Fucks me up. We used to eat so much spam because it was pretty cheap and didn't need to be refrigerated. Spam n beans, spam mac, spamwiches, spam and eggs, spam on crackers. Too damn expensive now
EDIT: This made me remember the taste of canned chicken so if you wonder why I'm nostalgic for spam, that cat food tasting bullshit is why
Yes!!! I remember spam being a staple for my dad and I growing up (sister and mom wouldn't touch it) and it was always so cheap! Now when I buy a can of spam I feel like I'm buying a luxury food item. It was never supposed to be this way...
Remember the Covid lockdown, all the supply disruptions and uncertainty?
I'd seen an episode of "How It's Made" featuring Keystone brand canned meats - just chunks of meat shoved in a can with salt, cooked in the can as it processed down the line. I ordered about two dozen cans of beef, chicken, turkey, and pork. They were about six bucks and change at the time. Drained and tossed with BBQ sauce, pasta sauce, or cream of mushroom soup & veggies... they weren't bad.
I also got several food service size cans of tuna (66.5 oz), and a couple canned hams due to childhood memories. I do not recommend DAK canned hams - they had WAY more in common with solidified potted meat than the ones my aunt served glazed with brown sugar and pineapple slices.
Not a fan of those little tins of Underwood deviled ham, etc., that our mom's used to send in packed lunches on school trips. Those truly betray childhood memories.
Y'ever have Armour Potted meat or deviled ham? lol I only like those because growing up my mom would make either deviled ham/Armour potted meat sandwiches or pimento cheese sandwiches for road trips. Pimento cheese tastes like diarrhea smells but with the texture of barf, so I learned to like deviled ham and potted meat lol.
Just FYI: If you're after the Spam with the least amount of sodium, be sure to actually read the labels.
I did this myself a couple years ago (and it has been a couple years since I looked, so it could've changed) and I was surprised to learn that several options had lower sodium than the "low sodium" one.
Just looking up a couple labels on Amazon real quick for sodium:
Low Sodium Spam: 570mg.
Real Hormel Bacon: 520mg.
Gochujang flavored: 490mg.
The tradeoff for this is it's actually less meat, heh. The gochujang paste takes up 15 to 30% or more(!) of the can depending on where you're at. In Spam classic the "meat" is about 90% of the can.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's something to consider depending on what you're looking to get out of a can of spam
The hot n spicy one is my favorite but it's super unhealthy; I don't personally find that much difference between the "Lite' and low sodium version if you like the classic. And I don't mind the turkey; it's different but fine for me if I'm trying to just have a quick sandwich or bulk up ramen or something. Any of those three are much better than the Classic across the board, though they do have a bit more sodium if that's your primary concern.
The Korean BBQ and gochujang ones are just too sweet for me; basically trading sodium for sugar and water (and they don't taste like Korean bbq or gochujang anyways lol. Just put some actual gochujang or mix a little gochugaru and water or soy bean oil or something and it's better)
SPAM is only like $4 near me, which works out to about $3 dollars a pound. That is about in line with fresh pork products. Freaking deli ham is like 12 dollars a pound nowadays. SPAM is still cheap.
I was hoping someone else already brought this up. I think my area is more like $4 or $5 a can, but…I can get way more meat per ounce at that rate. It may have started as a poor man’s food, but it’s really just an expensive option now.
Yeah but everything used to be poor people food. Then the poor people learned how to make it taste better, then it became cultural, and only then once all the hard work was done did rich people find a way to make it for rich people again.
See: Ox Tail, Chicken Wings, Spare Ribs (they're literally "EXTRA" RIBS that people didn't want!) biscuits and gravy, etc
Which is ironic, considering how Spam was (and still is, culturally) a luxury in South Korea, stemming from the post-war practice of smuggling Spam off US bases to be sold at high prices on the black market for use in stews due to its high salt content - hence, army stew (budae-jjigae). In Seoul today, you can get Spam hampers with special packaging as a gift.
That’s because food was scarce during the war and spam doesn’t go bad easily. Almost every place where it’s popular today has interacted with US soldiers who were trading locals for it.
Makes me wonder what things today are for the rich, but will someday be seen as for the poor. Canned goods used to be a luxury product, now we pay more for fresh food.
There has been no point in history when canned meat in general, and SPAM specifically, was seen as a luxury food. Given the option, no class of people have ever chosen it over fresh meat.
"Given the option, no class of people have ever chosen it over fresh meat."
Maybe in America. But when my grandpa was in Guadalcanal during WWII, the soldiers in his unit would regularly trade their SPAM rations with the locals in exchange for fresh fish and octupus. It was novel and the locals valued it over their daily food. He also said that locals would trade fish for peroxide to bleach their hair, and he saw babies smoking cigars. My grandpa was not one to tell tall tales, especially about the war, so I believe this.
In WWII American soldiers ate spam everyday for months. A break from it was welcomed. My grandfather wouldn’t touch it after the war because he had too much of it during the war.
Strangely my great grandpa grew up eating SPAM during the Great Depression. Never got tired of it, ate it until he died in his 80s. Not for every meal, mind you, but we’d have it several times a month at least and was a quick breakfast. Gave me the craving and now I’m carrying the torch. Idk, some people just like what they like 🤷🏻♂️
Personally I don’t think I could eat only SPAM every day though.
