So what is Spam, really?
What's it made of?
And how on earth did it become so beloved?
Keep watching as we debunk the most widespread myths about the mysterious canned meat.
"What is your Spam fixation?"
These days, a fear of processed food of all kinds seems to dominate the foodie world.
It's true that processed food isn't all that great for you, with studies showing the host
of health risks linked to consuming a diet rich in ultra-processed foods.
And processed meat specifically has been classed as a Group 1 carcinogen, or something known
to cause cancer, by the World Health Organization.
That said, just because a food is processed doesn't mean it's mysterious: the contents
of a can of Spam are in no way a secret.
Spam's ingredients list, according to Hormel Foods, is actually relatively short, with
just six items.
The most important is pork, but contrary to what you might suspect, it's not scrap meat
or castoffs.
LiveScience notes, the pork in Spam hails from the pork shoulder — a cut rich in fat
and flavor.
To the pork shoulder are added five other ingredients: salt, water, potato starch - to
bind everything together - sugar, and sodium nitrate - a preservative that keeps the ham
fresh and, well, shelf-stable.
The ingredients are packed together and cooked in the cans, making Spam a ready-to-eat product
that's quick, easy, and delicious.
And mystery meat free.
With such a simple ingredients list of just six items, it doesn't seem like there's much
room to toy with the flavor of Spam.
But it turns out that "Classic" is just one of a whopping 15 different varieties that
the brand has rolled out.
Spam brand manager Nicole Behne told Eater that was in hopes to, quote, "jazz up our
Spam a little bit."
Alternative options range from Spam flavored with anything from jalapeño to teriyaki sauce.
There's Spam with Tabasco, dubbed "Hot & Spicy," and Spam with black pepper.
There are even Spam alternatives for dietary concerns, like a Lite version and one with
less sodium, and Spam products made with other meats, like real Hormel bacon or oven-roasted
turkey.
Spam also comes in convenient to-go packs.
While Spam was certainly a popular Army ration, it was not invented for this purpose.
Indeed, the very first can of Spam was made in 1937 and therefore predates the onset of
World War II by a few years.
According to LiveScience, Spam was Jay Hormel's way of marketing the then-underused shoulder
portion of hogs, and it was originally conceived, not for soldiers, but for busy housewives.
But just because it wasn't invented for this purpose doesn't mean that its popularity as
an Army ration didn't contribute to its renown.
Indeed, according to TIME, housewives were hesitant to buy Spam at first, but during
World War II, over 100 million cans were shipped to troops in the Pacific, where, thanks to
its long shelf life, it became immensely popular among soldiers and locals alike.
While it may not have been the motivation behind its invention, then, James Schend,
the food editor at Taste of Home, tod Hormel Foods that,
"[World War II] cemented Spam's place in the culinary world."
While Spam was indeed invented in the U.S., it has become beloved all over the world,
in part thanks to its prevalence during World War II.
According to TIME, it remains popular in areas where American soldiers were stationed, such
as Guam and the Philippines.
It was even enjoyed in postwar Soviet Russia, where it was sent in aid packages.
Former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev wrote this in his memoir "Khrushchev Remembers,"
"There were many jokes going around in the army, some of them off-color, about American
Spam; it tasted good, nonetheless.
Without Spam, we wouldn't have been able to feed our army.
We had lost our most fertile lands."
In South Korea, meanwhile, while Spam first arrived with troops during the Korean War,
finding its way into fusion staples like budae jjigae, literally, army base stew.
Today, the product has taken on a connotation of glamour, according to the New York Times.
Im So-ra a saleswoman at Seoul's high-end Lotte Department Store told the outlet,
"Here, Spam is a classy gift you can give to people you care about during the holiday,"
Today, South Korea is the largest consumer of Spam outside of the U.S., where, one local
fan told the Times,
"It goes marvelously well with kimchi and rice."
Contrary to popular belief, Spam is not made in Hawaii, but it's easy to understand the
confusion.
According to TIME, Hawaii is by far the biggest consumer of Spam in the U.S., thanks to World
War II military presence there.
Today, Spam has become huge in local Hawaiian cuisine.
It's especially featured in staple dishes as Spam musubi, a Hawaiian play on Japanese
onigiri that features a slab of cooked Spam on rice with nori, and an apparent favorite
of President Barack Obama, National Geographic reports.
Spam also features in loco moco, where, according to Eater, it appears alongside rice, a burger
patty, and a fried egg for a triple threat of protein.
And it can be used, too, in fried rice, omelets, and more.
According to National Geographic, Hawaiians consume about 5 million pounds of Spam a year
— about six cans per capita, and more than anyone else in the U.S. Hawaii even hosts
a yearly festival in Waikiki — Spam Jam Hawaii — in honor of the beloved canned
meat.
It might be tempting to assume that Spam the canned meat and spam the junk email are coincidentally
the same word, but the latter was actually derived from the former — much to the disappointment
of Hormel.
It all started with a Monty Python sketch from 1970.
"Ah, don't make a fuss, dear.
I'll have your spam.
I love it!
I'm having spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, and spam."
The scene shows two diners facing off with a Spam-focused menu, where the canned meat
product was depicted an "inescapable annoyance," reported Gothamist.
According to ​​Digital Trends, this reference was embraced in the multi-user dungeon community
in the 80s, when people started using "spam" to describe the equally annoying practice
of flooding databases or chats with useless text.
This meaning found its way into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1998, and has been relevant
since then.
Of course Hormel, the maker of Spam, wasn't thrilled with the word association.
Rick Williamson, Manager of External Communications for Hormel Foods, told Digital Trends,
"While the association of our product with the internet or e-mail 'spam,' including images,
is in no way related, we strive to maintain a sense of humor around our iconic brand and
enjoy consumers' fun-loving appreciation of it."
The question of Spam's name was once plagued by retroactive interpretation.
Some would have you believe that Spam is an acronym for "scientifically processed animal
matter," and while that's kind of an accurate description, Eater reports that it's pure
urban legend.
So is the description of it as "Shoulder of Pork and Ham," but this is also not the true
origin of the word.
According to inventor Jay Hormel, Eater reports, Spam was a portmanteau of the words "spice"
and "ham" and was coined by Kenneth Daigneau, an actor and the brother of a Hormel Vice
President.
While Spam contains neither spice nor ham, the name stuck, and the rest is history.
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