SPAM® Anniversary

I was remiss in my duties last year by not writing an entry to celebrate the 75th anniversary of SPAM®, but did write one about finding it in single serving slices (click HERE). I'm not going to go into a complete history of it, you can go to SPAM.com or Wikipedia and read it. It was introduced by Hormel in 1937 to assist in feeding the WWII soldiers in the field, and according to Wikipedia gets its name by shortening the words SPiced hAM.

Was grocery shopping the other day with my son when we noticed the special logo on the SPAM® can. He asked me to buy 2. So why am I buying 2? He replied, "in 50 years I can put one can online in an auction, maybe it will be worth money and the other one is because I want to open one when it reaches the expiration date (11/2015) and see what it looks like." Amazing how the mind of a 13 year old can work some times. So, we got them. Will probably be the only items in my pantry that I'll never get to use.

A person would have to pretty much be in a coma to have grown up on Earth without knowing about SPAM®. Okay, maybe you've never eaten it, but at least you know about it. I was a little surprised to learn how many different versions there are (14), they make one with bacon in it, there are packages of single slices, and there is even one made with 100% lean TURKEY instead of pork. Learn something new every day.

I grew up eating it occasionally (grandfather, friends houses, Boy Scout camping trips, etc). As an adult, I've used it to make my MREs a little more filling when fishing, kept a can or 2 in the office for a last minute lunch, or just because it was the last remaining can of food in my pantry. I've used it in eggs in a skillet and it was good. I'm not going to bore you with a lot more drivel, I just wanted to celebrate the anniversary for something that supported soldiers that needed it and others all around the globe that still want it and honor it more than most of us in the U.S. do.

Making a Hawaiian Steak for dinner...slice of SPAM®, slice of pineapple, touch of honey, in a folded fajita... YUM

SPAM® (the meat, not the emails)

Hearing the word "SPAM" causes a lot of us to cringe a little, depending on the context of the conversation where it is mentioned. If it is heard at work, that probably means that it refers to a new slew of emails due a computer virus. If it is heard during a conversation about what we are having for dinner, that means something else entirely.

I became acquainted with SPAM® because of my grandfather. As a member of the 8th Army Air Force during WWII (the predecessor of the US Air Force) on a B-17, he endured tinned meat in the rations that he was given. When returning home, he never gave up on making family lunches and dinners from it. SPAM® became a common word spoken when around him. I keep a tin of it in the pantry (due to the extremely LONG expiration date time), and still occasionally make it because I want it. That's why I thought it might be time to pass it on to my son as a family tradition.

Imagine my surprise when grocery shopping and we saw SPAM® now offered as individual SLICES of SPAM® Classic instead of just getting a large tin. I decided to get a simple slice, fry it up and make a fried sandwich with it (topped by cheese and ketchup) to be his introduction to tinned meat (pictured at right). I've eaten it right out of the tin at work, as a sandwich when it has been fried, and cut up to be included in an omelet. There are a LOT more flavors and recipes of SPAM offered today than what I was used to, so I encourage you to try them once in a while. To answer your first question, no, he didn't like it much. But then again, he doesn't like ham in general, which is what SPAM is made of.

Which brings me to my last point of this entry. If you want to know more about SPAM and the recipes that are available, click on the links above. But how does it compare to a similar sized beef hamburger? Here you go. Some nutrients differ, but overall, it is about the same. Keep a tin in your pantry when you need to raid it... your tongue will occasionally appreciate it...

SPAM

Hamburger