Spam for survival food ?

As Codger-64 says; it was developed as a USA soldier ration during WWII. In Canada there is a version of this called Kam (same keyed tin and similar ingredients) and I noticed the Ojibway-Cree Natives of northern Ontario (in around James Bay/Hudson Bay) pack this stuff with them all the time when they're out on the land. Sliced and warmed in a fry pan and eaten with bannock (native version of non-yeast bread) and accompanied by a steaming mug of tea. Considered standard trail fare because I found the empty cans everywhere along snowmobile trails and beachheads during the 3/4 year I lived up there as a school teacher. You can similarly buy tins of Brazilian corned beef for packing with you on hikes. I've personally always been a sucker for cans of sardines on hikes and trips but that requires packing along some bread or buns too.
 
Crackers will do it. Instant noodles were a camping staple of mine when I still backpacked.
 
baldtaco-II said:
There's some fermented fish stuff they have in Iceland that really stinks. Apparently it is a delicacy. I think I'd have to be telling myself a terrible perversion of the actuality to get much of that down.
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Kind of like surströmming. NSFW (foul food and foul language)
[video=youtube;xgV2imaOCao]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgV2imaOCao[/video]

On topic... store what you eat, eat what you store. For backpacking foods I want something light weight and simple to prepare. For home supplies canned goods are adequate. If you like the taste of spam go for it, but do test it before you buy a years supply. :)
 
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In the thirties, the meat packing industry was still under the cloud cast by The Jungle. The public was horrified by descriptions of unsanitary packing conditions and tubercular beef. Sinclair Lewis later wrote, “I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” In 1937, Hormel developed Spam as a healthy alternative. “Nothing in here but pork shoulder, pork ham, and spices. Honest!”

I worked on a motel built in the thirties. Each unit had a kitchen. Where the kitchen cabinet butted the exterior wall there was a screened hole cut through to the outside. Instead of wooden shelves there were wire racks. One old time explained the mystery. The hole let winter air into that kitchen cabinet. That turned that cabinet into an auxiliary icebox. In the depression iceboxes outnumbered refrigerators. Food spoilage was a big deal. That’s why Spam’s biggest selling point was small size of the can. A housewife needn’t worry about leftover meat turning. The small, spoilage free cans were just as valuable to American GIs during the war.

One American territory fell in love with the stuff—Hawaii. Pineapple and sugar plantations were worked by labor from China, Japan, Korea, Puerto Rico, the Philippines. Spam went well with rice, which was a dietary staple for those workers. It could be shipped to the islands, and sit in the sun until lunchtime, without going bad. To this day Hawaiians eat more Spam per capita than any other state. I don’t believe you can survive everyday life in Hawaii without Spam.

There are those who say, “I’ll eat Spam when pigs fly!” That’s why Hawaii made Spam the State Bird. :D
 
sideways said:
Kind of like surströmming. NSFW (foul food and foul language)
[video=youtube;xgV2imaOCao]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgV2imaOCao[/video]

On topic... store what you eat, eat what you store. For backpacking foods I want something light weight and simple to prepare. For home supplies canned goods are adequate. If you like the taste of spam go for it, but do test it before you buy a years supply. :)
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Can't entirely disagree with you there but a couple of cans of Spam are not that cumbersome and sure are easy to prepare. The ultimate in light-weight of course is to travel with a bag of rice, fishing pole and a take-down 22 so as to pot fresh fish/rabbit/squirrel/partridges along the way. Problem there is wildlife or fruits and berries are not always co-operative.
 
last time i went camping, i brought some for my buddy to eat (more so as a joke) while the rest of us had ribeyes ;) needless to say, the spam didnt get eaten. I still have them. they are turkey and jalepeno. now i'm interested in eating them just to see how they are.
 
The only problem I have with Spam is the salt. It is way too salty for me and I got the low salt version.I do have my own spice mix I added to spam that makes me so much better. But rather not eat much of it as it has way too much salt to make it healthy. Now any one of you is more then welcome to come camping with me.
A piece of toast (proper bread not some cheap stuff) with hummus spicy salsa spread on top. Cheese, On top of that fried spam egg and a tomatoo. Wash it down with a cup of strong black tea. Eat that while sitting around a camp fire with a bunch of cool guys. You would remember spam as something yummy to eat while camping. Pickeled fish and other intresting food I'm all for it. I salt and dry my own fish as well which makes it great on camping and backpacking trips. My dad and some other old timers would steal the fish from me so they can have some with beer. I got a few cans of spam just in case and one or two go camping with me always.
 
