We are all still smiling!

Now Annie, do not compare Spam to headcheese. HC is far superior and no, it is not sulze.

Blood sausage anyone?

And let's not forget......a wee bit o' haggis!

Jessy, sign me up for conversion to Judaism, please.

Thank you.

Oooh, headcheese! My problem is I don't know where to get the good stuff. Around here, the stores don't even carry the sanitized, inoffensive, Oscar Meyers type.

Years ago, a girlfriend used to give me slabs that she used to buy in some little Mom 'n' Pop corner store in the scary bowels of Richmond and it was Sooooooooo tasty! Probably not legal, really. But she had connections.

Barnmom, if you go the kosher route, you can't have any meat on your pizza, you know...

At least scrapple is a fresh product and doesn't come in a can. I actually don't mind it and my Dad liked it a lot. I ate duck hearts at a french restaurant the other night and I can't see how that's any worse than parts of pork.

I can't believe there is a song called "Pam Don't Take My SPAM". When I was a kid I was fascinated with the SPAM can because I could see my name in it. We ate scrapple but not SPAM.

Now, of course, I have my very own product:

Okay, I admit it,
I like Spam.

I grew up on a farm, where everything we ate was grown ourselves.
Anything "Store-bought" was a very rare treat.
And that included Spam.

It is still a rare treat, one I don't indulge in very often.
Maybe a couple times a year, at the most.

Velveeta is also "store-bought",
But no way I'm going to knowingly or willingly put that
stuff in my mouth!

:>)

Let's see, comfort food?
Split pea soup,
"Roll Mops" (My mother's version of a German dish)
Potato salad
And Kale cooked with potatoes and ham.

Rusty

LOL, Pam!

OMG...I'll take Spam over head cheese ANY DAY! Yikes!

Linda

The last time I ate Spam was about 30 years ago. Neighbors invited us to dinner. At the time we were sort-of-strict vegetarians. They served Spam pizza. That was it for me...

Nancy, I am cracking up. Last week DH asked for a similar recipe, a tater tot casserole from a local fundraiser cookbook. After harvesting 200+ lbs. of assorted homegrown potatoes, he buys Tater Tots. Long ago he said he'd never eat them because he'd worked at Simplot's cleaning up everything that fell off the conveyor belt and he knew where tater tots came from. euw. This recipe is simply (really good) burger, pressed in pan, covered w/ cream of mushroom soup, then cheese, then the tater tots, then baked half to death. Not something I would have ever tried, but I was picking at a friend's leftovers and was shocked when I found out what it was.

Rusty, I grew kale for the first time this year, and I'm wondering why we waited so long. Love the stuff....with our homegrown potatoes and local grown ham....mmmmm.....comfort food indeed.

Our comfort food this wet, cold weekend was pot roast.

I'm home with a sinus infection crud this week, so comfort food yesterday was a quick homemade chicken noodle soup and cranberry gingerale - lots of cranberry gingerale.

Today will be potato soup and lots of cranberry gingerale.

Tomorrow I guess I'll have to go back to work.
Teresa

Teresa, Amanda loves that cranberry gingerale.

Try some SPAM. Or Head Cheese. Just the thought could clear up my sinuses and all kinds of other issues, LOL.

Annie

No headcheese for me please. Never had scrapple. I'll take my Spam sliced thin, browned well, served between two pieces of soft white bread. Once a year please.

"Try some SPAM. Or Head Cheese. Just the thought could clear up my sinuses and all kinds of other issues, LOL."

LMAO - I've never had either, but I bet you are right!

Alexa

One of my sons, who eagerly consumes marrow, lamb shanks, are adventuresome when out and eat properly with no food issues apparent, expressed a wish for some Shake and Bake Chicken⢠yesterday.

Where have I gone wrong?

I'm watching the network news. They are talking about the cruise ship the Carnival Splendor which is stuck at sea due to a fire. There is no power, no A/C, no working bathrooms. The Navy has airlifted water and food to the ship. Diane Sawyer said "it is not the fare the passengers were expecting on this luxury cruise ship." They received boxes of Spam and Pop Tarts. Don't Pop Tarts have to be toasted?

Needless to say, these people should be grateful! How many people get off a cruise ship having lost weight?

