Yesterday's post didn't get out into the your inboxes. So here it is today. The Food That Built America on the Smithsonian Channel this past week gave us this history of Spam. Its name is a portmanteau for spiced ham. It was pork shoulder that was the key ingredient, considered un-profitable when it was put into a can in 1937. During the Great Depression, anything cheap that would keep on a shelf would have been amazing. So Spam did very well.
What is Spam made of? Pork, salt, water, sugar, potato starch and sodium nitrite. It actually looks good today for a list of ingredients. It has evolved into many dishes since then.
"A local dish in Hawaii is Spam musubi, where cooked Spam is placed atop rice and wrapped in a band of nori, a form of onigiri or riceball. Varieties of Spam are found in Hawaii and Saipan that are unavailable in other markets, including Honey Spam, Spam with Bacon, and Hot and Spicy Spam. Hawaiian Burger King restaurants began serving Spam in 2007 to compete with the local McDonald's chains (which also serve Spam)."
In the UK, there are many Spam recipes: Spam Yorkshire Breakfast, Spamish Omelette, and Spam Hash. Spam can also be sliced, battered and deep-fried into Spam fritters. Britain has a particularly beloved relationship with Spam.
Today's use of SPAM is continued as an expression for unsolicited emails? It seemed to arise from the Monty Python sketch song, which sang the word over and over. The sketch was set in a café that mostly served dishes containing Spam, including "egg and Spam, egg bacon and Spam, Spam egg sausage and Spam, Spam egg Spam Spam bacon and Spam". You can have fun remembering the sketch at Wikipedia here.
How many cans of Spam have been sold? Eight billion were sold by 2012.
This is last year's display at the local farm stall on Victoria Street in Vineland.
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