What exactly is in the food SPAM?!
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This article is about the canned meat product. For other uses, see Spam.
Spam
Created by Hormel Foods Corporation
Time created 1937
Type of Food Processed meat
Website The Official Spam Web Site
Food Portal
SPAM luncheon meat is a canned precooked meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation. The labeled ingredients in the Classic variety of Spam are: chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added, salt, water, sugar, and sodium nitrite to help "keep its color". The product has become part of many jokes and urban legends about mystery meat, which has made it part of pop culture and folklore.
Varieties of Spam vary by region and include Spam Black Pepper, Spam Less Sodium, Spam Garlic, Spam and Cheese, Spam with Bacon (Hormel bacon), Spam Spread, Spam Fritters, Spam Lite (containing pork and chicken), Spam Golden Honey Grail, Spam Hot and Spicy (with Tabasco sauce), Spam Hickory Smoked, and Spam Oven Roasted Turkey[1] - the latter is also availabe as halal food (see the halal sign on cans), meaning that it is permissible under Islamic law, and is especially popular in Muslim markets.
Spam is produced in (among other places) Austin, Minnesota, USA (also known as Spam Town USA). In 2002, the six billionth can of Spam was sold.[2]. Spam for the UK market is produced in Denmark by Tulip under licence from Hormel.
Contents [hide]
1 Name origin
2 Nutritional data
3 International usage
3.1 United States and territories
3.2 Europe
3.3 Asia
4 Spam celebrations
5 Cultural references
5.1 Monty Python sketch
5.2 Email spam
5.3 "The Book of Spam"
5.4 Smeat
5.5 "Weird Al" Yankovic
5.6 Other references
6 Trivia
7 References
8 External links
[edit] Name origin
Introduced on July 5, 1937, the name "Spam" was chosen in the 1930s when the product, whose original name was far less memorable (Hormel Spiced Ham), began to lose market share. The name was chosen from multiple entries in a naming contest. A Hormel official once stated that the original meaning of the name Spam was "Shoulder of Pork and hAM". According to writer Marguerite Patten in Spam – The Cookbook, the name was suggested by Kenneth Daigneau, an actor and the brother of a Hormel vice president. At one time, the official explanation may have been that the name was a syllabic abbreviation of "SPiced hAM", but on their official website, Hormel denies this and states that "Spam is just that. Spam." The fact that the originator was given a $100 prize for coming up with the name, however, still appears on the site's Spam FAQs. [3]
Many jocular backronyms have been devised, such as "Something Posing As Meat" and "Spare Parts Animal Meat."[4] "Special Purpose Army Meat" has been suggested as another apocryphal backronym referring to the product's WWII roots.
According to Hormel's trademark guidelines, Spam should be spelled with all capital letters and treated as an adjective, as in the phrase "SPAM luncheon meat". As with many other trademarks, such as Xerox or Kleenex, people often refer to similar meat products as "spam". Regardless, in practice, "spam" is generally spelled and used as a proper noun.
[edit] Nutritional data
A 56 gram (approximately 2 ounce) serving of original Spam provides 7 grams of protein, 2 grams of carbohydrates, 15 grams of fat (23% US Daily Value) including 6 grams of saturated fat (28% US Daily Value), and over 170 calories. A serving contains nearly a third of the recommended daily intake of sodium (salt). Spam provides very little in terms of vitamins and minerals (0% vitamin A, 1% vitamin C, 1% calcium, 3% iron). It has been listed as a food that is a poor choice for weight loss (or weight gain) and optimum health and as a food that "is high in saturated fat and sodium". [5]
[edit] International usage
Spam advertisement on back cover of Time magazine on May 14, 1945.As of 2003, Spam is sold in 41 countries worldwide. The largest consumers of Spam after the United States are stated as being the United Kingdom and South Korea.[citation needed]
[edit] United States and territories
In the United States, the residents of the state of Hawaii and the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) consume the most Spam per capita. On average, each person on Guam consumes 16 tins of Spam each year and the numbers at least equal this in the CNMI. Guam, Hawaii, and Saipan, the CNMI's principal island, have the only McDonald's restaurants that feature Spam on the menu; Burger King now offers Spam on their breakfast menu as well.[6] One popular Spam dish in Hawaii is Spam musubi, in which cooked Spam is combined with rice and nori seaweed and classified as onigiri.[7]
In Hawaii, Spam is so popular it is sometimes dubbed "The Hawaiian Steak." [8] It is traditionally reheated (cooked), resulting in a different taste than Spam eaten by many Americans on the mainland, who may eat Spam cold.[9] Burger King, in Hawaii, began serving Spam in 2007 on its menu to compete with the local McDonald's chains.[10]
Spam was introduced into these areas, in addition to other islands in the Pacific such as Okinawa and the Philippine Islands, during the U.S. military occupation in World War II. Since fresh meat was difficult to get to the soldiers on the front, World War II saw the largest use of Spam. GIs started eating Spam for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Some soldiers referred to Spam as "ham that didn't pass its physical" and "meatloaf without basic training.")[11] Surpluses of Spam from the soldiers' supplies made their way into native diets. Consequently, Spam is a unique part of the history and effects of U.S. influence in the Pacific.[12]
Four different types of Spam. Clockwise from top left: Garlic, Oven Roasted Turkey, Hot and Spicy, and the Japanese released version of Spam.In these locales, varieties of Spam unavailable in other markets are sold. These include Honey Spam, Spam with Bacon, and Hot and Spicy Spam.[12]
In the CNMI, lawyers from Hormel have threatened legal action against the local press for running articles decrying the ill-effects of high Spam consumption on the health of the local population.[1][2]
Armour and Company produces Treet, a canned food very similar to Spam which boasts "Virginia baked ham taste."
