- Messages
- 11,464
Spam.... mmmmmm good
- Thread starter Don Baer
- Start date
Mike Stafford
Member
- Messages
- 2,391
- Location
- Coastal plain of North Carolina
And when you have leftovers they use it to make Twinkies....
- Messages
- 793
- Location
- Central North Carolina
Funny, but not completely true. Yes, they made the first batch in 1937, but SPAM has become a very popular food and protein source over the years. SPAM was a significant part of out military diet when our men were fighting WWII, and saved many of the Russian military from freezing to death when we joined forces and gave them food, since their supply lines were not adequately supplying needed food to them. SPAM was part of my hiking diet for nearly every trip, when I was hiking with my son in 1970 - 1987. Kraft Mac and Cheese was another significant part of our hiking diet. Both packed well and were high in protein. In the late 1990's I spent time in Hawaii on several field service calls, and in a quick stop I discovered a snack made from a slice of fried SPAM, a cake of rice the size of the SPAM slice, and a Kelp leaf wrapped around the two with a toothpick holding them together. Construction contract workers were coming in and buying these at an amazing rate. The cashier told me that they like them for snacks and some even buy several to eat for lunch. She told me that they were making these up every morning and cooking 20-35 cans of sliced up SPAM every morning before the store opened. I later discovered on the internet that SPAM is a significant part of the diet of native Hawaiians.
With the fears of food shortages over the last few years I've been stocking up on food items that can be stored for long periods. Canned veggies, fruits, and canned meats store well. Did you know that they make canned loaves of bread? (I don't have any, yet). I buy a few things at a time each trip to the grocery stores, with SPAM being one of these items. It might be interesting to note that last week, when I went through Sam's Wholesale, there was an entire pallet of SPAM in 10 packs there, with people buying them enough that the top 4-5 layers were already gone. It's obvious that others are doing what I'm doing, but at a higher rate.
I'm not an alarmist, but having a good amount (at least a month) supply of preserved food is a good idea to keep "just in case". A major snow storm that keeps the stores closed and truck deliveries stopped for days would be a disaster for most families. Heck, around here the mention of snow in the Weather report cleans the stores of all of the milk and bread in an hour or so. Then there was the toilet paper and soup famine of the beginning of COVID. Do you all remember that? I'm not sure how long I could stand to live on just SPAM along with canned veggies and Mac & Cheese, but it does store for long periods.
Charley
With the fears of food shortages over the last few years I've been stocking up on food items that can be stored for long periods. Canned veggies, fruits, and canned meats store well. Did you know that they make canned loaves of bread? (I don't have any, yet). I buy a few things at a time each trip to the grocery stores, with SPAM being one of these items. It might be interesting to note that last week, when I went through Sam's Wholesale, there was an entire pallet of SPAM in 10 packs there, with people buying them enough that the top 4-5 layers were already gone. It's obvious that others are doing what I'm doing, but at a higher rate.
I'm not an alarmist, but having a good amount (at least a month) supply of preserved food is a good idea to keep "just in case". A major snow storm that keeps the stores closed and truck deliveries stopped for days would be a disaster for most families. Heck, around here the mention of snow in the Weather report cleans the stores of all of the milk and bread in an hour or so. Then there was the toilet paper and soup famine of the beginning of COVID. Do you all remember that? I'm not sure how long I could stand to live on just SPAM along with canned veggies and Mac & Cheese, but it does store for long periods.
Charley
Mike Stafford
Member
- Messages
- 2,391
- Location
- Coastal plain of North Carolina
Our housekeeper is a Hawaiian and she loves SPAM as do most Hawaiians. She said you can get a SPAM dish at McDonald's in Hawaii. If I recall she said that SPAM was an option on the breakfast plates.
SPAM became popular during WWII in Hawaii because the U.S. Armed Forces was supplying it to our forces stationed there and it made its way into the general population and became a staple of the Hawaiian menu.
A couple of years back I bought a couple of cans of SPAM and fried it up. Not good, not bad just funny tasting cardboard for the most part. Maybe not cardboard, perhaps styrofoam is a better description of the texture.
Charley's comment about storing up of canned vegetables reminds me of my Grandfather. Like everyone of his generation he went through the depression when food stuffs were in short supply. While he was working for the Police Department he bought a farm in an adjoining county and truck farmed in a big way. He had 35 acres and had more than 20 planted in most years. There was no way the family could eat all the stuff Granddaddy grew. We all ate well during the summer. In the summer I worked with him on the farm and I can tell you it was a job hoeing and cultivating fields of beans, pea, taters, corn, melons etc. etc. etc. Granddaddy harvested that bounty and took it to the A&P where he traded it for canned goods.
