Spam (the Hormel Kind!)

Discussion in 'Veteran Accounts' started by jamesicus, Apr 6, 2005.

  1. steviebyday

    steviebyday Junior Member

    hey rubbish it might be, but have you seen the price of it in the shops lately?.
     
  2. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    I am returning to this old thread with hat in hand.

    I tried Spam a couple a years ago after a lengthy hiatus.

    I guess my taste preferences have changed in later adulthood. It is not as bad as I remembered as a child.

    I keep several cans in the pantry now.

    Ignore my previous rants in this thread.
     
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  3. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    Last edited: Feb 17, 2019
  4. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    Lovely spam, wonderful spam...

    The song, plus some information on why the brand name has acquired its present meaning in computing and teh internetz:
     
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  5. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

  6. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

  7. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Go to Hawaii, its huge there. Even on the menu at McDonalds.
     
  8. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Twas a once a week delicacy for us in the 1970's. Don't remember there being any complaints or fuss.
     
  9. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    I love it but it has way too much sodium in it for me to eat it regularly. Mom made it for supper with beans at least once a week growing up in the fifties and sixties. Fried crispy with brown mustard.

    Imagine how a Dutch family would have enjoyed it in winter of 44.
     
  10. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    I don't know if many of the troops were getting given it? Though I think it might have made a nice change from somethings more mundane, variety was favoured, so if it was a case of just spam, spam, spam etc. it would have been nice to have a bit of a change even from Spam after a bit ;-)

    Pig.jpg

    "We’ve got a nice piece of pork for diner tomorrow. The pig was found wandering without visible means of support, at least that’s what they said when it was given to me."
     
  11. DianeE

    DianeE Member

    My husband loves Spam but it is not available here. Our son and his family are visiting from the UK and brought with them a large tin of Spam.
    Unfortunately Customs, at O R Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, confiscated the tin of Spam because it contains pork.
    My husband was not amused. (I couldn't possibly put in print his actual words)

    Spam.jpg
     
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  12. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    [QUOTE="DianeE, post: 857807, member: 32874
    Unfortunately Customs, at O R Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, confiscated the tin of Spam because it contains pork.

    View attachment 256570 [/QUOTE]

    Anyone want to bet what they had for supper that night?
     
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  13. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    I can remember back in the late 40s early 50s if one was making a salad type meal in the summer one could choose between using thinly sliced Spam or something called luncheon meat which was revolting but you needed fewer coupons for luncheon meat and the latter could be rendered edible with lots of salad cream,

    Mum chopped up Spam very finely and mixed it with chopped onion and fried very passable hamburgers - particularly if eaten in her home made Irish soda bread
     
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  14. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    The Food Programme - SPAM: food + war + memory in a can - BBC Sounds

    No other tinned meat has had the worldwide cultural impact of SPAM. Though often denigrated in this country, it is celebrated across the world particularly in the Asia-Pacific where it became integrated into food cultures after The Second World War. Jaega Wise explores this love of SPAM with Hawaiian chef Sheldon Simeon. She also meets Becky (Hanguk Hapa) in New Malden to talk about Budae Jjigae (army base stew), a dish born out of necessity, it is now a national comfort food. SPAM also saw big increases in sales in the pandemic. As well as being a shelf stable and practical food, did our war nostalgia play a part in our renewed interest? Jaega talks to historian Dr Kelly Spring about how SPAM, gifted to Britain during the Second World War by the American’s, was initially received. She also talks to Dr Duane Mellor from Aston University about the science and nutrition of tinned meat. Archive of Stan Suffling and Walter Price is from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive. Presenter: Jaega Wise Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist
     
  15. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    Spam was a weekly option in school dinner/lunch menues - sometimes frittered, sometimes thinly cold sliced with salad. Not long ago, I met someone I had been at infant school with. I was minded of the time she asked her mother why (at home) they never had any of “that nice pink meat served at school.” Pearl’s mother explained. The school was reminded that Pearl was not to be served Spam for religious reasons. Pearl then reminded me that from time to time I subsequently shared mine with her.

    Spam fritters were often served in the cookhouse, although ‘bacon grill’ was a more usual option. This could be problematic if working with allies also with dietary limitations, but usually swaps eased the matter.
    upload_2022-5-1_13-48-2.jpeg
    Last year, whilst working with my brother, he said he was going to the chippy for lunch and asked what I fancied - I replied: spam fritter, chips and mushies, for a change. Slightly bemused, he opted for the same. Still a not infrequent choice of his. Dad was never keen on Spam, but used to talk of Maconochies.

    I sometimes watch the fancy cookery programmes and still think that I would ever opt for a spam fritter over some of the seemingly semi-raw offerings shown. Red squab meat doesn’t do it for me.

    In Dumfries and Galloway is a chippy which offered deep-fried mushy peas as an option. The last time I visited, this was no longer listed. However, if I looked at the Vegetarian menu, they now cited mushy pea fritters - clearly, part of a culinary paradigm shift. I fancy asking for a special ‘spam and mushy pea fritter’ on my next visit.
     

    Attached Files:

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  16. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    21st century frozen variety

    upload_2022-8-22_18-23-25.jpeg
     
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  17. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

  18. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I like Spam as well. Thin cut and fried up in a skillet with a couple two three eggs sunny side up and toast is some good eatin’! My favorites are the Black Pepper, Jalepeno, Spicy and Teriyaki flavors. My cats don’t care for it at all. I keep about a dozen of the smaller cans in my stash as emergency rations for hurricanes and zombie apocalypses and such. You never know….

    I’ve read that the Soviets really liked it and referred to it as “Roosevelt Sausage”. Nikita Khrushchev even stated that the Soviet war effort would have foundered without Spam.

    Bazillions of cans were shipped to Hawaii and Guam. They love it there, as mentioned in other posts it’s on the menu at McDonald’s too. It’s also a coveted stocking stuffer at Christmastime. But Guam has the highest per capita consumption level worldwide. Before the war the vast majority of food consumed there was fish so when Spam hit the scene they went berserk over it.

    Looks like I’m having Spam and eggs sunny side up for breakfast in the morning now.
     
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  19. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    I'll leave it to you whether you would consider one of Kay's eggs and bacon alternatives:

    Go straight to 2.00 ......... more than enough appetising viewing thereafter ....
     
  20. Don Juan

    Don Juan Well-Known Member

    We used to get spam fritters for lunch quite regularly in the school canteen in my infants and primary schools. I remember that they were exactly the shape of the profile of the can, so the cooks obviously just cut the spam into 5mm thick slices, then battered and fried them. I quite liked them because they were very tangy and salty but I've got no inclination whatsoever to go back to them.

    I also remember the custard that we used to get with the pudding - the pink custard was always preferred to the yellow, and the skin on the top was always considered something of a delicacy. It was always a disappointment when you saw the custard in the urn with a nice thick skin, and the dinner lady would plunge her ladle right to the bottom so that you only got the runny stuff.

    And then there was my bizarre preference for the spuds that had gone dark - there was always one on every plate, and that was the best one, as far as I was concerned. And the flans always had broken egg shells in them, which allowed the cooks to say "at least we use real eggs".

    School meals in those days (mid to late 70's) were a strange mixture of 40's/50's austerity and 60's largesse. Lots of cheapo ingredients mixed with surprisingly luxurious ones.
     

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