[edit] Europe
In the United Kingdom Spam was a popular addition to the menu of fish and chip shops[citation needed], where slices are battered and deep-fried and are known as 'spam fritters', However this tradition has faded out in recent decades. It gained popularity in the 1940s during World War II, during the Lend-Lease Act. After World War II, Newforge Foods, part of the Fitch Lovell group, were awarded the license to produce the product in the UK (doing so at its Gateacre factory, Liverpool)[13], where it stayed until production switched to the Danish Crown Group (owners of the Tulip Food Company [14]) in 1998, forcing the closure of the Liverpool factory and the loss of 140 jobs [15]. By the early 1970s the name Spam was often mis-used to describe any tinned meat product containing pork, such as pork luncheon meat.
The image of Spam as a low cost meat product has given rise to the colloquial term Spam valley to describe certain affluent housing areas where residents appear to be wealthy but in reality may be living at poverty levels.
[edit] Asia
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)
Spam is often served with rice in Asia.Okinawa
In Okinawa, Spam has become very popular for much the same reason as in Hawaii. Spam is even used in the traditional Okinawan dish chanpuru-, and there is also a Spam burger sold by local fast food chain Jef.
China
In China, Spam is also a rather popular food item, being served as a sort of Western cuisine. It is often used in sandwiches.
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, Spam is commonly used to serve with instant noodles and fried eggs, and is a popular item in cha chaan teng.
Philippines
In the Philippines, Spam is a popular meal, especially when eaten with eggs and rice.
South Korea
In South Korea, Spam (Hangul: ??; Revised Romanization: seupaem) is popular in households as an accompaniment to rice. A television ad claimed that it is the most tasty when consumed with white rice and gim (nori or black seaweed used for some type of handrolls). It is also an original ingredient for budae jjigae (lit. "army base stew"), a spicy stew with different types of preserved meat.
Spam and similar meat preserves can also be bought in gift sets that may contain nothing but the meat preserve[16] or include other victuals such as food oil or tuna. When invited to somebody else's home, guests may present their hosts with a set like this, or with other food gifts such as fresh fruit, beverages or tteok.
[edit] Spam celebrations
Hormel Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota.Spam is celebrated in a small local festival in Austin, Minnesota, where Hormel corporate headquarters are located. The event, known as Spam Jam, is a carnival-type celebration which coincides with local Fourth of July festivities, featuring parades and fireworks which often relate to the popular luncheon meat. Austin is also home to the Spam Museum, and the plant that produces Spam for most of North America and Europe.
Hawaii also holds their own version of Spam Jam in Waikiki during the last week of April.
The small town of Shady Cove, Oregon is home to the annual Spam Parade and Festival, celebrating its 8th year in 2007.
The Spam Jam is not to be confused with Spamarama, which is a yearly festival held on April Fool's Day in Austin, Texas. The theme of Spamarama is gentle parody of Spam, rather than straightforward celebration: the event at the heart of the festival is a Spam cook-off that originated as a challenge to produce an appetizing recipe for the meat. The festival includes light sporting activities and numerous Christian musical acts, in addition to the cook-off.[17]
[edit] Cultural references
[edit] Monty Python sketch
Main article: Spam (Monty Python)
Spam was one of the few meat products included in the British food rationing that began in World War II (and continued for a number of years after the war), and the British grew heartily tired of it.[citation needed] The Monty Python comedy troupe used this as the context for their "Spam" sketch, in which the menu at a greasy spoon cafe consists entirely of dishes containing one or more portions of Spam.