He had no desire to be hungry ever again. When he and my Grandmother moved to the beach we helped clean out his house. It was a huge house with three stories and a basement. In the basement were hundreds and hundreds of cases of canned food. But for all practical purposes it was inedible. Many, many cans had begun to rust and leak. The damp environment of that basement kept the cardboard shippers damp and the cans rusted. We had to take truckload after truckload of food to the landfill.
Cans degrade from the inside out as well. All canned goods have a lining material of enamel or plastic as a barrier to the natural acids and salt contained in the food and brine in which the food is packed. Over time the lining material develops cracks due to expansion and contraction of the metal. The acids and salt start dissolving the cans and before long even if you don't have a leaker you have a foul metallic tasting product. Some times the process results in the production of hydrogen gas and the cans swell up and rock top and bottom. Hoarding food is not as easy as keeping your pantry full because almost any type of packaging has life expectancy.
SPAM became popular during WWII in Hawaii because the U.S. Armed Forces was supplying it to our forces stationed there and it made its way into the general population and became a staple of the Hawaiian menu.
A couple of years back I bought a couple of cans of SPAM and fried it up. Not good, not bad just funny tasting cardboard for the most part. Maybe not cardboard, perhaps styrofoam is a better description of the texture.
Charley's comment about storing up of canned vegetables reminds me of my Grandfather. Like everyone of his generation he went through the depression when food stuffs were in short supply. While he was working for the Police Department he bought a farm in an adjoining county and truck farmed in a big way. He had 35 acres and had more than 20 planted in most years. There was no way the family could eat all the stuff Granddaddy grew. We all ate well during the summer. In the summer I worked with him on the farm and I can tell you it was a job hoeing and cultivating fields of beans, pea, taters, corn, melons etc. etc. etc. Granddaddy harvested that bounty and took it to the A&P where he traded it for canned goods.
He had no desire to be hungry ever again. When he and my Grandmother moved to the beach we helped clean out his house. It was a huge house with three stories and a basement. In the basement were hundreds and hundreds of cases of canned food. But for all practical purposes it was inedible. Many, many cans had begun to rust and leak. The damp environment of that basement kept the cardboard shippers damp and the cans rusted. We had to take truckload after truckload of food to the landfill.
Cans degrade from the inside out as well. All canned goods have a lining material of enamel or plastic as a barrier to the natural acids and salt contained in the food and brine in which the food is packed. Over time the lining material develops cracks due to expansion and contraction of the metal. The acids and salt start dissolving the cans and before long even if you don't have a leaker you have a foul metallic tasting product. Some times the process results in the production of hydrogen gas and the cans swell up and rock top and bottom. Hoarding food is not as easy as keeping your pantry full because almost any type of packaging has life expectancy.
- Messages
- 793
- Location
- Central North Carolina
Yes, dampness in the storage area leads to quick deterioration of the cans, then the food. Keep your storage dry and at relatively even storage temperatures to preserve the canned food as long as possible. Nothing will last long past the expiration dates on them, so plan on rotating and using what is approaching it's date. Even the military MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) foods have expiration dates on them. You can't seem to buy them when freshly made, since they are made under military contracts. What seems to be available is what the military rotates out and replaces with fresh, usually about mid way to their expiration dates. Nearly everything has a shelf life, so watch the dates.
I'm serious about keeping about a month's worth of canned food, in addition to what are in our freezers, since it's quite possible that long term loss of power will render that stuff into garbage in just a few days, or at least what is left after we go on an over-eating binge to consume as much of it as possible before it spoils.
Charley
I'm serious about keeping about a month's worth of canned food, in addition to what are in our freezers, since it's quite possible that long term loss of power will render that stuff into garbage in just a few days, or at least what is left after we go on an over-eating binge to consume as much of it as possible before it spoils.
Charley
Jonathan Shively
Member
- Messages
- 8,156
- Location
- North West Indiana
We have fish in the pond out back, many chickens (they could be tough, but boiled and ground up into a meat spread), just bought a generac generator that runs off of our large propane tank this summer and of course deer in the back pasture a lot of times. I definitely would lose weight, but survival is possible. I do personally know a person doesn't taste a difference between a cat and a rabbit. It is a strange time for sure.
- Messages
- 8,181
- Location
- The Gorge Area, Oregon
I read that one wrong the first three times through and had some serious questions.
Spam musubi isn’t bad, not my first choice but if you’re hungry.
