Spam...the Eating Kind

[Allen]

Spam, potatoes, and onions fried together. A camping trip delicacy.

When I was a kid I camped some with my brother and friends. We didn't cook much other than baking potatoes wrapped in foil stuffed with dried onions. We would bury these directly into the hot coals. We took along a loaf of bread and a couple of cans of Armour Potted Meat (I think that is still made). For drinks we sometimes boiled water for instant coffee, mostly we took Metrecals to drink. They came in a large variety of flavors, no longer made, they've been replaced by other liquid protein drinks.

Good times, however I don't know if I would want to re-live them.

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An interesting video on the history of SPAM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP7e0tV1sYE

On sections of the pig they aren't showing the ears, feet, tongue, tallywacker, eyeballs and such. No part of a pig goes to waste.

No worse than hamburger meat though and the above mentioned Potted Meat.

[Art]

On sections of the pig they aren't showing the ears, feet, tongue, tallywacker, eyeballs and such. No part of a pig goes to waste.

No worse than hamburger meat though and the above mentioned Potted Meat.

Those parts of the pig are destined for the above mentioned potted meat, Vienna sausage, cheap hot dogs and cheaper sausage, and pet food. Those are the big products from what's swept up off the slaughterhouse floor. I remember when I was a kid the actual ingredients were on the label and included stuff like pig snouts and ears. They don't do that anymore. Now its "meat by products." The meat in SPAM I understand is pretty much as advertised s meat by products aren't included in the ingredients. Remember, it was invented as a way to use pork shoulder which was also undesirable.

You are correct, as anyone who has been to a slaughterhouse can testify, nothing edible is wasted. However about half of a carcas, excluding the hide, is "dead stock" which is recycled into a variety of non food products. Dead stock can include euthanized pets and livestock that has died on its own.

One of my favorite swept up off the slaughterhouse floor meats is Mexican chorizo from a Mexican butcher shop or market. Ingredients that are always in this yummy sausage, if its the real stuff include among other stuff are pig thyroids, pancreas and other scrap gland meat as well as any other meat "trimmings" from the pig. One of my favorite breakfasts is chorizo scrambled with eggs, yummy chow.

[Allen]

What could have been said on a Hee Haw TV program:

"Hey Grandpa, what's for supper?"

Grandpa: "Meat and meat byproducts including floor sweepings, pig thyroids, pancreas, tallywackers, pig snouts and unidentifiable "stuff"."

"Yum Yum"

[togor]

We bought two cans of it in a pre-Covid grocery buy.

Date on these was getting a bit long and so we opened one....grey and pink, reminded me of that Icelandic delicacy rotted shark. Next one was all pink and that one we ate.

It's okay. I suppose to those on staple pork diet it's a nice Tuesday.

[lyman]

Those parts of the pig are destined for the above mentioned potted meat, Vienna sausage, cheap hot dogs and cheaper sausage, and pet food. Those are the big products from what's swept up off the slaughterhouse floor. I remember when I was a kid the actual ingredients were on the label and included stuff like pig snouts and ears. They don't do that anymore. Now its "meat by products." The meat in SPAM I understand is pretty much as advertised s meat by products aren't included in the ingredients. Remember, it was invented as a way to use pork shoulder which was also undesirable.

You are correct, as anyone who has been to a slaughterhouse can testify, nothing edible is wasted. However about half of a carcas, excluding the hide, is "dead stock" which is recycled into a variety of non food products. Dead stock can include euthanized pets and livestock that has died on its own.

One of my favorite swept up off the slaughterhouse floor meats is Mexican chorizo from a Mexican butcher shop or market. Ingredients that are always in this yummy sausage, if its the real stuff include among other stuff are pig thyroids, pancreas and other scrap gland meat as well as any other meat "trimmings" from the pig. One of my favorite breakfasts is chorizo scrambled with eggs, yummy chow.

jamie oliver does a good breakfast dish, he calls it an omelet,,

it's fantastic, we make it often



https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/...3a7a0070b69fd2

[Art]

jamie oliver does a good breakfast dish, he calls it an omelet,,

it's fantastic, we make it often



https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/...3a7a0070b69fd2

Dang that looks good. He uses Spanish chorizo but the Mexican kind should work just as well. Its more frattata than an American omelette but Ima gonna have to try that, sooner rather than later.

[Merc]

Since we are talking about exotic meats, do not forget about bologna. I used to occasionally work at the Jones and Laughlin steel mill in Pittsburgh in the 1970s. The company would not allow the steel workers to go off site for lunch because many would come back to work drunk. So, they operated several canteens that served food throughout the mill. One particular canteen in the blast furnace area was privately operated by a guy simply known as the Greek. He had a small shanty. Inside was a refrigerator, one huge hot plate, an enormous cast iron frying pan and a cooler for drinks, mostly quarts of iced tea, orange juice and milk. He cooked one thing: jumbo bologna. Jumbo is a bit larger than regular bologna. He cooked a slice of 1 inch thick jumbo and served between two huge pieces of Italian bread. A quart of iced tea and the sandwich was somewhere around $3 if I remember correctly. I always bought a sandwich but could never finish it. I am not sure why it tasted so good. Maybe it is because the cast iron frying pan had not been washed in 30 - 40 years. The Greek made a very good living selling jumbo bologna sandwiches.

[Allen]

Jumbo is a bit larger than regular bologna. He cooked a slice of 1 inch thick jumbo and served between two huge pieces of Italian bread. I am not sure why it tasted so good.

Bologna DOES taste different and better when cut thick and fried. Long ago I would fry hand cut thick bologna, put it on toasted buttered rye bread along with hand cut thick slices of cedar cheese. A touch of garlic would have made it "mo better" but I wasn't into that then.

Just like thin cut sandwich ham taste different from thick slices cut off the bone, bolgna likewise taste different when thick cut and not thin and prepackaged.

[RED]

The mystery meat to me is the pork in Van Camps Pork & Beans. I always thought it should be called Beans and Pork. When I was a kid I would look for and eat the little 1/2 inch square of pork in each can. Nowadays there is no visible pork in it to be found.

[lyman]

Bologna back then was pork, unless advertised as Beef


now,, you got some pork, chicken, turkey etc all mixed up


when I started in the meat biz when I turned 18, fatback was fat, usually 2" or more thick,
same with the streak o lean,


now,, good luck finding fatback, and what you find ain't fat,, as in thick,