The Monty Python musical Spamalot opened on Broadway in New York City in early 2005. It combines themes of the quest for the Holy Grail -- previously explored in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- and Spam. Hormel released a collector's edition "honey" Spam in connection with the musical, and a "Stinky French Garlic" edition for the London opening of the show.[18]
[edit] Email spam
Main article: Spam (electronic)
The repetitious nature of the Monty Python sketch, in which the customer becomes more and more exasperated by the appearances of "Spam" in every menu item, gave rise to the term Spam as the common term for unsolicited bulk electronic messages.[citation needed] Earlier, the term was used as a verb to describe widespread dissemination of derogatory (and often untrue) postings and messages about a person ("She was getting spammed all over the Internet.").
Hormel does not object to the term, but insists that it be spelled in lower case so as to distinguish it from its capitalized Spam trademark. Hormel objects to Spam's "product identity" (for example, images of Spam cans) being used in relation to spamming, and has filed lawsuits against companies which have attempted to trademark words containing "Spam".
In 1998, the New Oxford Dictionary of English, which had previously only defined "Spam" in relation to the trademarked food product, added a second definition to its entry: "Irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of newsgroups or users."[19]
[edit] "The Book of Spam"
Published by the Atria imprint of Simon & Schuster and written by Dustin Black and Dan Armstrong, two former advertising creatives who had worked on Spam ad campaigns since 2000.[20] The book details Spam's origins and contributions to World War II as well various bits of trivia, such as the Spam museum in Austin, Minnesota.
[edit] Smeat
Several films have used 'Smeat' as a prop food, including Waterworld, Children of the Corn V, Beck's 'Sexx Laws' music video, Buddy Boy, and Dawn of the Dead. A tin of 'Smeat' also features in the US drama series Millennium, in the season 1 episode "The Thin White Line"[21].
[edit] "Weird Al" Yankovic
The American parody singer "Weird Al" Yankovic often references Spam in his songs, including a song entitled "Spam" (a parody of the R.E.M. song "Stand"), the lyrics of which explore the vocalist's obsession with the product. The song is included on the soundtrack album for Yankovic's film UHF.[22]
[edit] Other references
Since its introduction in 1937, Spam has been the subject of intense advertising. Featured in the major publications of the day, Spam's spokesmen included many contemporary film and radio stars, including Burns and Allen.
The 1996 movie Muppet Treasure Island featured a character who was a chieftain islander pig named "Spa'am". Hormel Foods Corporation sued Jim Henson Productions over the name in a court case that Hormel Foods eventually lost before the film was released.[23] On Muppets Tonight, there was another pig character named "Spamela Hamderson".[24]
The television series M*A*S*H frequently made fun of the many uses of the product.[25][26]
In a suite of short songs on Chicago III called "An Hour In The Shower" (the part called a Hard Risin' Morning Without Breakfast) the singer (Terry Kath) mentions having breakfast "which consists of tasty Spam."[27]
In the 2004 movie 50 First Dates, a Spam delivery truck is shown, Nick and Sue at the diner offer Henry "Spam and Eggs", and when Henry leaves he is given a box containing Spam and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
The TV series Hey Arnold! had an episode about a fictional food called CHAM, which was derived from chicken instead of pork. (Spam was mentioned by name in the episode, when Grandpa explained the difference between the two).
Comedian Bill Engvall has jokingly referred to Spam as Stuff Posing As Meat.
In the early days of Spam, there was a photograph of a handmade knife from Randall Made Knives featured on the can's label. Such items are now sort of a campy collector's item among knife enthusiasts.
The band Save Ferris' 1996 first album, Introducing Save Ferris have a song, simply called Spam, wherein the product is referred to as "the government substitute for meat".
