Thursday 22 May 2014

The Day I Tried SPAM

You know what people usually thumb their nose at? SPAM. I certainly did too. I mean really, a canned meat that keeps good for 5+ Years at a time? It just seems a little suspect. Seems like it would be rife with disease or food poisoning or filled with mercury...it just seems strange.

So I decided try it.

I went to store and grabbed a tin, which was luckily on sale for $3.50. It didn't seem like a hot deal when I could buy a full-fledged steak for $6, but hey, I'm not here to eat steak. It's SPAM Day. Oddly enough there were only 4 cans which means I'm either late to the SPAM party or I'm the only who's bought it in years from Save-On.


I brought it home and after deliberating over how to prepare it I settled for making what was on the can. A Fried SPAM Burger.

Unfortunately, I didn't really plan this out all too well and I had no hamburger buns. What I did have however was a Kaiser roll, so I went for creating a SPAM Hoagie instead. I also had some leftover Genoa salami so I fried that up too to give it some spicy crunch.


I opened it up and it was...definitely meat. Just a tin of mulched up pork.
If I had to base my decision on physical appearance I'd have definitely quit right here, but I was pretty hungry at this point so it was time to forge ahead.
I sliced off a couple hunks and tossed it in a skillet along with that aforementioned salami. Just a note here, the two slices contained 66% of my daily recommended amount of sodium. I could have bought reduced sodium SPAM, but I figured I needed to try the original recipe to be a fair judge.


Anyway, the amount of fat that fried out was suprising, but the SPAM browned up nicely, and put on a Kaiser roll with some mayo, fried salama, some shredded cheese, lettuce, pepper, and some of my %100 FAVOURITE mayo, American Heinz Mayonnaise.


I took a bite and...It was awesome!

 I wish I'd have put some tomato on there because it was similar in taste to a BLT, regardless SPAM is definitely a decent sammich meat.
However, because I may have polluted my taste-test by eating it with all those condiments and garnishes, I ate a slice completely by itself.
I fried it because I'm just a little wary of mulched up pork in a can raw (even though SPAM is fine completely raw) and it was...interesting.
Basically...it tasted like "Spongy Ham" Which, if you combine the two words together equal "SPAM." Makes sense right?
So I was left with a sizeable loaf afterwards because I didn't eat much. But luckily I have a nice storage container to put it back in!

It fit back into its own can with a "SHLORP!" sound effect. It was pretty gross.


I give SPAM a solid 8/10. Gross to look at, and seems a little pricey for what you're getting. Otherwise it's super long lasting, really versatile (Seriously, check out these recipes!), and really filling. I didn't snacky at all later that night. It definitely coats your stomach.

So, the moral of the story is that canned pork product is not as horrific as you would expect. Also, don't leave me unattended for long periods of time because my eating habits start getting...weird.

2 comments:

Maxwell ! said...

Now I will rock your world. On the rare occasion that I had spam growing up, my Dad would fry it, but put maple syrup on it during the frying. It gives it an amazing and sweet caramelized coating.

Chelsea Ribbon said...

You are brave! I just can't... the look, the smell... I refuse to taste test it lol! Other than bacon, I don't eat pork products and if you say it tastes like ham then I definitely won't like it. Maybe you should go to Spam Jam in Austin, Minnesota this July!