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 ...
There are at least 3 of us. Spam, mustard, homemade wheat bread and a slice of garden onion was Sunday dinner for us once upon a time. I still like it.
Every word the truth...the war made us into thieves as well. I made a little cart out of some scrap wood and my bicycle wheels. Sis and I would leave the house at nightfall and go to the railway yards where we had made a little hole under the fence wire..too small for me but sis could get throught it.
She passed lumps of coal to me while I loaded and kept a lookout for the railway police...coal was rationed and a cart full would last us for about two weeks.
If we got caught we usually took a licking from the railway police..so we travelled the railway yards like black ghosts.
Trouble was soap was also in short supply and hot water had to be heated in a kettle over the fire..thereby burning some of the coal we we had pinched..;-)
We spent many weary hours twisting paper to make large spills...if we soaked these in water they would burn very slowly along with a lump of coal giving a fair heat.
Ah! happy days...NOT!
pssst: Men are actually allowed in grocery stores. I cannot imagine MY wife shopping for my food. I would starve to death!
Good question. I wonder if our young troops would try it.
Mmmmm
Carl Childers’ favorite
I tasted it once sauteed with olive oil & green onions and served it over rice. It wasn’t bad..
I agree. God help me, I love Spam!
I had heard that Hormel in an attemp to hold down costs had offloaded Spam production to China.
A regional favorite here in North Louisiana. To be properly prepared, place can on engine manifold (1973 Ford PU has ideal spot), drive at least 20 miles.
Serve on saltine crackers with either Nehi Orange or Grape.
Interesting thought - maybe you have something there, considering the recent run on ammunition. Perhaps people are making their own SPAMMO?
But, my parents did what they had to do back then, I guess.
I gotta send this to my kids under the heading "It coulda been worse!". Back in the Carter days I stocked up like mad with this stuff - 97c a can. Had a couple of cases "just in case" as I surely though the country would go to Hell.
Fast forward a couple of years and I figured I'd better use the stuff up. We took a 4-week holiday that boxed the Union - up from Oceanside, CA to Alberta, over to Prince Edward Is via the Trans-Canada, down to Disney World in Orlando, FL, then back West to home. Almost every meal we had, you guessed it, SPAM. The kids would start crying when they saw the can. Personally, I love the stuff fried, with anything, but the wife won't buy it and the 40+ "kids" act like Dracula and the Cross if I talk of it.
But seriously, I think people are worried about the future as I am, and are buying spam and canned hams and tuna, as I am, to have provisions for a disaster. Any kind of disaster - whether natural, bailout, or Obama caused.
I like Span sandwiches, but can’t afford them at the going rate of $3.20 per pound.
So I buy a complete smoked ham on sale for $.79 to .$99 per pound and make do.
Why in the world is this canned meat scrap dish so expensive?
Because you can buy Spam when you have money and it will still be around if you don’t have any money?
Personally I prefer those cans of Corned Beef Hash over Spam, they are a bit cheaper and taste better to me.
These days its more expensive to be poor...Bush's fault in case you haven't heard.
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