From 1995 until 2002, John Nagamichi Cho compiled a web archive of Spam Haiku. During this time, 19,696 Haikus about spam were submited by users from all over the world.[28]
[edit] Trivia
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
A Spammobile travels around the US.[29]
Two NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers have driven cars with Spam sponsorship: Lake Speed, #9, in 1995-1996, and Mike Wallace, #91, for several races in 1997. [30]
There is a Spam restaurant in the Philippines called Spam Jam, named after the annual festival that Hormel Foods holds in its corporate headquarters. This restaurant was approved and licensed by Hormel Foods. The only items not containing Spam are the french fries and the hotdogs, which use Hormel's "Wrangler" brand instead.[31]
[edit] References
^ Spam - The Official Spam website
^ Spam - The Official UK website
^ Hormel's Website
^ Boxcar, Ruby Ann (2004). Dear Ruby Ann: Down Home Advice about Lovin', Livin', and the Whole Shebang. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-2560-6. , p. 244
^ Nutritional Facts and Analysis for Spam
^ Boyd Huppert (May 17, 2007). Land of 10,000 Stories - Spam in Paradise. KARE11 News.
^ Spam - Hawaiian Spam Musubi
^ "The Spam That Isn't Via E-Mail", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
^ http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stori...
^ Burger King to Serve Spam in Hawaii
^ American Eats, History Channel Programme
^ a b Jaymes Song (June 11, 2007). Burger giants wage Spam war. The Star.
^ The story of Fitch Lovell Ambrose Keevil Phillimore Press 1972 ISBN 0 85033 074 2
^ http://english.tulip.dk/
^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.j...
^ Image of a ?44,800 Spam gift set
^ Spamarama website. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.
^ Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent. "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam... and garlic?", Telegraph.co.uk, October 27, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-03-17.
^ "Oxford dictionary adds Net terms" on News.com
^ http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satell...
^ Screen captures of Smeat in movies and video. Retrieved on 2007-05-27.
^ "Weird Al" Yankovic's Studio Albums
^ Appellate court decision in Hormel Foods vs. Jim Henson Productions
^ "http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Spamela_Ha... on Muppet Wiki
^ M*A*S*H episode Private Charles Lamb, December 31, 1974
^ "You know you watch too much M*A*S*H when..."
^ Lyrics, "A Hard Risin' Morning Without Breakfast" - Terry Kath, Chicago
^ To a Haiku Writer, Spam Is Poetry in a Can. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
^ Spammobile web page
^ 1996 Winston Cup results, Lake Speed driving Spam-sponsored car
^ CNN Live Sunday transcript, aired March 28, 2004 - 18:30 ET
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
SpamThe official Spam web site
The Book of Spam
Gallery of vintage graphic design featuring SPAM
Sign of the times: Who's Spam is it, anyway? According to ABC News, Hormel is involved in a multi-million dollar trademark dispute with Spam Arrest, a company which blocks obnoxious emails.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28fo...
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since September 2007 | Articles needing additional references from July 2007 | Articles with trivia sections from June 2007 | Canned food | Hawaiian cuisine | Brand name meats | Meatpacking | Hormel Foods
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This article is about the canned meat product. For other uses, see Spam.
Spam
Created by Hormel Foods Corporation
Time created 1937
Type of Food Processed meat
Website The Official Spam Web Site
Food Portal
SPAM luncheon meat is a canned precooked meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation. The labeled ingredients in the Classic variety of Spam are: chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added, salt, water, sugar, and sodium nitrite to help "keep its color". The product has become part of many jokes and urban legends about mystery meat, which has made it part of pop culture and folklore.
Varieties of Spam vary by region and include Spam Black Pepper, Spam Less Sodium, Spam Garlic, Spam and Cheese, Spam with Bacon (Hormel bacon), Spam Spread, Spam Fritters, Spam Lite (containing pork and chicken), Spam Golden Honey Grail, Spam Hot and Spicy (with Tabasco sauce), Spam Hickory Smoked, and Spam Oven Roasted Turkey[1] - the latter is also availabe as halal food (see the halal sign on cans), meaning that it is permissible under Islamic law, and is especially popular in Muslim markets.
Spam is produced in (among other places) Austin, Minnesota, USA (also known as Spam Town USA). In 2002, the six billionth can of Spam was sold.[2]. Spam for the UK market is produced in Denmark by Tulip under licence from Hormel.