Just heard on ABC Nightly News that they're shipping cans of SPAM to the luxury cruise ship that is stuck off the coast of Mexico. The ship had a fire that shut down their kitchens (and their toilets....) & it's SPAM to the rescue! I thought of this post as soon as I saw the piece.

My own experience with SPAM - Well, as poor newlyweds working multiple jobs while DH finished his last year of college, a SPAM roast for Sunday supper was a treat. I would score it, press cloves into it, add some pineapple slices and serve it up with mashed potatoes. We thought we were in heaven! Haven't eaten SPAM for 30+ years, though...

If you convert to Judaism you avoid SPAM, haggis, head cheese and questionable hot dogs. But you inherit gefilte fish! And kishke/kishka!

Who posted a recipe for salmon gefilte fish? Jessy? It sounded delicious.

"If you convert to Judaism you avoid SPAM, haggis, head cheese and questionable hot dogs. But you inherit gefilte fish! And kishke/kishka!"

Not to mention Tsimmes...;P

What, no one wants Bubbe's kishke recipe?!!
:)

Oh, gosh! Where are my manners! Please Lpink, Bubbe's recipe, if you would be so kind. Grins.

None of these sound bad if made from quaility ingredients with care to technique.

Smoosh some matzoh meal and schmalz into a turkey neck. Fry or bake, your option.

Oh, my! I simply wasn't expecting THAT! And then you eat it?

LOL! Yum!

Take extra care with the "shmooshing." Don't want to over or under shmoosh!

Lpink - have you ever had the vegetarian version? It acutally sounds pretty good, excpet I would use fresh garlic and add a little shallot, just because.

Alexa
*********************************************************

Passover Vegetarian Kishka Recipe
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, grated
2 onions, peeled and minced
2 cups water
1/4 cup oil
4 cups matzo meal
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions for the Passover Vegetarian Kishka recipe:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius or Centigrade).
2.Combine all ingredients in large bowl.
3.Spoon one-fourth of mixture onto large piece of aluminum foil.
4.Roll mixture in foil into 8-inch (20.32-centimeter) cylinder.
5.Repeat with remaining mixture to form four 8-inch (20.32-centimeter) cylinders.
6.Place cylinders on cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes.
7.Turn cylinders over and bake 45 minutes longer.
8.Remove foil and serve kishke sliced and warm.
Yields 12 servings of vegetarian kishka.

I dunno, at my house giblets and necks were reserved for Bubbe and I don't want to know about what she did with them. Hard to come by cow intestines in my hometown back in the day. You can have your fancy schmanzy vegetarian rolled cutlet, but "kishke" means "guts."

Yes 'twas I who posted salmon gefilte fish.

I miss cheeseburgers something awful.

Jessy, r u on a cheezburger-free diet?!

My friend makes headcheese, excuse me - pâté de tête, for her Romanian hubby. It's awful, sorry. Although it is his recipe and goodness knows where in Romania he comes from - all he does is tell us how Romanians are so poor they haven't got pots to pi$$ in and so forth, LOL. His favorite food is pork - choucroute garnie, pork roasts, bland sausages eaten with fat homemade pickles, pork every day. And bread - he can't eat a meal without bread. But I've never seen him eat Spam.

I've eaten head cheese. It made an occasional appearance in my house as a child. I think my grandfather liked it but he ate ham fat sandwiches so there was no accounting for taste with him. I was never pleased to have it. Again, mustard was the saving grace and I didn't complain. However, I drew the line at the ketchup and sardine sandwich I found in my school lunch one day in the fourth grade. Enough was enough. I tossed it.

i will admit i have eaten spam sliced thin and fried. To this day I can not understand how my neighbors ate it right out of the can. thick slices slapped on wonder bread and doused with yellow mustard. With that slimy stuff dripping down their arms...

If I were on that boat, I would much rather eat Army MREs than SPAM anyway and that's not saying much. Yuck! Can't they at least do canned progresso soup or tuna, canned oysters, boxed soy milk? I can think of a million non-perishables better than SPAM!

"....thick slices slapped on wonder bread and doused with yellow mustard. With that slimy stuff dripping down their arms..."

