3 ms·

I've got a canned food story. Up until a few years go I never tried SPAM, I thought it was rather vile food and always wondered "who the heck buys this stuff".

I've got a canned food story. Up until a few years go I never tried SPAM, I thought it was rather vile food and always wondered "who the heck buys this stuff". Then I took a vacation in Hawaii, namely Oahu and had my mind completely changed. Those guys used SPAM everywhere, grocery stores all sold SPAM musubi and practically every breakfast place offered SPAM and eggs. Turns out it came out of WWII where it was one of the more common rations. I remember thinking to myself "these people have unparalleled access to fresh fish and other super healthy foods, if they are eating SPAM there must be a point to it" and finally tried some SPAM musubi and had my mind completely changed about SPAM in the process. Cooked properly I found it quite tasty, since then I almost always keep a can of SPAM in the pantry and make my own musubi every few months.

solardev 3y ago
I think spam is the single best savory food in the world, by a large stretch. No chicken, steak, seafood, or anything else even cokes close. It's got the tender texture of Vienna sausages , but with a bit of added crisp, in a nice rectangular UX that's easy to add to sandwiches or musubis or ramen or anything else. It's divinity in a can. Sadly I'm vegetarian these days. They actually make a veggie copycat that mostly tastes like a slice of congealed fat, which to be fair is largely what real spam is too, but... it's just not the same. The nostalgia, man. Glad there's folks like you out there still enjoying the stuff. I shall savor it vicariously through your post (and hopefully newsletter).
- deelowe 3y ago
  It's a bit too salty, but there are ways to address that as part of the prep.
tekla 3y ago
SPAM is fucking awesome. I'm pretty sure the only reasons it got a bad rep is that it was EVERYWHERE for a while since it was a high calories, dense, tasty food that kept well and needed no cooking. It's literally just potted meat in a can. SPAM is awesome, just don't eat too much of it because calories.
- utybo 3y ago
  There's a lot more to it than meat though. According to Wikipedia's page on SPAM: > The ingredients of Spam vary according to variety and market; those of variety "Spam Classic" are pork with ham, salt, water, modified potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrite.
  - tekla 3y ago
    Yes, those are the ingredients I would expect in a potted meat product from around the globe.
- FiatLuxDave 3y ago
  SPAM story time: Years ago I was involved with a very quirky woman. One day, apropos of nothing, she blurts out, "SPAM bounces!". I asked her, do you mean like the emails bouncing? And she said that no, she meant the canned meat. It was jiggly, it bounces. So, being the experimental physicist that I am, I felt this needed to be tested. Immediately we went to the store and bought a ruler, a can of SPAM, as well as a can of Treet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treet , per Wikipedia not to be confused with an actual treat) for use as a control and drove to a nearby parking lot. I opened both cans and held one of each can-shaped meat chuck in each hand, with SPAM jelly dripping down my fingers. I held the ruler upright under one foot, while my girlfriend got close to the pavement to eyeball the bounce height. On a count of three, I tossed both meat-bricks at the ground with what I felt was approximately equal force. The SPAM did not bounce. It splatted on the asphalt and broke up into a dogfood-like consistency. The Treet on the other hand, bounced like a rubber eraser, getting more than 2 inches of bounce height. Of course, this was a very poor experiment. The acceleration force was not calibrated, and eyeballing the bounce height with a ruler was not very accurate. Using cooked SPAM or a non-canned meat may have made a better control item than Treet. And it is impossible to calculate the standard deviation with a single test. Nevertheless, I feel like I learned something.

solardev 3y ago

I think spam is the single best savory food in the world, by a large stretch. No chicken, steak, seafood, or anything else even cokes close. It's got the tender texture of Vienna sausages , but with a bit of added crisp, in a nice rectangular UX that's easy to add to sandwiches or musubis or ramen or anything else. It's divinity in a can. Sadly I'm vegetarian these days. They actually make a veggie copycat that mostly tastes like a slice of congealed fat, which to be fair is largely what real spam is too, but... it's just not the same. The nostalgia, man. Glad there's folks like you out there still enjoying the stuff. I shall savor it vicariously through your post (and hopefully newsletter).

deelowe 3y ago
It's a bit too salty, but there are ways to address that as part of the prep.

tekla 3y ago

SPAM is fucking awesome. I'm pretty sure the only reasons it got a bad rep is that it was EVERYWHERE for a while since it was a high calories, dense, tasty food that kept well and needed no cooking. It's literally just potted meat in a can. SPAM is awesome, just don't eat too much of it because calories.

utybo 3y ago
There's a lot more to it than meat though. According to Wikipedia's page on SPAM: > The ingredients of Spam vary according to variety and market; those of variety "Spam Classic" are pork with ham, salt, water, modified potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrite.
- tekla 3y ago
  Yes, those are the ingredients I would expect in a potted meat product from around the globe.
FiatLuxDave 3y ago
SPAM story time: Years ago I was involved with a very quirky woman. One day, apropos of nothing, she blurts out, "SPAM bounces!". I asked her, do you mean like the emails bouncing? And she said that no, she meant the canned meat. It was jiggly, it bounces. So, being the experimental physicist that I am, I felt this needed to be tested. Immediately we went to the store and bought a ruler, a can of SPAM, as well as a can of Treet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treet , per Wikipedia not to be confused with an actual treat) for use as a control and drove to a nearby parking lot. I opened both cans and held one of each can-shaped meat chuck in each hand, with SPAM jelly dripping down my fingers. I held the ruler upright under one foot, while my girlfriend got close to the pavement to eyeball the bounce height. On a count of three, I tossed both meat-bricks at the ground with what I felt was approximately equal force. The SPAM did not bounce. It splatted on the asphalt and broke up into a dogfood-like consistency. The Treet on the other hand, bounced like a rubber eraser, getting more than 2 inches of bounce height. Of course, this was a very poor experiment. The acceleration force was not calibrated, and eyeballing the bounce height with a ruler was not very accurate. Using cooked SPAM or a non-canned meat may have made a better control item than Treet. And it is impossible to calculate the standard deviation with a single test. Nevertheless, I feel like I learned something.