Contents [hide]
1 Name origin
2 Nutritional data
3 International usage
3.1 United States and territories
3.2 Europe
3.3 Asia
4 Spam celebrations
5 Cultural references
5.1 Monty Python sketch
5.2 Email spam
5.3 "The Book of Spam"
5.4 Smeat
5.5 "Weird Al" Yankovic
5.6 Other references
6 Trivia
7 References
8 External links
[edit] Name origin
Introduced on July 5, 1937, the name "Spam" was chosen in the 1930s when the product, whose original name was far less memorable (Hormel Spiced Ham), began to lose market share. The name was chosen from multiple entries in a naming contest. A Hormel official once stated that the original meaning of the name Spam was "Shoulder of Pork and hAM". According to writer Marguerite Patten in Spam – The Cookbook, the name was suggested by Kenneth Daigneau, an actor and the brother of a Hormel vice president. At one time, the official explanation may have been that the name was a syllabic abbreviation of "SPiced hAM", but on their official website, Hormel denies this and states that "Spam is just that. Spam." The fact that the originator was given a $100 prize for coming up with the name, however, still appears on the site's Spam FAQs. [3]
Many jocular backronyms have been devised, such as "Something Posing As Meat" and "Spare Parts Animal Meat."[4] "Special Purpose Army Meat" has been suggested as another apocryphal backronym referring to the product's WWII roots.
According to Hormel's trademark guidelines, Spam should be spelled with all capital letters and treated as an adjective, as in the phrase "SPAM luncheon meat". As with many other trademarks, such as Xerox or Kleenex, people often refer to similar meat products as "spam". Regardless, in practice, "spam" is generally spelled and used as a proper noun.
[edit] Nutritional data
A 56 gram (approximately 2 ounce) serving of original Spam provides 7 grams of protein, 2 grams of carbohydrates, 15 grams of fat (23% US Daily Value) including 6 grams of saturated fat (28% US Daily Value), and over 170 calories. A serving contains nearly a third of the recommended daily intake of sodium (salt). Spam provides very little in terms of vitamins and minerals (0% vitamin A, 1% vitamin C, 1% calcium, 3% iron). It has been listed as a food that is a poor choice for weight loss (or weight gain) and optimum health and as a food that "is high in saturated fat and sodium". [5]
[edit] International usage
Spam advertisement on back cover of Time magazine on May 14, 1945.As of 2003, Spam is sold in 41 countries worldwide. The largest consumers of Spam after the United States are stated as being the United Kingdom and South Korea.[citation needed]
[edit] United States and territories
In the United States, the residents of the state of Hawaii and the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) consume the most Spam per capita. On average, each person on Guam consumes 16 tins of Spam each year and the numbers at least equal this in the CNMI. Guam, Hawaii, and Saipan, the CNMI's principal island, have the only McDonald's restaurants that feature Spam on the menu; Burger King now offers Spam on their breakfast menu as well.[6] One popular Spam dish in Hawaii is Spam musubi, in which cooked Spam is combined with rice and nori seaweed and classified as onigiri.[7]
In Hawaii, Spam is so popular it is sometimes dubbed "The Hawaiian Steak." [8] It is traditionally reheated (cooked), resulting in a different taste than Spam eaten by many Americans on the mainland, who may eat Spam cold.[9] Burger King, in Hawaii, began serving Spam in 2007 on its menu to compete with the local McDonald's chains.[10]
Spam was introduced into these areas, in addition to other islands in the Pacific such as Okinawa and the Philippine Islands, during the U.S. military occupation in World War II. Since fresh meat was difficult to get to the soldiers on the front, World War II saw the largest use of Spam. GIs started eating Spam for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (Some soldiers referred to Spam as "ham that didn't pass its physical" and "meatloaf without basic training.")[11] Surpluses of Spam from the soldiers' supplies made their way into native diets. Consequently, Spam is a unique part of the history and effects of U.S. influence in the Pacific.[12]
Four different types of Spam. Clockwise from top left: Garlic, Oven Roasted Turkey, Hot and Spicy, and the Japanese released version of Spam.In these locales, varieties of Spam unavailable in other markets are sold. These include Honey Spam, Spam with Bacon, and Hot and Spicy Spam.[12]
In the CNMI, lawyers from Hormel have threatened legal action against the local press for running articles decrying the ill-effects of high Spam consumption on the health of the local population.[1][2]
Armour and Company produces Treet, a canned food very similar to Spam which boasts "Virginia baked ham taste."
