In the poor ol' days my mom fed it to us too. My dad loved it, this is the man that had his FIRST quadruple by-pass at the ripe ol' age of 51, mind you. Two slices of white bread, mayo, swiss cheese and Spam. Haven't tried it in the last 30 years. I remember some other canned meat too, like a corned beef thing, oh, and Vienna sausages. It's a wonder I'm alive to tell ya'll about it!

I have vague Spam memories, none clear enough to recall the the taste however. I might have to get a can and taste it again.

I confess to loving Vienna sausages, though. Every few years I buy a can and eat them cold with yellow mustard. Yeah, it a childhood memory thing. I don't recommend it otherwise!

"I bought them at Costco. I have no intention of ever opening those cans unless we are down to eating the raccoons that live up the creek or the Spam."

Claudia, I haven't laughed that hard in a while! Give me the coons any day over mystery meat. And I will admit that i have never tasted it either. Ihave seen it, and smelled it, so no thanks. And I have have the philosophy that if it doesn't eat me first, I will it it.

I remember having it few times back in the 70's. Like Linda we had it while camping or like Beverly fried and on Wonder Bread. It's been years though and not on the top of my list of bad things I crave from time to time.

David

I don't understand the antipathy SPAM generates in some people.

It has the salt content of potato chips, which most people like, the fat content of sausage, which most people like, it is more tender than filet mignon, which most people like, it's relatively inexpensive protein, it doesn't spoil and you don't even have to use a can opener.

Supposedly Palatable Animal Mince.

Sorry, it's one of those things I like almost because it's so gross...sort of like head cheese.

Spam and corned beef should not be uttered in the same sentence!

LOL, I'll take that as a direct hit, since I'm the one who asked... but really, how are they different? The only experience I have with corned beef IS spam. No place anywhere near where I live, or have lived (keep in mind that when I was young and a gypsy I did not care about food culture) that I know of, sells "real" corned beef. I've often wondered how it tastes. Seems like it would be really good! Sorry if I offended!

I think the main difference between spam and corned beef, is the beef. It's in the latter but not in the former.

My dad, who served overseas in the RCAF during WWII, developed a lifelong taste for Argentine tinned corned beef, a staple of the Allied forces in two world wars. Fast fwd to the 21st century, where I possess tooooo many freezer/refrigeration appliances, and tinned meat is considered most unappetizing to me and my family. Not even the cat eats it. And after marrying into a Montreal Jewish family 26 yrs ago, and being introduced to the culture of "smoked meat", aka pastrami, except not like that served anywhere else, meat-in-a-tin is enough to induce vegetarianism.

Corned beef is a real piece of beef, cured in a salt and nitr-ite or ate solution with allspice, bay leaf, peppercorns and other stuff. You buy a piece and cook it and slice it.
Spam is canned very fatty ham and pork...ham is salted and smoked pork.
you can't make a corned beef sandwich out of Spam.
Spam is to corned beef as canned fruit cocktail is to a fresh peach.
Linda C

I think trsinc is referring to tinned corned beef. We used to get that for camping when I was a kid. It really does have more in common with SPAM than with real corned beef.

I see it in the dollar store once in a while, and though all other tinned foods have switched to pull-tab lids, it still has a key. Makes me wonder about when it was actually manufactured.

Rachel, you have a point. I checked out the website and all of the tins pictured there have pull tabs.

I had no idea it came in different flavors.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spam varieties.

I told you my husband doesn't eat like you and I eat ;) It's not supposed to be a corned beef substitute. That is, he and his father only called them reubens. I dunno, I guess because they still had the sauerkraut and rye bread. You and I both know better, but they are among those who are raised on spam, so that's what they like. At least that's how I justify it in my basalmic reduction sauce over a skilfully prepared... mind.

Canned corned beef is beef...Spam is pork.
But you can make a not too bad corned beef hash from canned corned beef, but I wouldn't try Spam hash!
Linda C

Rachel, I don't think that I have ever seen Spam and Filet Mignon used in the same sentence. LOL!

Just the thought of Spam makes me gag. But then fried bologna does the same thing. I hated both as a kid and have no intention of ever eating same again.

Ann

spam hash. Ick.

Count me in as another person who won't eat SPAM unless I were starving to death and couldn't find a stray grub or wild berries. Jessica's oldest son and I, while on a trip to Sherry's, determined that it is actually manufactured from salt, some unknown meat-like substance and gelatinous goo. I'll eat mountain oysters, squirrel, rabbit, raw beef that I raised myself. I've eaten a cricket encased in a lollipop. I'll kiss a horse on the mouth, but I won't eat Spam!

Corned beef? I make my own. It's a nice homegrown and well trimmed brisket, cured for several days in the refrigerator with salt and corned beef spices (which include, as LIndaC mentioned, bay leaf, whole cloves, black peppercorns, mustard seed, some other stuff I don't remember without the recipe, LOL). I've never had the tinned stuff, so I can't conjecture, but some members here ate my corned beef in hash at the Michigan Run. It's definitely nothing like Spam.

