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 ...
Yep, that is a good one too.
Spam Musabi....hmmmmm (cue Homer)
$1.89 a can for Spam Lite at Wal-Mart.
Spam is the only pork product that I am absolutely sure is safe to eat for fear of worms.
I love it browned in butter then tossed in with some eggs and cheese, a dash of dried onions and some quality fresh ground black pepper, Tabasco is always an option.
Seriously America is in a world of hurt, we need to live on protein not rice, granted a vegetarian can get enough protein but I am not a cud chewer.
Since I live in Alaska I have meat on the hoof literally with moose grazing on my property, I shot one almost 10 years ago and it supplied meat to my family for almost two years, I think its time to consider another harvest.
Maybe a lot of people are stocking up. Spam lasts forever. If there were some sort of catastrophe, you wouldn't go hungry.
They should rename all the networks and papers to the Doomsday Channel.
Shoot. It is going to be called the Sunshine channel on 20 January. But your post is totally valid and true.
>”Pork Fat Rules!”<
ha! Yeah, dress it up a little bit, and it’s not too bad.
That is a good point.
Response: I have had the same suspicians. It is tragic but one cannot believe the media reports. I saw a media creature say now we go to New York where thousands are hungry. The guy at the soup kitchen( a black) refused to be lead and said "we were up in October but we are down in November(meaning the number of meals served)and we are not as high as last year," You should have seen the look on the media creatures face.
Response: I have had the same suspicians. It is tragic but one cannot believe the media reports. I saw a media creature say".... now we go to New York where thousands are hungry. The guy at the soup kitchen( a black) refused to be lead and said "we were up in October but we are down in November(meaning the number of meals served)and we are not as high as last year," You should have seen the look on the media creatures face.
My mom used to dice it and put it in scrambled eggs. (good stuff)
but I DON’T WANT ANY SPAM!!!!
spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam WONDERFUL spam
SHUTUP!!
“I can’t possible be the only old man who can remember when a can of Spam represented the best meal we’d had in weeks.”
No, you are not, there are at least two of us. I can also remember when cracklins (grattons for you Cajuns) and a baked sweet potato were a treat.
That's why I loved it as a kid. Sometimes all we had was bread, butter and sugar. After a week of butter and sugar sandwiches, Spam was a treat.
Spam Lite? I buy it when it see Kosher Jews buy it!
Everyone in my immediate family either was a Marine or married one. Spam is a treat. A slice of Spam fried to a crisp makes a great sandwich. If you never lived on C-rations for months on end, you will never understand Spam lovers.
“That’s why I loved it as a kid. Sometimes all we had was bread, butter”
Now, if it had been my grandfather’s homemade butter on one of my mother’s biscuits (made from stratch) you wouldn’t be complaining.
And SPAM is the ultimate Muslim repellent and Jihadi detector!
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