I made spam and eggs for breakfast this morning...

[Phentex]

I don't know if I've ever had it. If so, it was too long ago to remember. My husband said his mom made spam sandwiches when he was a boy. And I KNEW my boys had never had it. Of course, they are internet experts now and know all about spam so I thought it would be fun for them to taste the real thing.

It wasn't bad. I wouldn't call it good either.

They make a version with 25% less sodium but it was still VERY salty.

Okay, we can check that off the list of things to try, lol.

Any Spam eaters here?

[Warpy]

1. I used to get a wild hair every 5 years or so and get a small can

of the stuff and fry it up for sandwiches. I always had the same reaction you did, it took a hell of a lot of bread and veggies to cut the saltiness of that stuff.

Factoid: Navajos call Spam "white man's neck."

[Phentex]

24. Interesting factoid...

[msanthrope]

2. No, I don't like Spam...

[Callalily]

3. Oh gawd . . . that's one of

my favorite sketches!

[Phentex]

5. I confess...

I did sing that a few times while cooking.

[MrMickeysMom]

28. How can you not?

It's too tempting to falsetto, "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam!" (too funny!)

[Callalily]

4. As a kid we ate spam,

spam and eggs, spam and fried potatoes! But haven't had any in quite some time! May just have to pick up a can for nostalgia's sake!

If interested there is a spam museum in Minnesota: http://www.spam.com/spam-101/the-spam-museum

And don't forget to check out the recipe section! http://www.spam.com/recipes

Sheesh . . . spam wrapped in bacon! YUK!

[Phentex]

6. Isn't that a little like

bacon wrapped in bacon?

The thing about Spam is...people still buy it! I expected something far worse than how it actually tasted.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Every few months, I buy one of those single slices and either fry it lightly

or put it in mac & cheese or lima beans.i

[Phentex]

9. Didn't know they made that...

is it with the lunch meat in the refrigerated section or on the shelf?

[sinkingfeeling]

11. On the shelf, in a little metalic package.

[grasswire]

8. I don't know why people are afraid of it.

Another thing to try is Underwood's Deviled Ham. This New England company has been making it for 150 years! It's just ham and some spices. No weird stuff. It's a lunch regular, in my family.

[Phentex]

10. Hadn't thought of that in years either! But off topic...

There was a thread recently about soaring food prices and I felt your point about the food banks was the most important one in the thread. I can't remember now where I read it.

Prices have been going up for years now. I know we've talked about it for years in here, especially when we've seen increases in whole dollars per item. So I am not sure this is big news. However, we know the food banks are already hurting and I have to wonder what happens now?

My mom helps with Meals on Wheels and they are cutting back the program drastically. She said the group was going to try to help people get to a food bank instead but it's not easy to do. And most of the people they were helping are not able to cook for themselves.

[Denninmi]

12. Spam. Blech!

We used to eat it when I was a kid, back in the 1970s. I tried it about 10-15 years ago, bought a can to try it again. Never again. It was nasty.

[Phentex]

22. I didn't find it to be nasty...

but I'd rather have Taylor pork roll like my aunts in NJ served.

[Lugnut]

13. I haven't eaten spam since grade school.

They made it in our cafeteria.

My mother lived through the rationing of WWII when she ate a lot of it. When the war was over she never made it or ate it again.

[Phentex]

23. How did they fix it?

Like a breakfast side or was it a sandwich?

It does seem like something that would be easy to serve in a cafeteria.

[pengillian101]

14. I have a can in the cupboard.

I used to love it as a kid - as a fried sandwich.

I bought it fairly recently, for nostalgia's sake and a back-up emergency food.

[Phentex]

21. That's not a bad idea...

Not something I'd want very often but maybe in a pinch.

[kurtzapril4]

15. I have never eaten Spam.

Someday I shall, though.

[Phentex]

20. I think it's worth trying

but maybe only once.

