Thoughts on SPAM "meat"

[Loyalist Dave]

Well I was buying supplies for the Ft. Frederick Market Fair, and this year I cut back on my cooler size, as well as the size of a lot of my gear. I have a new camp box that holds two "six packer" Styrofoam coolers. One is for perishables and the other for drinking ice or beverages. That way IF something of the food leaks, it doesn't contaminate all of my ice. :wink: Also if one of my Styrofoam coolers, protected by the wooden box, was damaged or crapped-up from something, I wouldn't be "out" of all my cold storage and replacing them is simple at the local 7-Eleven.

So, I found bacon was $4.00 for ½ pound, and of course I'd need to keep it in a cooler. Pre-cooked bacon was $3.50 for 2½ ounces, but no cooler needed. 6 Hormel canned ham patties ran $3.50. But SPAM was $2.50 for 12 ounes, and it too is canned.

I handn't had SPAM since the 1970's, So I bought a couple of cans to try. On Saturday morning I opened one of the SPAM.., it was SPAM with Bacon (because there ain't enough nitrates in SPAM as it is) and I sliced it thin. THEN I boiled it. It's "edible" right out of the can, but I figured it's sort of a modern version of salt-pork. I boiled it to pull out a lot of the salt. This worked well, and I then browned it up in a skillet with some olive oil. My daughter pronounced it, "Not bad as a substitute for bacon". It went well with biscuits and eggs.

A 12 ounce container is mostly "meat" as it's not packaged with as much liquid as say, the Hormel ham patties, and it takes up less space. It's supposed to be 6 servings, and you can get enough slices to fill a dozen biscuits. So if you have limited ice, limited room in a cooler, or no ice at an event, I'd say it's not a bad option at all.

I also tried the other can which I had bought. It was their "lower sodium" SPAM, which I opened whenI got home. Again I boiled the SPAM first then fried it up, although this time it was diced and added to mashed 'taters. This was good too, and SPAM I found also comes with a "turkey" version for folks wanting to stay away from red meats.

So..., one might re-think SPAM if one hasn't had so much of it in the past that they are anti-spam.

Then there is this on SPAM from Monty Python

LD

 

[Black Hand]

With all the delicious food that could be brought to an event, you settle on Spam? :wink:
90-95% of my rations are dried and I carry fresh meat, bacon & sausages in a small cooler when at an event. Period ingredients for period meals, and we never go hungry.

When in the woods, I carry fresh meat and bacon - both which will last for several days without any refrigeration. I usually hang my cloth meat-bag in the shade from a tree branch.

Please explain your Spam motivation further so I may understand better...

 

[hawkeye2]

I'm glad that you put meat in quotation marks when referring to Spam. :grin: I can think of no reason to have continued to can spam since WW2 ended. Post apocalypse I expect the only thing left on the shelves of the devastated grocery stores will be cans of Spam.

 

[Coot]

Perhaps a quick google on "cargo cult" will help understand the appeal of SPAM. :wink:

 

[Einsiedler]

Was conversing on a movie set one time with a gentleman from Yorkshire. Who jokingly admitted he thought it quite the coincidence that as a boy, they received their first introduction to SPAM at the same time the British Army did away with their mounted cavalry units! 😁

 

[Rifleman1776]

With all the delicious food that could be brought to an event, you settle on Spam?

Have to agree.
Would bring fresh meat in my burlap disguised cooler and cook over the fire. Kept cool, fresh meat will easily last the life of a ronny.
Or, you could go out and kill a fresh buff every day. :shocked2: :wink:

 

[BillinOregon]

A friend calls Spam "lipsysnouts," but in fact it is mostly pork shoulder.
We used to take slices of Spam, wrap with Velveeta then coat the whole mess with Bisquick dough and fry over a fire in Boy Scouts. Eating these insufficiently cooked amalgamations, liberally sprinkled with ash and fir needles, was considered to be living in tall cotton.

:youcrazy:

 

[Black Hand]

We used to take slices of Spam, wrap with Velveeta then coat the whole mess with Bisquick dough and fry over a fire in Boy Scouts. Eating these insufficiently cooked amalgamations, liberally sprinkled with ash and fir needles, was considered to be living in tall cotton.

