Spam is a canned precooked meat product made
by the Hormel Foods Corporation, first introduced
in 1937. 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, sugar, and sodium
nitrite as a preservative. Spam's gelatinous
glaze, or aspic, forms from the cooling of
meat stock.
The product has become part of many jokes
and urban legends about mystery meat, which
has made it part of pop culture and folklore.
Through a Monty Python sketch, in which Spam
is portrayed as ubiquitous and inescapable,
its name has come to be given to electronic
spam, especially spam email.
Name
Ken Daigneau, brother of a Hormel executive,
named the product in a 1937 contest and won
a $100 prize. Hormel claims that the meaning
of the name "is known by only a small circle
of former Hormel Foods executives", but popular
beliefs are that the name is an abbreviation
of "spiced ham" or "shoulders of pork and
ham".
During a webisode of "Cutthroat Kitchen: Alton's
After-Show", Alton Brown admitted "And we
always have a hard time discussing this product
on Food Network because it's a trademarked
name" and referred to it as "spiced ham."
Nutritional data
Spam is typically sold in cans with a net
weight of 340 grams. A 100-gram serving of
original Spam provides 1,300 kJ, 13 grams
of protein, 3 grams of carbohydrates, 27 grams
of total fat, including 10 grams of saturated
fat. The cholesterol content of Spam is 70
milligrams. A serving also contains 57% of
the recommended daily intake of sodium. Spam
provides the following vitamins and minerals:
1% vitamin C, 1% calcium, 5% iron, 3% magnesium,
9% potassium, 12% zinc, and 5% copper.
Varieties
There are several different flavors of Spam
products, including:
Spam Classic – original flavor
Spam Hot & Spicy – with Tabasco flavor
Spam Jalapeño
Spam Black Pepper
Spam Less Sodium – "25% less sodium"
Spam Lite – "33% fewer calories, 25% less
sodium, and 50% less fat" – made from pork
shoulder meat, ham, and mechanically separated
chicken
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 Teriyaki
Spam Chorizo
Spam Tocino
In addition to the variety of flavors, Spam
is sold in tins smaller than the twelve-ounce
standard size. Spam Singles are also available,
which are single sandwich-sized slices of
Spam Classic or Lite, sealed in retort pouches.
International usage
As of 2003, Spam was sold in 41 countries
on six continents and trademarked in over
100 countries. In 2007, the seven billionth
can of Spam was sold.
United States and territories
In the United States in the aftermath of World
War II, a troupe of former servicewomen was
assembled by Hormel Foods to promote Spam
from coast to coast. The group was known as
the Hormel Girls and associated the food with
being patriotic. In 1948, two years after
its formation, the troupe had grown to 60
women with 16 forming an orchestra. The show
went on to become a radio program where the
main selling point was Spam. The Hormel Girls
were disbanded in 1953. Spam is still quite
popular in the United States, but is sometimes
associated with economic hardship because
of its relatively low cost.
On average, each person on Guam consumes 16
tins of Spam each year and consumption is
similar in Hawaii and the Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands. These areas
have the only McDonald's restaurants that
feature Spam on the menu. 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 after 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 when it was served for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner. Soldiers commonly referred
to Spam as "Special Army Meat" due to its
introduction during the war. 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.
The residents of the state of Hawaii consume
the most Spam per capita in the United States.
Hawaiian Burger King restaurants began serving
Spam in 2007 to compete with the local McDonald's
chains. In Hawaii, Spam is so popular it is
sometimes referred to as "The Hawaiian Steak".
One popular Spam dish in Hawaii is Spam musubi,
where cooked Spam is combined with rice and
nori seaweed and classified as onigiri.
The perception of Spam in Hawaii is very different
from that on the mainland. Despite the large
number of mainlanders who consume 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's food". In Hawaii, similar canned
meat products such as Treet are considered
cheaper versions of canned meat than Spam.
This is a result of Spam having the initial
market share and its name sounding more convincing
to consumers.
In these locales, varieties of Spam unavailable
in other markets are sold. These include Honey
Spam, Spam with Bacon, and Hot and Spicy Spam.
In the CNMI, lawyers from Hormel have threatened
legal action against the local press for running
articles alleging ill-effects of high Spam
consumption on the health of the local population.
Spam that is sold in North America, South
America, and Australia is produced in Austin,
Minnesota and in Fremont, Nebraska. Austin,
Minnesota has a restaurant with a menu devoted
exclusively to Spam, called "Johnny's SPAMarama
Menu".
In 1963, Spam was introduced to various private
and public schools in South Florida as cheap
food and even for art sculptures. Due to the
success of the introduction, Hormel Foods
also introduced school "color-themed" spam.
The first being a blue and green variety which
is still traditionally used in some private
schools of South Florida.