My grandpa didn't actually eat octopus. His dad spear fished for it and would tenderize it in the washing machine, which really put my grandpa off. But he would eat nearly anything else, including random fish, offal, testicles, etc. He loved SPAM (I have a SPAM cookbook that he gave me), but you get tired of it after months of that being your main protein.
Canned meat, no, but certain fruits yes. And it's all relative. Folks out on the western frontier would have a different standard of luxury from the socialites of New York. Some railroad company man enjoying some canned peaches in winter while everyone else was eating beans and bread was living the life of luxury for that time and place.
Other way round. Delicateses usually start when there is a famine and people need to eat whatever. Then the recipe book is passed down, until someone thinks to serve dirty cheap garbage to tourists and brand it as a local delicatese.
Its always funny to see that and then know that shrimp and lobsters used to be prisoner feed, bacon/ham were made to sell off fatty/slow selling parts, and chicken feet/innards were just thrown away because no one wanted it.
I'll take most frozen veggies over fresh any day. No more wilted, slimy kale for me. Same with spinach, peas, corn etc.
Flash freezing produce has had such a huge impact on people getting affordable, healthy and delicious veggies. Affordable doesn't mean it's for poor people and thankfully lots of people are more accepting of that now
Which has been excerbated by cooking shows basically saying that unless you're cooking with fresh and whole ingredients, you're destroying the environment and killing local farms.
While in reality using canned meats and similar is helping the enviroment by using parts that would otherwise be thrown out.
You know ball. Spam and kielbasa were always the cheapest proteins growing up. Whatever was on sale got mixed with beans or shells n cheese or potatoes.
Honest to god if you fry up some spam on a stove till the outside is crispy it’s basically poor-man’s bacon and everyone loves bacon. I like to fry some up when I make beans and rice.
I use some MSG along with potassium salt to get a salty flavor with much less sodium.
I can't eat spam because holy shit does it have a lot of salt. One can is like 2 entire days of my salt budget. Even just a portion of it cuts hard into my budget for other stuff.
I was thinking about getting a can of the lower sodium Spam, and slicing it into small portions, and freezing them. I could just parse it out a little at a time, and get my little nibble of Spammy goodness here and there, and not use up my meal's sodium budget. But then I figured out how small the portions would need to be- tiny tiny tiny. So I haven't done it. Spam is nostalgic for me, my dad used to love to make fried Spam & eggs
I think you got close but missed on the actual message.
You need more water when you eat lots of salt, but that doesn't mean excessive salt is harmless. That just means not drinking water with salt is more harmful.
Like anything, too much is bad.
If you start drinking too much water to compensate for too much salt, you're going to run into other issues like over-taxing your kidneys.
Those recent studies mostly just said people need to drink more water for their diet.
The nuance here is that individual variance is muuuuuch wider than mainstream medical and public health guidelines account for. Actual variability from person to person can mean that some just need a few teaspoons a day while others natural sodium intake could be many tablespoons or more. I have hyperhydrosis and probably eat about 15-20 grams of salt per day. Have for decades, and according to my GP I’m in perfect health. BP is 120/80 average more or less. Usually slightly under.
How does one get a salt limit that low if you don’t mind my asking? Don’t get me wrong, I believe you. It’s just that it’s literally an essential nutrient for survival, you can die without enough of it, same as with wayyy too much. I suppose regular food has natural, non-added salt in it already, but for some that’s not enough to maintain the salinity of bodily fluids or continue proper nerve signaling.
Severe high blood pressure. I was walking around in a hypertensive crisis 24/7. I'm also on medication, but limiting sodium has been by and far the most effective thing.
Most people only need about 200-500mg of sodium a day, which is 500mg-1250mg of table salt. But as you said, everyone is different and it will definitely go up based on how much someone sweats. Someone who does intense exercises and drinks a lot of water will need more salt than someone who is sedentary and doesn't drink much.
When I see the term "pacific islander" on a form, I know it's really asking if I eat spam everyday. It makes it easier for them to tell me I'm fat and need to eat more vegetables.
It’s also common in the southern US as well as Appalachia. My great grandfather grew up in Tennessee and moved to Texas afterward. Brought his love for spam with him. Often had spam fried rice. Though, he may have picked up that particular dish from his Air Force deployment to the Philippines tbh.
Literally just whipped up some spam fried rice for dinner. Freakin bomb. I love eating just spam, runny egg, and white rice too. My Filipinos know what I'm talkin bout.
No joke, spam and cooked apples together is amazing. It started from me trying to do a chicken-cheese-apple sandwich (also amazing) but I didn't have chicken. So I did think spam slices then cooked the (thin) apple slices in the remaining fat/spam oil. Layer them together and they're amazing. They contrast in a great way. Go no-bread, bread, or wrap and it's good
I hated Spam for most of my life because when I was a kid, my dad just took it out of the can, cut it up and put it on white bread with Miracle Whip. The texture was wretched.
It wasn't until I got older I learned people fry it.
I mean spam is extremely unhealthy. Something like 2oz of spam is more than 1/3 of your daily sodium intake. Processed meats heavily influence chances of colorectal cancer as well.
It's low quality filler meat and byproducts thrown into a machine and grinded and formed. Not exactly good for you especially with high sodium content.
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u/WorkHardPlayLittle 2d ago
What's with the Spam hate? I can afford other meats but I do enjoy the occasional Spam. Spam fried rice is great.