Ah, yes - fond memories of things eaten at Scout camp. I still don't eat Bologna.... :barf:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I'm glad that you put meat in quotation marks when referring to Spam

Well this was sorta a quick statement on going with less, and if you don't have ice so no cooler, and since SPAM is man made meat, this is in the gear section instead of camp cooking.

While very true there are all sorts of great camp food to make, again this is more for the "I need something simple and quick that follows modern breakfast of ham & eggs, while not needing ice" theme. :haha: IF I'm making something special, for breakfast I'm making Scotch Eggs and in the Dutch Oven I'm doing yeast bread rolls, of course with real butter. :wink:

LD

 

[BillinOregon]

Dave, I have tried to make Scotch eggs and all I end up with is a big mess. Care to share your technique -- maybe in the cooking forum?
Black Hand, once every couple of years, I buy some bologna and a loaf of nutrient-free white balloon bread and using iceberg lettuce and Miracle Whip, I make a circa-1965 bologna sammich, which I then carefully wrap in waxed paper to simulate the way Mom made me a lunch for school. It's kind of fun to reminisce this way, with the lettuce sticking to the roof of your mouth just like it did in grade school.

Dave, sorry for the hijack!

 

[Black Hand]

While very true there are all sorts of great camp food to make, again this is more for the "I need something simple and quick that follows modern breakfast of ham & eggs, while not needing ice" theme.

How about ham and eggs?

Modern ham (and period ham) from the store contains so much salt & nitrates/nitrites that a few days without refrigeration would hardly be a concern (for me). I'd still get bacon, double-smoked (no refrigeration needed) if you have the choice, though commercial bacon is preserved much as ham and will keep. Eggs will keep days/weeks at room temperature.

 

[necchi]

"I need something simple and quick that follows modern breakfast of ham & eggs, while not needing ice"

Then the stuff is perfect.
Skip the boiling part, slice it and fry with the eggs.
Looks like public isn't allowed until 9am.
So if you open the can in your tent and make a quick breakfast out of it early enough, I don't think your camp neighbors or the Dog Soldiers are going to complain.
If someone hassles ya, just tell'm it's "Mincemeat".

 

[nhmoose]

I cannot believe you boiled the spam. YUKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Actually, I tried a small piece before I fried it up. It simply tasted like soggy SPAM.
:idunno:

Black Hand is right, a dry cured ham won't spoil, BUT where I am I didn't feel like buying a dry cured ham when spending $2.50 for a can, that if I don't open it simply goes home to the shelf, was more appealing.

I'm Scottish, you see....,

LD

 

[Black Hand]

I'm Scottish, you see....

As am I, but life is too short to eat Spam instead of bacon....:wink:

 

[coloradoclyde]

Spam Dave!... :shocked2: .......I'm revoking your culinary merit badge.... :haha:

In in odd way it does kind of qualify as potted meat....but I would have made my own....

 

[Black Hand]

To clarify, I am not opposed to Spam, having eaten it in the past (fried). I still prefer bacon...

 

[tenngun]

Since you do have a box you could make your own salt pork in a mall batch or corned beef.
Soak a pice of salt pork over night, then in the morning roll in some crushed ships bread and fry in butter. It ain't bacon, but it's good stuff.
Turkey foot traders sells dry cured bacon in two pound slabs. Last for at least a year, it's only $5 or so per pound. Soak for an hour before frying it is tasty, I prefer it cooked in peas or beans, or boiled then hashed with potatoes and onion. You can just toss it in your haversack or market wallet. At last resort you can drop it in a sock with a 1/4 pound of ships bread and use it as a black jack, then when the fights over make dinner :haha:

 

[coloradoclyde]

Here's a how-to video....
https://youtu.be/FOvAMWupNcs

 

[Black Hand]

Turkey foot traders sells dry cured bacon in two pound slabs.

I bought a slab which came wrapped in butcher paper and packaged inside a burlap sack. Unfortunately, the bacon tasted like burlap and most of the slab is still in my utility room...