posted by uraniumwilly at 3:30 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

If one were to wish to try some Spam, who has never had any, which version should one try?

sliced thin, pan fried, like bacon, but much less crispy
posted by yesster at 3:30 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Okay, I get that. But I meant more like which variety? Sorry I wasn't clear.
posted by Splunge at 3:34 PM on January 21, 2016

Glorious Spam Original.
posted by yesster at 3:37 PM on January 21, 2016

Yes, try the original recipe. You have to know the rules before you venture to break them.
posted by Miss Scarlet with the Candlestick in the Lounge at 4:00 PM on January 21, 2016 [8 favorites]

The opening of the can holds so much opportunity to become a ritual of a cargo cult.
posted by yesster at 4:06 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

Gotcha. Next shopping trip, then.
posted by Splunge at 4:15 PM on January 21, 2016

Classic bully beef is miles better than Spam. Hail Britannia!
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:17 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

I used to hate on spam. Then I tried it. I'm typing this one-handed as I am literally eating a spam-with-toast right now
posted by Doleful Creature at 4:19 PM on January 21, 2016 [6 favorites]

For the record, my version of "sliced thinly" is about 1/4", which is about what I see in musubi.
posted by rhizome at 4:20 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's snowing three inches tomorrow in NC. So I'm glad I have a can of spam for every inch. One of those is Tocino- have you tried it? It's this sweet paprika one they made to target the Filipino market. I found some at the Asian market, and it's delicious as musubi!
posted by oceanjesse at 5:08 PM on January 21, 2016

I went searching for a remembered SPAM à la Orange recipe only to find this recipe. Which is way to fancy and nothing at all like what I remember.

SPAM a L'Orange:
1 can of SPAM, julienned
1 box Mac and Cheese
1 cup Tang (the mixed drink, not the powder)

Make Mac and Cheese according to box directions. Braise SPAM in Tang. Combine.
posted by zinon at 5:32 PM on January 21, 2016 [4 favorites]

SPAM a L'Orange:
1 can of SPAM, julienned
1 box Mac and Cheese
1 cup Tang (the mixed drink, not the powder)

Make Mac and Cheese according to box directions. Braise SPAM in Tang. Combine.

My partner and her sister were latchkey kids whose afterschool snack was a piece of cheese microwaved on a paper plate. I think the recipe above probably has a similar provenance.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:05 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

About once a year I get a craving for Spam. I always enjoy the hell out of that one can, and then I am good for an other year. It really is a unique food item, sharing elements with ham and bacon, but not at all the same.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:40 PM on January 21, 2016

I have been to a few SPAM parties and made SPAM cupcakes. The sweet kind. The looks of doubt and slight fear in other guests' faces soon give way to relief and those cupcakes get eaten FAST.
posted by theappleonatree at 6:42 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ground Spam mixed with browned drained hamburger, a jar of spaghetti sauce, and diced American cheese, spread on hamburger buns and broiled was the grade school birthday party treat for a few years when I was growing up. I was actually thinking about making them for the next boozy party at my house...
posted by superna at 6:56 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Spam musubi is food of the gods. I mean, some really particular gods, I guess. I toss the spam from the skillet into some teriyaki sauce or just some kine shoyu-mirin mix, and then spread one blob ume paste inside dat ting (one must descend into pidgin to explain household musubi variations).
posted by Capybara at 7:17 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

Spam and potato burritos, a staple sold on school busses for breakfast and after school snacks, Monument Valley, Utah. The kids were enthusiastic about them.

My last spam, tomato, mayo, iceberg lettuce, and wonderbread sandwich, was somewhere in Louisiana on a trip with my parents. Dwight Eisenhower was President then, as I recall. The tomato was home grown. I remember my mother's hands holding the tomato, and slicing it.
posted by Oyéah at 9:20 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

So I was spending Christmas at my parents this year and talk around the dinner table came around to our childhoods. Objectively, we were a pretty middle class family growing up, dad being a civil servant who worked for the city council, mum being a kindergarten teacher until she got pregnant and who later went back as a religion teacher -- we even had a cleaner coming in twice a week. But despite that, there must've been periods in which we were relatively poor, or at least less well off than our peers, something I only realised looking back and especially when looking at some of the staples we used to eat when I was in primary school.

Things like having boiled potatoes with spinach, butter gravy and a boiled egg rather than the usual Dutch thing of potatoes, veggies and meat, of having pancakes slightly more often than was justified as a treat for us kids, etc. Spam of course was a part of it, though over here it was called SMAC. We used to eat it cold on sandwiches, or fried with the leftover potato bits from last night's supper for lunch or dinner. I never associated it with poverty but looking back it must've been pretty cheap to feed four-five kids with.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:53 PM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ooh, a nice, thin slice of Spam browned and served on an English muffin with a runny fried egg and a bit of HP Sauce....mmmm, boy howdy.

I went to the store and bought jalapeno spam just because of this post. But i made it with an everything bagel, cream cheese, spinach, and habanero sauce.

It was one of the best things i've eaten in my entire life.
posted by emptythought at 2:46 AM on January 22, 2016

I grew up in the 50s and 60s after WWII. Our 8th grade home ec class made a spam dinner and some of the girls went home and tried it for their parents. Those whose dads had been in the service during the war were not delighted. This turned me against spam.

One of my sons lived in Hawaii for 3 years where it is a staple since it is cheap and came in a can so was easy to keep on an island where a lot of food has to be shipped in. My husband recently started eating spam because he is curious and will try most foods. I tried it and it is really not bad with eggs and home fries. Comparable to NJ's beloved Taylor Ham which we are never without here.
posted by mermayd at 4:30 AM on January 22, 2016

As a schoolboy in England during WWII my mother would cook us fried Spam and scrambled dried eggs as both were off the food ration.
I still eat Spam and my 10 and 12 year old grand nieces love it too, eaten straight from the can.
posted by lungtaworld at 7:56 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Contractually obligated to show up in here. Spam is the reason I became a history major.
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:37 PM on January 22, 2016 [4 favorites]

Spam update: Inspired by the this post my husband made spam and eggs for lunch yesterday, it was delicious, with Trader Joe's homefries. Not health food but nice for a change.
posted by mermayd at 5:23 AM on January 23, 2016

Similarly inspired, I tried Spam for the first time this morning. Opening the can, it smelled strongly like cat food, but I pressed on and fried up a slice for an egg sandwich. Verdict: palatable, but SO SALTY. Might have gone with too thick a slice. I'm pretty excited to try some of the other stuff people have posted.
posted by indubitable at 6:10 AM on January 31, 2016