Spam (food): Difference between revisions
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In the United States, Spam is quite popular, but is sometimes associated with economic hardship, due to its relatively low cost.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/business/15spam.html|title="Spam Turns Serious and Hormel Turns Out More", ''New York Times'', November 14, 2008 | work=The New York Times | first=Andrew | last=Martin | date=2008-11-15 | accessdate=2010-05-23}}</ref> |
In the United States, Spam is quite popular, but is sometimes associated with economic hardship, due to its relatively low cost.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/business/15spam.html|title="Spam Turns Serious and Hormel Turns Out More", ''New York Times'', November 14, 2008 | work=The New York Times | first=Andrew | last=Martin | date=2008-11-15 | accessdate=2010-05-23}}</ref> |
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The residents of the state of [[Hawaii]] and the territories of [[Guam]] and the Commonwealth of the [[Northern Mariana Islands]] (CNMI) consume the most Spam per capita in the United States. On average, each person on Guam consumes 16 tins of Spam each year and the numbers at least equal this in the CNMI. Guam, Hawaii, and [[Saipan]], the CNMI's principal island, have the only [[McDonald's]] restaurants that feature Spam on the menu. [[Burger King]], in Hawaii, began serving Spam in 2007 on its menu to compete with the local McDonald's chains.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070611/ap_on_bi_ge/burger_king_Spam|title=Burger King to Serve Spam in Hawaii}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=254168|title=Land of 10,000 Stories — Spam in Paradise|publisher=KARE11 News|author=Boyd Huppert|date=May 17, 2007}}</ref> In Hawaii, Spam is so popular it is sometimes dubbed "The Hawaiian Steak".<ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= The Spam That Isn't Via E-Mail |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E6DB1338F934A35757C0A9659C8B63 |work= |publisher=The New York Times |date= |accessdate=2007-12-28 }}</ref> One popular Spam dish in Hawaii is [[Spam musubi]], in which cooked Spam is combined with [[rice]] and [[nori]] seaweed and classified as [[onigiri]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Spam.htm|title=Spam — Hawaiian Spam Musubi}}</ref> |
The residents of Mr. Cain and the state of [[Hawaii]] and the territories of [[Guam]] and the Commonwealth of the [[Northern Mariana Islands]] (CNMI) consume the most Spam per capita in the United States. On average, each person on Guam consumes 16 tins of Spam each year and the numbers at least equal this in the CNMI. Guam, Hawaii, and [[Saipan]], the CNMI's principal island, have the only [[McDonald's]] restaurants that feature Spam on the menu. [[Burger King]], in Hawaii, began serving Spam in 2007 on its menu to compete with the local McDonald's chains.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070611/ap_on_bi_ge/burger_king_Spam|title=Burger King to Serve Spam in Hawaii}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=254168|title=Land of 10,000 Stories — Spam in Paradise|publisher=KARE11 News|author=Boyd Huppert|date=May 17, 2007}}</ref> In Hawaii, Spam is so popular it is sometimes dubbed "The Hawaiian Steak".<ref>{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= The Spam That Isn't Via E-Mail |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E6DB1338F934A35757C0A9659C8B63 |work= |publisher=The New York Times |date= |accessdate=2007-12-28 }}</ref> One popular Spam dish in Hawaii is [[Spam musubi]], in which cooked Spam is combined with [[rice]] and [[nori]] seaweed and classified as [[onigiri]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Spam.htm|title=Spam — Hawaiian Spam Musubi}}</ref> |
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Spam was introduced into the aforementioned areas, in addition to other islands in the Pacific such as [[Okinawa]] and the [[Philippine Islands]], during the U.S. military occupation in [[World War II]]. Since fresh meat was difficult to get to the soldiers on the front, World War II saw the largest use of Spam. GIs started eating Spam for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Some soldiers referred to Spam as "ham that didn't pass its physical" and "[[meatloaf]] without basic training".)<ref>American Eats, History Channel Programme</ref> Surpluses of Spam from the soldiers' supplies made their way into native diets. Consequently, Spam is a unique part of the history and effects of U.S. influence in the Pacific.<ref name="Star" /> |
Spam was introduced into the aforementioned areas, in addition to other islands in the Pacific such as [[Okinawa]] and the [[Philippine Islands]], during the U.S. military occupation in [[World War II]]. Since fresh meat was difficult to get to the soldiers on the front, World War II saw the largest use of Spam. GIs started eating Spam for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Some soldiers referred to Spam as "ham that didn't pass its physical" and "[[meatloaf]] without basic training".)<ref>American Eats, History Channel Programme</ref> Surpluses of Spam from the soldiers' supplies made their way into native diets. Consequently, Spam is a unique part of the history and effects of U.S. influence in the Pacific.<ref name="Star" /> |
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Revision as of 18:24, 12 August 2010
| Spam | |
| Created by | Hormel Foods Corporation |
| Time created | 1937 |
| Type of Food | Processed meat |
| Website | The Official Spam Web Site |
Spam is a canned precooked meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation. 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 to help keep its color. Spam's gelatinous glaze, or aspic, forms from the cooling of meat stock.[1] The product has become part of many jokes and urban legends about mystery meat, which has made it part of pop culture and folklore.