As for the salt/tender/fat analogy, LOL, maybe that's why I don't like Spam. I'll eat potato chips but I don't want them too salty or too greasy. I make my own sausage because I don't like all the fat and I don't want my beef "mushy", like the stuff people say you can cut with a fork. I want my beef tender, but not squishy and I've never, never, had my butcher cut any of my beef to filet mignon or even tenderloin. (shrug)

Linda, I tried to get Ashley and my Dad to let me stop at the Spam museum when I took Dad to Wyoming for his air force reunion a couple of years ago. I was resoundingly out-voted, LOL.

Annie

Hey! I make SPAM hash! It's not all that different from Ham Hash. The trick is to cut the SPAM into small cubes and cook it in a cast iron pan 'till it gets a nice crust on it. Then you remove it and cook your potatoes, onions...whatever else you are putting in, only returning the SPAM to the pan at the last minute.

Of course, you have to like SPAM in the first place. :D

rachel, if you ever visit Austin you should come during the Spamarama Festival. They have it every year, lol.

I'm wondering now if the stuff I had all those years ago was SPAM or tinned "corned beef". That reuben sure was good, in my texas, southern girl, memory. I sure would like to try real corned beef someday. I think I'll google around and see if I just might be able to find some here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spamarama

Spam hash sounds good - I don't like the soft consistency of spam out of the can. Sliced and fried is the way to go - so cubed spam hash does sound okay to me. I don't buy it because I shop at Costco and you have to buy it in bulk -- and I don't want to buy more than 1 tin, LOL.

Too salty. I grew up on the stuff, but thankfully came to live in California where my taste buds were re-educated to the point where even some of our great restaurant food is too salty for our tastes now.

Took me 35 years before I could wean my DH off his taste for the occasional Vienna sausage. I was finally able to throw the junk food out and never buy it again after he had his stroke at the age of 50. His tastes underwent a real change and he started to actually LIKE vegetables, lol.

Trsinc--I was coming here to post the Spamarama link! I moved from Austin a year ago and I miss it terribly.

Anyway... spam. I ate it as a kid fried and liked it. As an adult I have occasionally used it when I was... what's the word?--broke. It works well in omelets or frittatas.

~Amanda

My mom used to make it with egg salad - all mashed together "to make it go farther" - isn't Spam super cheap?? I haven't had since I was a kid and I don't think I'll be putting my kids through it.
A friend of mine works in daycare and they had Fear Factor day - the mystery meat was Spam, one threw up, three cried and the rest said no way.

Well, it's not really that cheap...cheaper than some protein sources but more expensive than others. It's actually more expensive than a real ham (the kind you bake, not the canned ones), but then, a real ham can't be stored on a pantry shelf.

I keep it around the house as a)earthquake food, and b) so my husband has breakfast meat available on the odd time that I've let us run out of bacon, sausage or pork chops. It can double for lunch meat if I'm packing him a lunch and realize that I'm out of sandwich meat/filling.

It's also a guilty pleasure of mine. Occasionally, when I'm alone for the evening, dinner is fried SPAM, pasta with butter, salt & pepper and frozen peas. All comfort foods from childhood. Probably not the healthiest meal in the world, but it can't be as bad as Kentucky Fried or something like.

Hey Amanda! Nice to see a fellow Austinite here. I'm sorry you are homesick. I bet there are some wonderful things to do and see in Maryland, though. I've never been there but I'm under the impression you have 4 seasons. Aah winter, I love winter... especially in August!

"I don't understand the antipathy SPAM generates in some people.
It has the salt content of potato chips, which most people like, the fat content of sausage, which most people like, it is more tender than filet mignon, which most people like, it's relatively inexpensive protein, it doesn't spoil and you don't even have to use a can opener."

Well said Rachellen!

Just don't mix it with my pasta or pineapple.

Beverly

LOL, Beverly, the problem I have with Spam is the same one I have with bananas or with jello or with raw oysters. It feels ICKY. (grin)

It's kind of soft and mushy and gelatinous and just, well, icky....in texture at least.

Annie

Yeah Annie, I have to brown it up good to get rid of some of that mushy, icky feel. It's not one of my favorite things.

Beverly

Annie, that's why you must fry it until it's crispy on the outside...it gives it texture! :D

My cats like it cold, in all it's greasy, toothless folk compatible glory, but I must have a bit of crusty crisp to it. Otherwise, it chews all to much like suet...don't ask me how I know what suet feels like to chew.

Beverly, I saw a recipe once, for baked SPAM, complete with a pic of the little loaf with a pineapple ring pinned on with cloves. It had me in stitches.

Back in the 60's, Spam was a main meal for my family of 2 adults and 4 kids. Pineapple slice, cloves and baked with a drizzle of maple syrup. I always served it with baked potatoes. My family loved it. Haven't made it in years and I don't think my married youngins ever make it. The subject never comes up. Come to think of it, we always had a dog under the table at dinner time.

I suspect that most cats like it cold right out of the can. If I remember correctly it does resemble dog/cat food.

Shirley, I sure which I had a dog under the table when I was a kid. I can think of many foods I would have slipped a dog.