I don’t reckon most of the deer would last more than a month if people actually got hungry, at least not within walking or driving distance of any town. There’s a reason that big game is basically extinct in most of Europe.
Old chicken is better if you have something acidic like vinegar or tomatoes to cook it in. I’ve salvaged a bunch of hens from folks who didn’t want them to go to waste but didn’t want to dispose of them themselves.
Most canned food stored dry is good for some years after its expiration, even better if it’s in glass with ceramic lined lids (the seals do eventually go but I’ve eaten stuff more than thirty years old that wasn’t great but was ok cooked into stuff). The texture and food value does drop.. but again if your hungry.. Not an argument against rotating stock.
John Bartley
Member
- Messages
- 926
It's a strange thing that many people have only recently started thinking about stockpiling small amounts of essentials "just in case". I would have thought that more people would think ahead. I know that "preppers" have been around forever, but I have no plans to join their society. It's a bit extreme for me (although ... to each their own).
However .... my wife and I have always (and I mean always since we got together almost 46 years ago) had at least 30-60 days of canned, jarred, and dry packaged foodstuffs around. We have always had a freezer (a small one) and we have always had a garden (again .. a small one). We don't do canning because when I compared the time I would spend canning, vs going out to the shop and working for a few hours for customers, it made no sense for me to spend my labour time canning ..... I make more in my shop and I enjoy it way more, so we buy our stockpile.
We rotate our supply, and as per the thread title ..... yes, we have a few cans of Spam and Klik preserved meats on the stock shelf .... and they go faster than they ought to because I really like to have a Klik and (fresh from the garden) tomato sandwhich !! Mmmmm.
cheers !!
PS : The newer versions of Spam and Klik "light" are not too bad as far as nutrition (sodium etc) and they last just as long and taste as good.
However .... my wife and I have always (and I mean always since we got together almost 46 years ago) had at least 30-60 days of canned, jarred, and dry packaged foodstuffs around. We have always had a freezer (a small one) and we have always had a garden (again .. a small one). We don't do canning because when I compared the time I would spend canning, vs going out to the shop and working for a few hours for customers, it made no sense for me to spend my labour time canning ..... I make more in my shop and I enjoy it way more, so we buy our stockpile.
We rotate our supply, and as per the thread title ..... yes, we have a few cans of Spam and Klik preserved meats on the stock shelf .... and they go faster than they ought to because I really like to have a Klik and (fresh from the garden) tomato sandwhich !! Mmmmm.
cheers !!
PS : The newer versions of Spam and Klik "light" are not too bad as far as nutrition (sodium etc) and they last just as long and taste as good.
- Messages
- 6,950
- Location
- Austintown, Ohio
Same here. For most of our 57 years together we've had enough food set back to allow for at least 30 days. We've given up on the garden for now (poor soil conditions) but could easily get back into it if it becomes necessary.
- Messages
- 11,464
hmmmm
when my wife was alive she always bought in bulk and there was always @ least 30 days food laying around. A years after she passed away I finally too cases of stuff like campbells pork and bean mushroom soups (she made a lot of casseroles ) to the food bank. The freezer was so full I don't think I had to buy meat for a year. But with just me most of the time I just do my own weekly shopping.
Mike Stafford
Member
- Messages
- 2,391
- Location
- Coastal plain of North Carolina
I've never known a hungry day in my life. I know that I am fortunate to be able to say that but it is true. My waist line is proof of my excess.
That said I grew up with parents and grandparents who suffered the shortages of the Depression and the rationing of WWII. They had Victory Gardens that were measured in acres. I had to work in those gardens and hoes, rakes and shovels became my unlikely friends. My mother canned and froze food from the garden continually to feed our six person family. We ate like kings year round. We always had big bowls of butter beans, green beans, different varieties of field peas and countless other vegetables. Homemade soups featured our garden grown produce.
I learned about being prepared not just from the Boy Scouts but from the stories my family told about their survival in those days without electricity and modern conveniences. There was no money to go to the store to buy much more than the flour and sugar that were needed to complete recipes. An orange or an apple was a luxury to my father and his five brothers at Christmas. Cooking and heating were done on a big wood stove that served as range, water heater and oven. Stove wood had to be cut frequently as temperature control on this big wood stove was through addition of small pieces of wood that fit into the burning chamber that served to heat the ovens, the eyes (on top of the range ). More wood equaled more heat. I can still smell the mixture of wood smoke, country ham being fried and biscuits being baked on that stove. Have mercy!