Sandwich de Mezcla is a party staple in Puerto
Rico containing Velveeta, Spam, and pimientos.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, Spam is often sliced,
battered and deep-fried into Spam fritters.
It was common in the 1940s, during World War
II, as a consequence of rationing and the
Lend-Lease Act, when Hormel began to increase
production for British and Russian markets.
After World War II, Newforge Foods, part of
the Fitch Lovell group, was awarded the licence
to produce the product in the UK, where it
stayed until production switched to the Danish
Crown Group in 1998, forcing the closure of
the Liverpool factory and the loss of 140
jobs. 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 Scottish 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.
Spam was featured in a 1970 Monty Python sketch
called "Spam", set in a cafe which only served
dishes containing spam, and whose menu ran
to such items as "spam, sausage, spam, spam,
bacon, spam, tomato and spam". In the 1990s,
this led to the adoption of the term "email
spam" to refer to unwanted electronic junk
mail whose quantity can overwhelm genuine
messages.
Asia
In China, Spam is an increasingly popular
food item, and often used in sandwiches. Hormel
has had a joint-venture in Shanghai for 16
years which has been highly successful in
promoting Spam. In 2005, its Chinese division
was one of the most profitable parts of the
company. This development is due, in part,
to the increasing per capita income in Shanghai,
coupled with the expansion of their food diet
toward more meat.
In Okinawa, Japan, the product is added into
onigiri alongside eggs, used as a staple ingredient
in the traditional Okinawan dish chanpurū,
and a Spam burger is sold by local fast food
chain Jef.
In Hong Kong, Spam is commonly served with
instant noodles and fried eggs, and is a popular
item in cha chaan teng. Spam is less popular
than Ma Ling Meats, its main competitor in
the Hong Kong processed meat market, although
recent controversies surrounding high salt
content in Ma Ling products may allow Spam
to gain market share.
In the Philippines, Spam may be eaten with
fried rice and eggs or as a sandwich with
pandesal. It is often eaten for breakfast.
During the rescue efforts after Typhoon Ondoy
in 2009, Hormel Foods donated over 30,000 pounds
of Spam to the Philippine National Red Cross.
In South Korea, Spam is popular in households
as an accompaniment to rice. A local television
advertisement claims that it is the tastiest
when consumed with white rice and gim. Spam
products currently being sold in Korea are
made with more high-quality ingredients than
other countries as the Korean manufacturer
took advantage of the name which gained its
popularity during and after the Korean War
as a smuggled or leaked ration and improved
it over time as the country became richer.
Because of this, Spam in Korea tastes different
from the ones sold in other countries, and
is a relatively expensive product compared
to its competitors in Korea. Spam is also
an original ingredient in budae jjigae, 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 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. Because of a scarcity
of fish and other traditional kimbap products
such as kimchi or fermented cabbage, Spam
was added to a rice roll with kimchi and cucumber
and wrapped in seaweed. Spam was also used
by US soldiers in Korea as a means of trading
for items, services or information around
their bases. Spam is also remarkably popular
to a majority of the population, and outranks
Coca-Cola and KFC in status as a foodstuff.
Today, South Korea produces and consumes more
Spam than any other country except the United
States.
In Israel, a kosher variant of Spam, known
as Loof, was produced by Richard Levi, and
mostly used as part of field rations by the
Israel Defense Forces. A Glatt kosher version
was also produced. It was phased out of field
rations during the early 2000s and was finally
removed from rations when production ceased
in 2009.
Spam celebrations
Spam is celebrated in Austin, Minnesota, home
to the Spam Museum. The museum tells the history
of the Hormel company, the origin of Spam,
and its place in world culture. Austin is
also the location of final judging in the
national Spam recipe competition. Competing
recipes are collected from winning submissions
at the top 40 state fairs in the nation.
Hawaii holds an annual 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, with the city allocating
US$1,500 for it.
Spamarama was a yearly festival held around
April Fool's Day in Austin, Texas. The theme
of Spamarama was a gentle parody of Spam,
rather than a straightforward celebration:
the event at the heart of the festival was
a Spam cook-off that originated as a challenge
to produce the most appetizing recipe for
the meat. The festival included light sporting
activities and musical acts, in addition to
the cook-off.
Spam was celebrated in an eponymous song by
Monty Python and in the parody song "Spam"
by Weird Al Yankovic.
See also
Advanced meat recovery methods
Breakfast food
Corned beef
Meat by-product
Pickled foods
Potted meat food product
Spamarama
Tushonka
References
External links
The official Spam web site
Spam – The Official UK website
The Book of Spam
More Spam Recipes
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
that blocks obnoxious emails.
Spam Again: Spam in WWII
Connolly, Kevin. "How the US cemented its
worldwide influence with Spam". BBC News online. 
