Monday, February 15, 2010

TMI Tuesday.....






A Mr. Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly from Ottumwa Iowa asks....

Dear Mr. Knowitall...What is Spam?

Dear Walter, I hope you mean that delectable canned Bit-O-Heaven Spam, and NOT the PC Spam, cause I am very Low-Tech!

The year was 1937, at the George A. Hormel meat packing company, thousands of pounds of pork shoulders were piling up in the coolers. Executives at the company brainstormed the idea to take the shoulders, chop them up, add spices and chopped parts from the rest of the pig, and form it into small 'ham-like' loaves. Put it in a can and fill the excess space with gelatin from the skin and bones from the pig!
They thought that you could probably keep this product edible for months without refridgeration...They were right! They tried it and it WORKED. Hormels tasty spiced ham quickly found a niche in the market, considering that many American homes didn't own an electric ice box yet.
But pig parts were piling up at at other meat packers warehouses as well, and they also produced a chopped formed tasty 'Treat'. Afraid of being lost in the canned pork shuffle, Hormel offered a $ 100.00 prize to come up with a catchy name. Somebody came up with turning the "Spiced Ham" into...SPAM!!
But in the late 30's Americans ate mostly basic natural food, and this canned chopped clump meat seemed pretty gross to most, and sales weren't what company officials had hoped for....Then came WWII.
Because it was cheap, portable, and didn't need refridgeration, Spam was perfect to send to the G.I.'s overseas. It quickly found it's way into the Army mess halls, and many G.I.'s swore that they would NEVER eat that crap ever again.
But ya know, evidence suggests otherwise! Forced to eat canned pork over a period of several years, many troops developed a taste for it, and after the war sales of Spam shot up dramatically!
THIS MUCH IS TRUE.....
*Americans eat 3.8 cans of Spam every second, thats 122 Million cans a year!
*Spam has a 75% of the canned meat market share.
*Since 1937, more than 5 Billion cans of Spam have been sold worldwide.
*To this day it is WILDLY popular in most Pacific Nations. In Korea, young men go a courting with Spam as if it were wine or chocolate!
*Former Russian Premier Nikita Khruschev, credited Spam with keeping their troops alive during WWII, because they couldn't produce any crops or food.
*And the most amazing fact of all...There are NO eyes, lips, ears, snouts, brains, any any other gross pig parts in Spam! It is ONLY Pork Shoulder, Ham, Salt, Sugar, and Sodium Nitrate.

Good Question Walter, I suddenly have the overwelming urge to travel to Hawaii. But not now, because Mr. Knowitall grows weary....

Peace...!!!

27 comments:

Serena said...

Good God, is it Tuesday already? What happened to Monday?! Maybe it ate Spam and is laid up with a bellyache.:)

G-Man said...

SHERRY!!!!!!!
Gimme a little Blogstetic Distance here!

And BTW Smarty...It IS Tuesday!
Monday's Long Gone...Did you sleep through it?

Serena said...

I WISH I had slept through Monday. But I didn't. So there! Neener-neener.:-)

lime said...

also, hawaii has the highest per capita consumption of spam among the 50 states.

then again, they love poi too.

Anonymous said...

I'd have to concur with Serena, Monday ate the spam. Yikes.

Anonymous said...

Galan I dont' know if you have heard but Dr. John has passed away. You can visit my post here. It is a sad day for many. Rest In Peace Dr. John. Here is the post from his wife Betty

inappropriatesue said...

Dr John passed away? I'm so sad right now. :(

GAB said...

ok Ive given up and will comment again lol. Can you say "lurking" as Ive said before I love spam (the meat kind) As a kid when we drove from MN to Sd to visit my grandma and uncle dad would have mom make spam sandwiches. I once told my grandma I wanted spam and she had no idea what spam was but she introduced me to squirt. she also showed me how to put a bottle of pop in the snow and the lid would pop off when it froze.

I myself have never been to Hawaii but Mr gab was stationed there when he was in the Army. He keeps telling me he's gonna take me. So far we've been to the Bahamas twice

Unknown said...

I just took out some luncheon meat out
and thought I would fried them
with eggs and onions!
Luncheon meat is a kind of Spam, right?

Wonderfully written.
I enjoyed the information and
was truly entertained.

Initially, I was thinking
that it could be a very long
and boring post.
You proved me wrong and
I am so happy, over SPAM! LOL

Have you a great week.

hugs
shakira

Brian Miller said...

as emergency rations only in this house...lol.

Mona said...

Spam must be ham gone sour

Thank God I do not get much Spam...except once I got a lot from one galen Haynes & that too for asking...

Ms Hen's said...

lol..so that is what the gelatin is.. lol. yuck.

Taste horrible. And actually fresh meat is less money.. so why is everyone keep buying it??

OOPS.. to each their own....not supposed to Judge..bad for the Ego.. I keep reading in my spiritual books. :)

Thanks for all these tidbits.

Oh by the way NYC does not all have area code 212... we got so many numbers that about 15 years ago or 20 years ago..they added 718... So only the 2 of NYC borough still use 212.. Manhattan and the Bronx.. Staten Island; Brooklyn; queens has 718..

Maybe even longer than 20 years ago.. gosh time flies..

Monkey Man said...

We love spam at he Monkey Man household. Cut real thin and fried like bacon. Spam sushi too.

Shadow said...

oh yeah, i forgot about this spam. must say, i like it better than the other kind...

Evalinn said...

Thank you for keeping enlightening us! (Is that how you spell it??)

Akelamalu said...

I love Spam.

I just read Thom's comment - I can't believe Dr. John has passed away - that's just so sad. :(

JStar said...

Nice :) I hate me some Spam tho...Growing up dirt poor and having only Spam to eat and that was on a good day...Not a fan at all ...

lady macleod said...

Wow, that's quite enlightening. I had no idea what Spam was (other than the internet kind for I am a geek). I like having little factoids like this stored away in my brain for you never know when you will be caught at a party with nothing to say!

Susan at Stony River said...

Mmmmm, Spam! It's expensive here like it's a luxury item or something, go figure -- but looking on the ingredients list, it has a *lot* more meat in it per pound than the local sausages, which are often only about 60% (bleugh!).

I always have wondered about the Polynesian fixation for Spam, who knows why? LOL

clean and crazy said...

i couldn't bring myself to eat spam, i cannot believe it is tuesday already. i need to post

secret agent woman said...

Even back in my meat-eating days, I wouldn't consider eating spam. That's some revolting stuff.

the walking man said...

Galen...Coincidentally I am spamming all of my near and dear metro area friends with this No eyes, lips, ears, snouts, brains, any any other gross pig parts only people.

Jessie said...

SPAM -- wouldn't touch it!
lol

buffalodick said...

I was in a Spam cook off once- made Scotch eggs with Spam instead of sausage..wouldn't stay together, but tasted pretty good...

Lulda Casadaga said...

OK... Mr. Spamalot I came out of my wintery cave to comment. I sometimes will have a strange impulse to buy a can of the spam.
I was really excited to see they have a jalapeno version. I suppose it's due to the large Hispanic population here. :D

Fireblossom said...

I love Spam! I also like Velveeta, so I guess I am in no danger of being called a food snob!

Charlene Amsden said...

I just returned from a 3 year stint in Hawaii. I had the dubious honor of being on island when Spam celebrated its 50th birthday. It made the front page of the Honolulu Star Bulletin -- but only the paper one. The front page of the online edition never mentioned Spam at all.

Quilldancer.com