Varieties of Spam vary by region and include Spam Classic, Spam Hot & Spicy, Spam Less Sodium, Spam Lite, Spam Oven Roasted Turkey, Hickory Smoked, and Spam Spread.[2]
Spam sold in North America, South America, and Australia is produced in Austin, Minnesota, (also known as Spam Town USA) and in Fremont, Nebraska. Spam for the UK market is produced in Denmark by Tulip under license from Hormel.[3] Spam is also made in the Philippines and in South Korea.[4] In 2007, the seven billionth can of Spam was sold.[5]
Name origin
Introduced on July 5, 1937, the name "Spam" was chosen when the product, whose original name was far less memorable (Hormel Spiced Ham), began to lose market share. The name was chosen from multiple entries in a naming contest. A Hormel official once stated that the original meaning of the name "Spam" was "Shoulder of Pork and Ham".[6] According to writer Marguerite Patten in Spam – The Cookbook, the name was suggested by Kenneth Daigneau, an actor and the brother of a Hormel vice president, who was given a $100 prize for creating the name.[7] At one time, the official explanation was that the name was a portmanteau of "Spiced Ham". According to the British documentary-reality show "1940's House", when SPAM was offered by the United States to those affected by World War II in the UK, SPAM stood for Specially Processed American Meats.
Many jocular backronyms have been devised, such as "Something Posing As Meat", "Specially Processed Artificial Meat", "Stuff, Pork and Ham", "Spare Parts Animal Meat" and "Special Product of Austin Minnesota".[8]
According to Hormel's trademark guidelines, Spam should be spelled with all capital letters and treated as an adjective, as in the phrase "SPAM luncheon meat".
Nutritional data
Spam is typically sold in cans with a net weight of 340 grams (12 ounces). A 56 gram (2 ounce) serving of original Spam provides seven grams of protein, two grams of carbohydrates, 15 grams of fat (23% US Daily Value) including 6 grams of saturated fat (28% U.S. Daily Value), and 170 calories. A serving also contains nearly a third of the recommended daily intake of sodium (salt). A 56 gram serving of Spam contains 767 mg of sodium, equivalent to approximately 2 grams of salt, indicating about 3.6% of Spam's mass is salt. Spam provides very little in terms of vitamins and minerals (0% vitamin A, 1% vitamin C , 1% calcium, 3% iron). It has been listed as a food that is a poor choice for weight loss and optimum health and as a food that "is high in saturated fat and sodium".[9]
Varieties
There are several different flavors of Spam, including:[10]
- Spam Classic – original flavor
- Spam Hot & Spicy – with tabasco flavor
- Spam Less Sodium – "25% less sodium"
- Spam Lite – "33% less calories and 50% less fat"
- Spam Oven Roasted Turkey
- Spam Hickory Smoke flavor
- Spam Spread – "if you're a spreader, not a slicer ... just like Spam Classic, but in a spreadable form"
- Spam with Bacon
- Spam with Cheese
- Spam Garlic
- Spam Golden Honey Grail – a limited-release special flavor made in honor of Monty Python's SPAMALOT Broadway musical
- Spam Mild
- Spam Hot Dogs
In addition to flavor, some of the tins come in smaller sizes than normal, many consumers, however, consider this to be beneficial. A more popular option is the 7 oz (200g) size can. Recently, "Spam Singles" have been produced: a single sandwich-sized slice of Spam (Classic or Lite), wrapped in plastic instead of a metal container.
