..woohoo, fried with just a touch of mustard on a toasted onion roll...it will hold you over
Posted on 12/07/2008 8:07:40 AM PST by vietvet67
In times of trouble the United States has historically turned to a tin of pink processed meat to see it through – and so it is again that sales of Spam are soaring as the recession bites.
They have shot up by more than 10 per cent in the past three months and the Hormel Foods Corporation has had to introduce a double shift at its factory in Austin, Minnesota, seven days a week to keep up with demand.
Spam costs only about $2.40 (£1.65) for a 12-ounce tin and keeps for ever, which earned it the slogan: meat with a pause button. Hungry consumers, desperate to cut back on spending but keen to put meat on the table, have been buying the product that “helped win the Second World War”.
The rise coincides with a record level of Americans using food stamps, the programme that helps the needy to buy food. More than 31.5 million Americans used the stamps in September – up by 17 per cent from a year ago, according to government data.
Spam was invented during the Great Depression by Jay Hormel, the son of the founder of the company. It is a brick of ham, pork, sugar, salt, water, potato starch and a hint of sodium nitrite “to help Spam keep its gorgeous pink color”.
Austin advertises itself as Spam-town and it boasts 13 restaurants with Spam on the menu. Johnny’s Spamarama menu includes eggs benedict with Spam for $7.35.
Employees are working flat out and next door the slaughter house butchers 19,000 pigs a day. “People are realising it’s not that bad a product,” said Dan Johnson, 55, who operates a 70ft (20m) oven in the factory.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Spam is emergency chow, I’ve had Spam with pineapples and sweet and sour sauce and it was quite good, but I’d hate to live on the stuff.
This being Dec. 7th, I should mention I had an uncle who was on Guadalcanal during the battle for the island, all they had was Spam, and Pineapples to eat, when the war was over he never would touch either of them again.
..woohoo, fried with just a touch of mustard on a toasted onion roll...it will hold you over
When I left the service, I swore I would never eat Spam again. To this day, I haven’t.
I cannot buy the stuff. My hubby and his 4 brothers and sisters were raised by a tyrant Dad who forced them to eat spam and sauerkraut.
Downright abuse that was.
I never realized there were that many people on food stamps.
Ever had the Spam with Tobasco in it? Good stuff, that. And the Spam with bacon... Pork Fat Rules!
Had spam with ketchup on rye in my lunch-bag more than a few times in elementary school.
Good stuff!
Looking at the prices of Spam, it isn’t that cheap. There are number of cheaper alternatives that keep just as long as Spam.
19,000 pigs a day!? I find that hard to believe. That would be quite a site to see though.
By comparison, I just priced fresh pork and fresh ground beef and they come out to $2.88 a pound and $2.24 a pound respectively. Even cheaper is poultry, which comes out to less than a dollar a pound if you buy it whole. An advantage to buying chickens (or turkeys) whole is that you can make soup out of it, further stretching your food dollar, which our family has done many times.
http://www.spam.com/
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Suasage, eggs, and Spam.....That’s not got much Spam in it. Should give it a try ;)
I can’t possible be the only old man who can remember when a can of Spam represented the best meal we’d had in weeks.
Fried it up and had a sandwich. Yeap, just as good as I remembered.
Slice Spam, fry it, butter bread for grilled cheese, add Spam, slice of cheese and a slice of tomato, grill. Love it !
Whats going on is the story writers are writing what their bosses want them too.
Nothing good is permitted. They should rename all the networks and papers to the Doomsday Channel.
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