I'm told that spam is popular in South Korea. Yes, it was introduced to them by American GI's and it stuck. I don't consider spam prime eating, but I do keep a 6-pack (compliments of Sams Club) in the pantry and I periodically fry some for sandwiches much like you might eat fried bologna.
 
Spam is great for camping, I usually like to slice it and fry it. Make a sandwich with mayo, ketchup, and mustard, eat over rice, or with eggs. Mmmmm good. We even have it at home occasionlly - lay thin slices in a baking pan alternately with half slices of pineapple, mix some brown sugar and mustard into the pineapple juice, pour over the spam, and bake until the spam is browned on the edges. Great on rice.

An interesting historical note - Spam is often associated with the US military during WWII, but that wasn't universal. My father-in-law was in the army in the Pacific (over 18 months on New Guinea, then to the Philippines in January 1945) and he said all they had was corned beef for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He said that after 18 month of nothing but corned beef, they had a real thanksgiving dinner for Thanksgiving 1944 and it was a very welcome break from the monotony.

The US Army took corned beef with them to the Philippines, not Spam, which is why, to this day, corned beef is part of the Philippine cuisine, not Spam. No self-respecting filipino (at least those who are now in the US) is without some in the house. My wife is from the Philippines, and we have a case of corned beef in our pantry.
 
I see folks here with canned bacon and I have never seen this product in a store. Another survival food?
 
I'll never forget seeing Bob Hope do one of his USO Shows on television (probably in the '60's), in Vietnam. Bob asked the Roman Catholic soldiers something like this: "Are you allowed to eat Spam on Fridays? Is it really meat?!"
 
Neeman. you can get canned kippers which is smoked herring ! Great with eggs for breakfast.
I just had some canned ham , DAK, from Denmark .Made from bits of ham, high quality, not spicy.Been around for a long time.
There was a song by some British comedy types .Anyone know the piece ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8huXkSaL7o
 
Smoked herring is the bomb! I love it with some buttered black bread or rye. Bagels or bialys and smoked gravlax are a NYC staple. I love how trash/survival food of one era becomes fancy eats of another. Oxtails and marrow, lobster, and oysters were all once considered trash food. And bologna was only available to the wealthy. That said I would eat fried spam musubi or spam fried rice or spam and eggs any day. It has a vague Taylor ham or scrapple savoriness to it...
 
What would the world be like without SPAM? We get spam mail. We eat Spam. It's as basic as meat & potatoes. Spam every day. You can't escape it.

The Monty Python thing is a classic. Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam!
 
I believe the other main brand is Armour's Treet. I don't like it as well, but when money is tight and pennies count, it is usually cheaper than Hormel's Spam. The spice formulas are slightly different so the taste is not exactly the same. And sometimes a similar product can be found store branded and cheaper still.

I don't care for it uncooked either, though it is precooked when packed. Nor would I care to have it as a steady diet but it can be a good survival food, even if that survival is at home with very limited income.

Recipies? Other than those already mentioned and the obvious of roasting over a campfire like a hotdog, cut the loaf in half longways and put it in a pot/pan/baking dish. Poke a few clove corns in it, lightly score the tops in a criss cross fashion, place some sliced or crushed pinapple on top, and dust it good with brown sugar and drizzle with honey then bake it. It ain't the same critter as raw from the can.
 
Spam :) My Wife is a Filipina and we always have some in the house. Even sent some "home" in the Christmas box this year, varieties they do not see there. The Spicy is danged hot. The Black Pepper and Classic are what we normally eat. Recipes have been covered.

On survival- Worst thing I ate so far was earthworms. I would fight you for Spam over worms.

Bill
 
I love Spam, straight from the can on crackers is fine, but fry it up, and it's even better.

Some of the new spicy versions are really good!
 
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