International usage
As of 2003, Spam is sold in 41 countries worldwide.
United States and territories
In the United States, Spam is quite popular, but is sometimes associated with economic hardship, due to its relatively low cost.[11]
The residents of Mr. Cain and the state of Hawaii and the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) consume the most Spam per capita in the United States. On average, each person on Guam consumes 16 tins of Spam each year and the numbers at least equal this in the CNMI. Guam, Hawaii, and Saipan, the CNMI's principal island, have the only McDonald's restaurants that feature Spam on the menu. Burger King, in Hawaii, began serving Spam in 2007 on its menu to compete with the local McDonald's chains.[12][13] In Hawaii, Spam is so popular it is sometimes dubbed "The Hawaiian Steak".[14] One popular Spam dish in Hawaii is Spam musubi, in which cooked Spam is combined with rice and nori seaweed and classified as onigiri.[15]
Spam was introduced into the aforementioned areas, in addition to other islands in the Pacific such as Okinawa and the Philippine Islands, during the U.S. military occupation in World War II. Since fresh meat was difficult to get to the soldiers on the front, World War II saw the largest use of Spam. GIs started eating Spam for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Some soldiers referred to Spam as "ham that didn't pass its physical" and "meatloaf without basic training".)[16] Surpluses of Spam from the soldiers' supplies made their way into native diets. Consequently, Spam is a unique part of the history and effects of U.S. influence in the Pacific.[17]
The perception of Spam in Hawaii is very different from that on the mainland. Despite the large number of mainlanders who eat Spam, and the various recipes that have been made from it, Spam, along with most canned food, is often stigmatized on the mainland as "poor people food". In Hawaii, similar canned meat products such as Treet are referred to as "poor people Spam".
In these locales, varieties of Spam unavailable in other markets are sold. These include Honey Spam, Spam with Bacon, and Hot and Spicy Spam.[17]
In the CNMI, lawyers from Hormel have threatened legal action against the local press for running articles decrying the ill-effects of high Spam consumption on the health of the local population.[18][19]
Austin, Minnesota has a restaurant with a menu devoted exclusively to Spam, called "Johnny's SPAMarama Menu".[20]
Europe
In the past in the United Kingdom spam was sliced, battered and deep-fried becoming known as 'spam fritters', however this tradition has faded out in recent decades. It gained popularity in the 1940s during World War II, as a consequence of the Lend-Lease Act.
After World War II, Newforge Foods, part of the Fitch Lovell group, were awarded the license to produce the product in the UK (doing so at its Gateacre factory, Liverpool),[21] where it stayed until production switched to the Danish Crown Group (owners of the Tulip Food Company[22]) in 1998, forcing the closure of the Liverpool factory and the loss of 140 jobs.[23] By the early 1970s the name Spam was often misused to describe any tinned meat product containing pork, such as pork luncheon meat.
The image of Spam as a low cost meat product gave rise to the British colloquial term "Spam valley" to describe certain affluent housing areas where residents appear to be wealthy but in reality may be living at poverty levels.
Asia
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2007) |
In Okinawa, Japan, Spam has become very popular. The product is now an ingredient in the traditional Okinawan dish chanpurū, and a Spam burger is sold by local fast food chain Jef.
In China, Spam is a popular food item, and often used in sandwiches.
In Hong Kong, Spam is commonly served with instant noodles and fried eggs, and is a popular item in cha chaan teng.
In the Philippines, Spam is a popular meal, most commonly eaten with fried rice and eggs or as a sandwich with pandesal. It is often eaten for breakfast.
In South Korea, Spam (Korean: 스팸; RR: seupaem) is popular in households as an accompaniment to rice. A local television advertisement claims that it is the most tasty when consumed with white rice and gim (laver seaweed used for some types of handrolls). Spam is also an original ingredient in budae jjigae ("army base stew"), a spicy stew with different types of preserved meat.