[cherokeeprogressive]

16. My Mom used to fry potatoes and onions.

She had this way of cutting them into perfect cubes and frying them nice and crispy brown on the outside and soft/chewy on the inside. When they were nearly done, she'd slice a can of Spam and lay the slices on top of the potatoes and cover the pan. After a few minutes, the Spam had a slightly chewier consistency than it does straight out of the can.

My Sister and I thought it was a treat, and one Christmas a decade or so ago we were at my Mom and Dad's house in Idaho for Christmas and we were all talking about family dinners. My Sister mentioned how we used to love the spam and potatoes and other things like "breakfast for dinner". My Mom got all verklempt and told us those days weren't necessarily treats; we ate those things because money was tight and things like eggs, flour, potatoes, onions and Spam were cheap and bulky.

I don't mind Spam at all. My Wife grew up in a priveliged household and the very word Spam makes her cross her eyes.

[Phentex]

19. Funny how that works. My mom made S.O.S.

with chipped beef and we loved it. Then there were times she made it with ground beef. Sometimes she served it over rice and sometimes over toast. Again, it was a way to feed a bunch of us inexpensively. After a time, when food was really scarce, we thought it was a delicacy!

[HeiressofBickworth]

29. As a kid, my family was never wealthy

My mother watched her pennies. I remember having chipped beef on toast but I don't remember having Spam. I kinda liked the chipped beef. It was made with a white sauce, as I recall and served on toasted white bread. Not a very health-conscience meal, but it fed us. The chipped beef came in a small glass jar. I wonder if stores still have them. Might make a batch for old times sake.

[Phentex]

32. I'm pretty sure they still make it...

my sister has a recipe that uses it with chicken and bacon. Way too salty for us now but it was one of her favorites from years ago.

[charlie]

17. Koreans are inexplicably crazy about the stuff

It's the one place where you can buy Spam gift boxes and not piss the recipient off:





Hawaiians love it, too. They make this sushi snack called Spam Musubi that is so, so [em]wrong[/em]:



If I'd invented the stuff the world would never know, because I would've pitched it out the window.

[Phentex]

18. LOL!

a Spam gift box! Who knew?

That might make a good white elephant gift here.

[charlie]

25. I know, amazing, innit?

Hormel must blink and rub their eyes everytime they look eastward. How the eff did that happen?

[japple]

30. Being an army brat in the 50s and 60s, I ate my share of Spam.

Mom fried it up occasionally for dinner, usually with a slice of cheddar melted on the top. I still sometimes hanker for the taste of spam and cheese, though it is much too salty for my taste these days.

Seeing that Hawaiian sushi reminded me of the trip we took several years ago and just about everywhere we went, entrees were served with two scoops of white rice. Our luggage was stolen while we were there, so we had to go to Macy's in downtown to replace underwear, etc. Even at the Macy's cafeteria, every breakfast plate came with 2 scoops of white rice and there was Spam on the menu!

[Turbineguy]

26. Spam.....

the caviar of mystery meats.

[grasswire]

27. there's nothing mysterious or awful in spam

The labeled ingredients in the classic variety of Spam are chopped pork shoulder meat, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Spam's gelatinous glaze, or aspic, forms from the cooling of meat stock.

It's not as bad as many other things on supermarket shelves with dozens of ingredients and dubious foodstuffs like pink slime.

[kestrel91316]

31. Before I die I am going to make Spam Musubi:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/04/tutorial-how-to-make-hawaiian-spam-musubi-sushi.html

Spam is a rare guilty pleasure for me just like KFC's chicken strips and potato wedges. Sometimes I just HAVE to clog my arteries.

[Thor_MN]

33. I recall having Spam, cheese, onion, pickle, through a grinder, broiled on hambuger bun halfs

I liked it, but then I was in my hollow legs teen years. I don't remember the ratios of Spam, Velveta, pickle and onion.

Have had Spam many other ways as well, next best would be Spam making Mac and Cheese into something edible.