Okay, I think you lost me on this.... what is dripping? Is it part of the Spam? I thought Spam was a meat thing? So what is slimy? Grease? I think I am feeling a little queasy......

Alexa

Alexa, it's that gelatinous goo I told you about. Chunks of undefinable meat like substances encased in gelatinous goo.

And I saw they were also sending croissants to that cruise ship. Spam on croissants....

Annie

Better Spam on croissants than Spam on saltines.

I'm just sayin'...

Spam happens to be very good in fried rice.

dcarch

Forgot to mention:

Diced Spam, stir fried in balsamic vinegar, and cooking wine to taste.

Add to fried rice.

dcarch

Nope....not me...all the balsamic and mushrooms and black garlic won't redeem that stuff.
Give me a good old slab of Taylor pork roll any day!!....with a side of scrapple!!

I am not philosophically opposed to Spam. It is a cultural icon. It tastes okay though salty as heck. But it gives me terrible indigestion! I'll take one of those croissants, though.

Posted by lindac ----"Nope....not me...all the balsamic and mushrooms and black garlic won't redeem that stuff.
Give me a good old slab of Taylor pork roll any day!!....with a side of scrapple!! "

Yes, not kidding, Taylor pork roll is great in sushi.

dcarch

I thought it was funny that they sent cases of Spam,canned crab and Pop Tarts to that ship! What????

I wonder which they ran out of first!

Linda

Aldi's is advertising chitterlings this week, a 5 pound package for $5.99. Anyone running over for them?

"Aldi's is advertising chitterlings this week, a 5 pound package for $5.99. Anyone running over for them?"

Aw, dang! No Aldi's in my area! ;)

Okay - I have obviously been under the misconception that Spam was like that ham loaf sort of lunch meat that is chunks of meat sort of molded into a loaf and shoved into a can. I've never encountered "gelatinous goo" on the deli ham loaf at the deli counter and I think if I did I would run screaming into the night.....

I am afraid.... very afraid......

Alexa

Alex, did you ever have a canned ham? You know that "stuff" around the ham in the can?
Well the "stuff" around the chunk of spam is like that....but ickier!!
I have a long buried memory of opening a can of spam, with the key which removed a strip of metal near the top of the can....then puncturing a hole in the bottom and sliding that chunk out of the can and slicing off a 1/2 inch of the stuff and trying to shove the rest back into the can....and that goo oozing out!!
Alexa....go buy a can of the stuff....really!! You won't believe it!!

Like it or hate it.

More than 150 million cans of Spam are sold each year.

dcarch

I must be privileged. I have never eaten Spam, scrapple, head cheese or at least most of the other disgusting delicacies mentioned.LOL I think we'd never even heard of them. We ate lots of beans and 'taters in the very rural area I lived in. I do remember some of the adults eating pork brains, maybe with eggs, when we would kill hogs. Maybe growing up poor, in the boonies wasn't so bad.

When I became an adult I just never wanted or needed to eat Spam. That might look good on my headstone...."She never ate Spam".

This thread has been very entertaining. Thanks to all of you for your contributions.

jude

The "gelatinous goo" is just meat juices, salt & fat, with a bit of potato starch that thickens it. Nothing worse than what forms on the plate with your leftover home baked ham when you put it in the fridge, though probably not as tasty since that gelatinous goo generally contains flavors from whatever you glazed the ham with.

Spam is really just meat, overly salted meat, but meat.

I've never eaten Spam, but certainly ate Head Cheese as a kid.
Fellow Canadians probably remember the clear plastic container shaped like a bundt pan, of Schneiders Head Cheese.
They probably still make it. I loved it with mashed potatoes.

Probably no different, what that's made of, than what's in a wiener. And I like hot dogs!

"-----Spam is really just meat, overly salted meat, but meat."

Thank goodness for Spam. If it weren't for Spam, 9 billion cans of good meat would have gone to waste, and that many more animals would have to be killed for the meat.

dcarch

In the same general culinary category as Spam (only worse) are those little cans of Vienna Sausages. They were the road trip/camping staple from my childhood. I have fond memories of eating them with lots of French's mustard on slightly sweet hamburger buns in the middle of nowhere in Mexico. Every 10 years or so I have to have one of those unlikely sandwiches.