Spam and similar meat preserves can be bought in gift sets that may contain nothing but the meat preserve[24] or include other products such as food oil or tuna. When invited to another person's home, guests may present their hosts with such a set, or with other food gifts such as fresh fruit, beverages or tteok.
The surfeit of Spam in both North and South Korea during the Korean War led to the establishment of the Spam kimbap (sushi roll). With no more fish or other traditional kimbap products,[clarification needed] Spam was added to a rice roll with pickle and cucumber and wrapped in seaweed. In Australia, Korean shops sell these as "sushi rolls", as an alternative to the traditional style of Japanese sushi rolls - but without the Spam.
Spam celebrations
Spam is celebrated in a small local festival in Austin, Minnesota, where Hormel corporate headquarters are located. The event, known as Spam Jam, is a carnival-type celebration which coincides with local Fourth of July festivities, featuring parades and fireworks which often relate to the popular luncheon meat. Austin is also home to the Spam Museum, and the plant that produces Spam for most of North America and Europe. In addition to the annual celebration, there is a national recipe competition where submissions are accepted at the top forty state fairs in the nation.
Hawaii also holds their own version of Spam Jam in Waikiki during the last week of April.
The small town of Shady Cove, Oregon is home to the annual Spam Parade and Festival, celebrating its 8th year in 2007.
The Spam Jam is not to be confused with Spamarama, which is a yearly festival held around April Fool's Day in Austin, Texas. The theme of Spamarama is gentle parody of Spam, rather than straightforward celebration: the event at the heart of the festival is a Spam cook-off that originated as a challenge to produce an appetizing recipe for the meat. The festival includes light sporting activities and musical acts, in addition to the cook-off.[25]
See also
References
- ^ Campbell, Belinda; Clapton, Barbara; Tipton, Catherine (2002). Food Technology. Heinemann. p. 20.
- ^ "Spam — The Official Spam website".
- ^ "the Spam timeline section under 1990s "In 1997, Hormel Foods awards Tulip UK with the licence for supplying SPAM to the UK market." Retrieved May 29, 2008". Spam-uk.com. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
- ^ ""Where is the Spam family of products made?" on spam.com".
- ^ "SPAM Brand History". www.spam.com. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
- ^ Terry O’Reilly, on The Age of Persuasion on CBC Radio, broadcast 12 January 2009
- ^ "Spam.com — Spam Timeline".
- ^ Boxcar, Ruby Ann (2004). Dear Ruby Ann: Down Home Advice about Lovin', Livin', and the Whole Shebang. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-2560-6., p. 244
- ^ "Nutritional Facts and Analysis for Spam".
- ^ Welcome to SPAM.com[dead link]
- ^ Martin, Andrew (2008-11-15). ""Spam Turns Serious and Hormel Turns Out More", New York Times, November 14, 2008". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
- ^ "Burger King to Serve Spam in Hawaii".
- ^ Boyd Huppert (May 17, 2007). "Land of 10,000 Stories — Spam in Paradise". KARE11 News.
- ^ "The Spam That Isn't Via E-Mail". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Spam — Hawaiian Spam Musubi".
- ^ American Eats, History Channel Programme
- ^ a b Jaymes Song (June 11, 2007). "Burger giants wage Spam war". Toronto: The Star.
- ^ "Organic smoke (and mirrors)". Saipan Tribune. 2006-07-21. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
- ^ "A junkie waiting to happen". Saipan Tribune. 2006-07-14. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
- ^ "Spam Turns Serious and Hormel Turns Out More",, NYTimes, Nov 14, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/business/15spam.html?_r=1
- ^ The story of Fitch Lovell Ambrose Keevil Phillimore Press 1972 ISBN 0-85033-074-2
- ^ "Bot generated title ->". english.tulip.dk<!. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
- ^ "Spam firm faces closure after serving its last slice". London: Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
- ^ Image of a ?44,800 Spam gift set
- ^ "Spamarama website". Retrieved 2006-08-11.
External links
- The official Spam web site
- Spam - The Official UK website
- The Book of Spam
- More Spam Recipes
- Gallery of vintage graphic design featuring SPAM
- Saving 'Spam:' Hormel's Fight to Protect Its Famous Product's Name According to ABC News, Hormel is involved in a multi-million dollar trademark dispute with Spam Arrest, a company which blocks obnoxious emails.