Ann

Me too Ann. Problem is some of what I would have slipped mine they wouldn't have eaten either. Things like pineapple sandwiches.

Beverly

Beverly, Stetson would have eaten that for you. He loved fruits and vegetables. Even Pineapple.

Ann

Pineapple sandwiches???

Ann, you remember correctly. In fact, as a kid, we fed our dog a cheapie dog food that looked suspiciously like canned corned beef hash...or like it would look if it was compressed into a little square loaf like SPAM.

Slightly off-topic, but when I was a kid, I worked at Jack in the Box the year that they added tacos to the menu. They came with the "meat" in them, frozen, and we put them into the deep fryer and then sprinkled some lettuce and cheese into them before serving.

Peeling a frozen one apart, the "meat" looked suspiciously like cat food. The big, red and white checkerboard of Ralston-Purina being displayed prominently on the delivery trucks didn't help.

When I was a kid, my school friends told me, that Spam stood for "S"quirrel, "P"ossum, "A"nd "M"ouse.LOL I have never even tried it. I just don't like the looks of it, never mind the taste. I just can't get myself past the jelly that sits on top. Diana55

I always thought it was
Some Parts Actually Meat
:-)

SPAM...spare me pleeeese!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't make me gag!!!!!!!!!
My Mother made us eat that horrible stuff....
DH loves it, soooo I do keep it in the pantry for him.

Linda

He11 no. I refuse to buy spam, eat spam, let spam into our house.

If it comes to the point where we have to eat meatless meals or emergency rations, we have beans. Why do I hate it? MY DAD'S SPAM HASH. It's a wonder I survived it.

Sliced very thin and double dipped in very dark chocolate.

I love it grilled, on white bread, with mayo, bread and butter pickles and onions. It has to be grilled, not fried, and crispy. It also has to be the low sodium kind. No one but me eats it...but then, no one else here eats rocky mountain oysters or liver either. There are just some meals that I DON'T have to share! Life is good! LOL

I eat spam when we are camping. I also grew up on it and ate it everyway possible even with the silly pineapple on it. Now only if we go camping, which is not often.

BUT I adore the monty python Spam skit and we often walk around saying the parts we remember. I am copying and pasting. But I don't like spam...

Until last week, I went happily about my life, having pushed SPAM back into the far reaches of my childhood memories. NOW, I'm seeing it everywhere.

I popped into London Drugs (not even a grocery store!) today to pick up a few things, and was met with an entire display of SPAM. They carry three different types: Regular, Lite (sodium, that is - a serving, 1/6 of a can, only has 25% of one's daily recommended salt intake), and Turkey Roll. A 340gr can costs $3.99! There was a generic as well, for only $1.99. It contained pork and/or chicken, and perhaps less salt. Argentinian corned beef was $2.79 for 300gr.

I halted the research at that point, picked up 500gr of coffee and some 70% off flower pots, and ran out of there...

Of the 180 calories per serving, I think 140 are listed as "fat calories." The sodium content is off the charts...

I think bacon is healthier! Tastes better, too.

tache wrote, "Sliced very thin and double dipped in very dark chocolate."

""S"quirrel, "P"ossum, "A"nd "M"ouse""
{{gwi:1548706}}

"Sliced very thin and double dipped in very dark chocolate"

"soft and mushy and gelatinous"
{{gwi:1499247}}

I've never had Spam but being Philadelphians, we used to have scrapple for breakfast. My mom sliced it, fried it and served it with syrup. My dad particularly liked it with his eggs. By the way, he had a heart attack in his fifties, although he lived to be 83.

I think scrapple is pretty much Spam without the can. I do think Spam has a dense meaty texture while scrapple is soft and gets crispy on the outside when fried. Still, they both have unidentifiable ingredients, although scrapple is pork based.

Too funny Gina!

Yes Rachellen, pineapple sandwiches. For some reason when I was a kid there were days I didn't eat in the lunchroom at school. I told my DM over and over I didn't like pineapple sandwiches and that's what she would pack for my school lunch. Pineapple and bread do not go together!!! They just don't! Needless to say, I would throw it away and go hungry for lunch. Guess that's part of the reason I was such a skinny kid.

For at least a year, I took crushed pineapple and cottage cheese on whole wheat to school for lunch. Loved it! Got in a rut....and I still love it...but not every day!
Linda C

Pineapple sandwiches. I just can't wrap my brain around that. I would likely have thrown them out also.

I think scrapple and SPAM were developed with the same thing in mind...using up scraps of meat. But scrapple is made with corn meal and a variety of spices while SPAM is primarily meat, with a lot of salt, a little sugar and various preservatives.

Thrifty housewives the world over have come up with ways to use scraps of meat, combining them with starches of one type or another to stretch a little meat into a meal for a hungry family.

Every culture where meat is consumed for example, has some form of meatball, vegetable stuffed with some combination of meat scraps & starch, and some form of sandwich involving meat wrapped in bread of some sort or at least starch of some kind.

Oh before I am in trouble I stole the picture from somebody's blog. Marcia Bromberg, whoever she is.