At our house, cubed, cooked spam makes a great addition to mac & cheese!
At our house, cubed, cooked spam makes a great addition to mac & cheese!
I hear you 'kittn. My family had discovered my Spam in the preps. Curious they opened one up and the addiction was full blown.
They called me and asked what to do with it...I gave a couple of ideas not realizing what danger my preps were in.
Thinking nothing of it until a few weeks ago. My 30 beloved cans had dwindled to two! (I was building up a years supply of 52 cans) They had been frying one up every week for the past several months, sometimes twice a week.
Better lose my job if I plan to have any out of the storage....
Fried Spam, yes, ate that for a breakfast dish growing up as you ate what my folks put on the table. Most often it was farm food and fresh garden stuff, or home canned goodies, once a while though..out came the Spam, Nally's chili and those little canned wieners, no I don't eat that way now. That was then, this is now. :) Although I am not a fan I see all of you enjoy the recipes and they are quite creative... I thought some facts about Spam might be fun.
What is Spam?
1926 is the creation year, initially there were issues with too much liquid in the canning process which was fixed when they vacuum seal during the cooking process and not just when they package it. It is 90% Pork Shoulder meat and the rest is water, modified potato starch to help hold it together and sodium nitrite is the standard preservative. Spam's gelatin looking surface is formed when the meat stock cools during the canning process. Despite the many urban legends and folks talking about all the other meats used, this is the standard that Spam goes by. There are of course different kinds of Spam that now contain bacon, turkey and less salt etc.... However, 3.8 cans a second are consumed in the United States alone as a meat source is listed on several sites which makes the consumption of this particular canned meat fascinating to me! Hawaii is the world's highest consumer of Spam...wow? Really?
It represented an easy thing to bring when our family camped out near wilderness areas and on river banks and streams...our Dad loved taking us out during the winter too. It was easy to fry it up and throw in some eggs, breakfast served kids! It has a place for those folks who like it most certainly! It is not however a mystery meat and it is clearly made in the USA in the Spam Towns of: Austin, Minnesota and Fremont Nebraska.... To supply other countries they do make it elsewhere but for the US distribution the Spam is indeed made here! It is a meat product without fillers and has a high quality of standard that Hormel lists right on it's website. Like it or not...Spam is here to stay as long as there it pork to make it with!
Last edited by islandgirl romy; 07-07-2011 at 10:26 PM.
As the sun sets over the water, the air is drenched with the nuances of honeysuckles mixed with other florals, roses plus pines and the waves kick up the deep water scents combined. It is my gift for a time to see this, through the windows of my realm....borrowed and quite treasured with every moment in time.
Have a lovely Day
Romy
Island Girl
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You can use Spam anywhere you would use ham in a recipe. Always best to brown it a bit in the pan first, but then throw it in beans, pea soup, scrambled eggs, with green beans, mac and cheese, breakfast casseroles...whatever.
Also, if ya don't have bacon, thin-sliced fried Spam makes a more than fair BLT in a pinch...or good thin sliced and fried on a grilled cheese or even in noodles Alfredo.
The turkey Spam is a whole 'nother deal. I actually really like the stuff as-is, and often slice it for sandwiches or use it in turkey-salad. As good as most any turkey sandwich meat out there.
Very easy to get 98% of the salt out of Spam/Treet. I do it all the time. You lose the
nice square hard chunk, but still good. Take the Spam and put it in a screen colander. Break up in tiny pieces with hands. Run hot or warm water over it while doing this. Keep doing it. It will be all crumbly. Every now and then take a tiny taste.
When you taste NO salt it's done. Fry up. I add a tiny amt. of my own salt then...as it WILL be tasteless without the salt. Needs flavoring then, but i figure the tiny amt.
of salt i add is way less than what 's in the can. It's works real good. I like to
scramble it with eggs then.