Water came in a bucket that was cranked up on a homemade windlass. It was cool and delicious in the summer. I learned that while visiting my great grandparents who did not have electricity or running water until they were in their late 90's and I was in my teens.
The moral of this story is that I learned a long time ago to make sure you could feed yourself for a couple of months during the most dire of circumstances. I have camp stoves and individual propane burners that I can and have cooked on after hurricanes when we lost power for a week. I finally was smart enough to buy a generator to supply electricity to my freezer and refrigerator and a light bulb or two. I will still cook on the camp stove and propane burner. I also have a gas grill.
In addition to the frozen foods, I also have ensured we have canned goods. I have racks in my pantry that work like Don's but only hold about a dozen cans each. I also have jars fully of dried butterbeans, pintos, navy beans, green peas, field peas, soup mix, and other items that can be quickly boiled up for a meal. We have flour and corn meal for some semblance of bread in an emergency. Speaking of water I have large jugs that I can fill with water before the storm gets here and I fill the tubs with water to flush the toilets.
I had to teach my wife about survival not that I am an expert. She had never eaten dried beans or knew how to cook them. She was shocked at how good they were with a streak o' lean.
Let's all hope we don't need to implement our emergency plans or defend what we have. I fear the latter more than the first.
That said I grew up with parents and grandparents who suffered the shortages of the Depression and the rationing of WWII. They had Victory Gardens that were measured in acres. I had to work in those gardens and hoes, rakes and shovels became my unlikely friends. My mother canned and froze food from the garden continually to feed our six person family. We ate like kings year round. We always had big bowls of butter beans, green beans, different varieties of field peas and countless other vegetables. Homemade soups featured our garden grown produce.
I learned about being prepared not just from the Boy Scouts but from the stories my family told about their survival in those days without electricity and modern conveniences. There was no money to go to the store to buy much more than the flour and sugar that were needed to complete recipes. An orange or an apple was a luxury to my father and his five brothers at Christmas. Cooking and heating were done on a big wood stove that served as range, water heater and oven. Stove wood had to be cut frequently as temperature control on this big wood stove was through addition of small pieces of wood that fit into the burning chamber that served to heat the ovens, the eyes (on top of the range ). More wood equaled more heat. I can still smell the mixture of wood smoke, country ham being fried and biscuits being baked on that stove. Have mercy!
Water came in a bucket that was cranked up on a homemade windlass. It was cool and delicious in the summer. I learned that while visiting my great grandparents who did not have electricity or running water until they were in their late 90's and I was in my teens.
The moral of this story is that I learned a long time ago to make sure you could feed yourself for a couple of months during the most dire of circumstances. I have camp stoves and individual propane burners that I can and have cooked on after hurricanes when we lost power for a week. I finally was smart enough to buy a generator to supply electricity to my freezer and refrigerator and a light bulb or two. I will still cook on the camp stove and propane burner. I also have a gas grill.
In addition to the frozen foods, I also have ensured we have canned goods. I have racks in my pantry that work like Don's but only hold about a dozen cans each. I also have jars fully of dried butterbeans, pintos, navy beans, green peas, field peas, soup mix, and other items that can be quickly boiled up for a meal. We have flour and corn meal for some semblance of bread in an emergency. Speaking of water I have large jugs that I can fill with water before the storm gets here and I fill the tubs with water to flush the toilets.
I had to teach my wife about survival not that I am an expert. She had never eaten dried beans or knew how to cook them. She was shocked at how good they were with a streak o' lean.
Let's all hope we don't need to implement our emergency plans or defend what we have. I fear the latter more than the first.
- Messages
- 20,228
- Location
- Springfield, Missouri
I have yet to eat spam in my life time. I have had a few months of living on pasta with a side of pasta or Raman noodles, but been kind of fortunate otherwise.
My wife won’t let me stockpile too much, but have enough for a month or more on hand. We certainly tested that out in the middle of covid.
I keep a few bags of rice and beans on hand and try cycle through them in the colder months to help out with the gas bill.
My wife won’t let me stockpile too much, but have enough for a month or more on hand. We certainly tested that out in the middle of covid.
I keep a few bags of rice and beans on hand and try cycle through them in the colder months to help out with the gas bill.
Chuck Ellis
Member
- Messages
- 6,999
- Location
- Tellico Plains, Tennessee
I was born just before Pearl Harbor and at the time my dad was a share cropper... we most often had a garden and mom canned all summer long... we didn't necessarily eat lavishly, but always had canned veggies in the cellar. We also had SPAM on occasion... fried and served with eggs and biscuits. more often though it was pork in one form or another... my dad made a great pork sausage and sugar cured hams that were then smoked in the log smoke house. My grandfather before he died in 1945 made his own cornmeal and sargum syrup... it might have been only beans and potatoes with a slab of cornbread and fresh churned butter, but never remember missing a meal.
