When Only Slabs of Pink, Jellied Byproduct Will Do (Koreans love Spam)

The LA Times ^ | October 15, 2005 | Barbara Demick, Times Staff Writer

[eleni121]

According to author of The Happy Isles of Oceania, Paul Theroux, SPAM is immensely popular in the South Pacific because it reminds the natives of human meat. After all their ancestors were until recently cannibals.

I hate the stuff because Hormel makes it. I do not buy an Hormel products.

[blam]

"Bulgogi..... Yummm."

Yup. That's the one for me. Can't get enough.

I've read that the Russian army wouldn't have made it through the second half of WW-2 without American spam.

[bad company]

Spam on rye bread with mustard and potato chips crushed by the top slice ... perfection ... followed by a huge glass of milk.

Ooooooh. That sounds good. Chunked in my mac and cheese. Run through the blender with pickles and mayo for a sandwich spread. I love my spam.

[eleni121]

See post 21.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

UGH, ;>(

[castlebrew]

we had a patrol in our Scout troop that had Spam for all their meals one weekend. Needless to say, it banned after that...

[eleni121]

I do not buy an Hormel products. ________________________________________________

Should be: I do not buy ANY Hormel products.

[nk_47]

My mom's great version of the Egg McMuffin includes a thin Spam slice. Hawaii's Spam musubi rocks as well.

I still love the theory of the name: Ham that didn't pass its physical.

[satchmodog9]

Fried cubed spam with baked beans. Good stuff. My wife is so horrified I eat that. I keep telling her that people from Iowa have no room to talk about other peoples eating habits.

[SAJ]

Making a 'corned' beef is very cheap and simple, too, provided you don't want to eat it today or tomorrow. Even if you start with beef scraps instead of a full cut, it's trivial to make **very** tasty corned beef (and, by extension, corned beef hash) for a fraction of the cost of buying canned corned beef.

'Corning' is just an old-fashioned term for slow-brining beef in heavily salted vinegar, along with whichever spices and other goodies you prefer. Use fresh diced onion, certainly. Fresh garlic, generally. Thyme is always good for corning, and if you can add some juniper berries (esp. for corning pork btw), you should. Whole allspice berries, if at all possible, and cracked full peppercorns, too.

Naturally, the quantity of any of these depends on the amount of meat with which you begin. I daresay Google can show you some recipes for corning.

Tip: if corning scrap meat, that is, bits with fat that you didn't want to serve for whatever reason, plus the odd chunk of leftover, **do** decrease the amounts of salt, vinegar, and spice(s) that you use. The object is to enhance the flavour of the meat w/o overwhelming it.

Now, if you're going to cook a pre-corned beef from your butcher, or the grocer, things work a bit differently. Cook it down low and slow (any good butcher will tell you this when you buy the meat) -- high heat will de-flavour the meat to a degree you will find surprising. The key, however, with a pre-corned piece of meat, whether beef, pork, veal or whichever, is to spoon off a good deal of the fat that floats up.

Don't do it on my say-so, of course; hell's bells, spoon off the fat and **save** it for use in making stocks later. Removing some amount of the liquified fat as it floats to the top of the pot will make the cut firmer and far, far easier to slice when you take it out (I assume you will not be serving your corned beef to a latter-day Charles Laughton portraying Henry VIII...g!).

Buono appetito, and good corning (wonderful curing technique!)

[caryatid]

SPAM !

I do not know whether to hit REPORT ABUSE or just throw up!
LOL

My daddy would not allow it in the house after WWII ... and, once I was old enough to de-code his description Stuff on a Shingle I just could not bring myself to try it.

Did we just transfer this from LUCIANNE.COM??

[GB]

Spam, the food of the gods!

FYI, here's a good Spam Web site:

http://www.cusd.claremont.edu/~mrosenbl/spam.html

My mom actually used to glaze it and stud it with cloves when I was a kid, just like a prime ham. Great stuff.

I love it in sandwiches today ... as a kid I liked it with mustard, now I prefer mayo ... and my kids could eat their weight in it.

Kimchi is good stuff too!

[GB]

Spam is $1.97 a can at our local Wal-Mart Supercenter. I think canned ham is still a bit pricier.

FYI, I was a big deviled ham devotee as a kid as well. My mom used to scramble eggs and deviled ham together. Again, great stuff!

[TheSpottedOwl]

Mmmm, Bush's baked beans? Hey, I'm in CA, and I love the stuff! For some reason it tastes best eaten next to a campfire : )

[CARDINALRULES]

There is also Armour Treet - while not the same it's close enough when you fry it up. Costs $1 at W-M for 12oz can.

I prefer Spam when it isn't going to be cooked.

Good to have a few cans of both brands for those days you don't want to cook or forgot to thaw meat.

Good for when the power goes out and is a must for a survival kits in your house, bug-out bags and in your vehicle.

[skeptoid]

You are correct, sir! And the second State of Spam Consumption per Captia is .........Alaska! Try this link to the Mr Whitekeys Fly By Nite Club In Spenard (Anchorage) Alaska. Their motto is: "Rhythm and Blues; Spam and Booze" They got Spam desserts! And some good Spam links. RIP, Mr Whitekeys.

[B-Chan]

Spam? Never again.

B-Chan
Former MM3, USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65)

[B-Chan]

"I'll have your Spam. I love it!"

(Note: Not my actual opinion.)

[snowsislander]

Spam sushi:

[LibreOuMort]

I'll be right over!