- Messages
- 36,165
- Location
- ABQ NM
Spam is pretty good grilled on the BBQ, especially with a side of grilled pineapple slices. 
- Messages
- 8,493
- Location
- Yorktown, Virginia
I’m guilty of snapping the lid on a can of jalapeño spam on occasion. Enjoy it fried on the griddle with a couple of eggs, topped with some cowboy candy. It’s keto OK, but the sodium is off the charts.
- Messages
- 16,600
- Location
- Reno NV
I bought a case of a variety pack of spam a few years ago. Took me a while to go through it, but each one was a bit different, and yet, still the same, lol. Love spam.
- Messages
- 8,181
- Location
- The Gorge Area, Oregon
We make a sweet pickled pepper kind of like that but I cut them into thin rounds first which makes it easy to dig out a fork full to put on whatever you want.
- Messages
- 793
- Location
- Central North Carolina
Back during WWII and after, my mom frequently cooked SPAM like a canned ham. When available, she would prepare and cook two at a time, so we each got thick slices, or two thinner slices. I thin slice was usually about 1/4" thick. She would add cloves and pineapple slices and bake it whole, then slice and serve it. My wife hates SPAM, so if I get any now, I have to cook it myself and eat it when she isn't here. I'm storing it, and I keep warning here that if/when things get tuff, she will welcome having it to eat. So far, she is cringing at the thought. I like it myself and my boys who have hiked with me also like it, because SPAM and eggs were cooked for many breakfasts while hiking. If no eggs, we had pancakes and SPAM Instead.
Charley
Charley
- Messages
- 8,181
- Location
- The Gorge Area, Oregon
I'll honestly say I have a preference for the canned corned beef over spam. It fries up nicely with some taters into a relatively decent hash. Probably more what you're used to than anything I suppose. I've eaten a lot more of the corned beef than I have of the spam anyway (and it was more common where I grew up for whatever reason).
I'm also fond of the little greasy fish in the flat tin (properly kippered herring with a bunch of oil, none of that "packed in water" stuff is best but sardines are ok). I caught a pretty big mess of little dolly varden on year and if anyone has ever eaten those they know what a mass of little bones they have. So I headed a cleaned them and then smoked them for a couple days before packing them into pint jars and pressure canning them long enough the bones crumbled and ate those for snacks for a couple years, those were super tasty. Side note you can pressure cook salmon or trout bones and make them safely crumbly for dog food as well if you have extras.
I'm also fond of the little greasy fish in the flat tin (properly kippered herring with a bunch of oil, none of that "packed in water" stuff is best but sardines are ok). I caught a pretty big mess of little dolly varden on year and if anyone has ever eaten those they know what a mass of little bones they have. So I headed a cleaned them and then smoked them for a couple days before packing them into pint jars and pressure canning them long enough the bones crumbled and ate those for snacks for a couple years, those were super tasty. Side note you can pressure cook salmon or trout bones and make them safely crumbly for dog food as well if you have extras.
Mike Stafford
Member
- Messages
- 2,391
- Location
- Coastal plain of North Carolina
One of the more delicious canned fish products I have ever had were some barbecued eel sections that came from Korea in tins like sardines. They were delicious. People go "Yuck" because it is eel but eel is just fish in a convenient long skinny form.
Many moons ago my fishing buddy and I would net eels while they were on their spawning run back up the rivers. Then we would put them in a cooler with ice and pour in several pounds of salt. This process served to de-slime the little slimy buggers and it also toughened them up and changed their color so they had a bluish tint. Then we would clean them and freeze them. When we were going trolling off shore we would take a couple of dozen and use them for trolling bait..
Never ate them until I had the barbecued variety but I did enjoy those eels. We eat sardines packed in hot sauce with crackers and find that to be a tasty snack.
Many moons ago my fishing buddy and I would net eels while they were on their spawning run back up the rivers. Then we would put them in a cooler with ice and pour in several pounds of salt. This process served to de-slime the little slimy buggers and it also toughened them up and changed their color so they had a bluish tint. Then we would clean them and freeze them. When we were going trolling off shore we would take a couple of dozen and use them for trolling bait..
Never ate them until I had the barbecued variety but I did enjoy those eels. We eat sardines packed in hot sauce with crackers and find that to be a tasty snack.