[edit] Europe
In the United Kingdom Spam was a popular addition to the menu of fish and chip shops[citation needed], where slices are battered and deep-fried and are known as 'spam fritters', However this tradition has faded out in recent decades. It gained popularity in the 1940s during World War II, during the Lend-Lease Act. After World War II, Newforge Foods, part of the Fitch Lovell group, were awarded the license to produce the product in the UK (doing so at its Gateacre factory, Liverpool)[13], where it stayed until production switched to the Danish Crown Group (owners of the Tulip Food Company [14]) in 1998, forcing the closure of the Liverpool factory and the loss of 140 jobs [15]. By the early 1970s the name Spam was often mis-used to describe any tinned meat product containing pork, such as pork luncheon meat.
The image of Spam as a low cost meat product has given rise to the colloquial term Spam valley to describe certain affluent housing areas where residents appear to be wealthy but in reality may be living at poverty levels.
[edit] Asia
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)
Spam is often served with rice in Asia.Okinawa
In Okinawa, Spam has become very popular for much the same reason as in Hawaii. Spam is even used in the traditional Okinawan dish chanpuru-, and there is also a Spam burger sold by local fast food chain Jef.
China
In China, Spam is also a rather popular food item, being served as a sort of Western cuisine. It is often used in sandwiches.
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, Spam is commonly used to serve with instant noodles and fried eggs, and is a popular item in cha chaan teng.
Philippines
In the Philippines, Spam is a popular meal, especially when eaten with eggs and rice.
South Korea
In South Korea, Spam (Hangul: ??; Revised Romanization: seupaem) is popular in households as an accompaniment to rice. A television ad claimed that it is the most tasty when consumed with white rice and gim (nori or black seaweed used for some type of handrolls). It is also an original ingredient for budae jjigae (lit. "army base stew"), a spicy stew with different types of preserved meat.
Spam and similar meat preserves can also be bought in gift sets that may contain nothing but the meat preserve[16] or include other victuals such as food oil or tuna. When invited to somebody else's home, guests may present their hosts with a set like this, or with other food gifts such as fresh fruit, beverages or tteok.
[edit] Spam celebrations
Hormel Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota.Spam is celebrated in a small local festival in Austin, Minnesota, where Hormel corporate headquarters are located. The event, known as Spam Jam, is a carnival-type celebration which coincides with local Fourth of July festivities, featuring parades and fireworks which often relate to the popular luncheon meat. Austin is also home to the Spam Museum, and the plant that produces Spam for most of North America and Europe.
Hawaii also holds their own version of Spam Jam in Waikiki during the last week of April.
The small town of Shady Cove, Oregon is home to the annual Spam Parade and Festival, celebrating its 8th year in 2007.
The Spam Jam is not to be confused with Spamarama, which is a yearly festival held on April Fool's Day in Austin, Texas. The theme of Spamarama is gentle parody of Spam, rather than straightforward celebration: the event at the heart of the festival is a Spam cook-off that originated as a challenge to produce an appetizing recipe for the meat. The festival includes light sporting activities and numerous Christian musical acts, in addition to the cook-off.[17]
[edit] Cultural references
[edit] Monty Python sketch
Main article: Spam (Monty Python)
Spam was one of the few meat products included in the British food rationing that began in World War II (and continued for a number of years after the war), and the British grew heartily tired of it.[citation needed] The Monty Python comedy troupe used this as the context for their "Spam" sketch, in which the menu at a greasy spoon cafe consists entirely of dishes containing one or more portions of Spam.
The Monty Python musical Spamalot opened on Broadway in New York City in early 2005. It combines themes of the quest for the Holy Grail -- previously explored in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- and Spam. Hormel released a collector's edition "honey" Spam in connection with the musical, and a "Stinky French Garlic" edition for the London opening of the show.[18]
[edit] Email spam
Main article: Spam (electronic)
The repetitious nature of the Monty Python sketch, in which the customer becomes more and more exasperated by the appearances of "Spam" in every menu item, gave rise to the term Spam as the common term for unsolicited bulk electronic messages.[citation needed] Earlier, the term was used as a verb to describe widespread dissemination of derogatory (and often untrue) postings and messages about a person ("She was getting spammed all over the Internet.").
Hormel does not object to the term, but insists that it be spelled in lower case so as to distinguish it from its capitalized Spam trademark. Hormel objects to Spam's "product identity" (for example, images of Spam cans) being used in relation to spamming, and has filed lawsuits against companies which have attempted to trademark words containing "Spam".
In 1998, the New Oxford Dictionary of English, which had previously only defined "Spam" in relation to the trademarked food product, added a second definition to its entry: "Irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of newsgroups or users."[19]
[edit] "The Book of Spam"
Published by the Atria imprint of Simon & Schuster and written by Dustin Black and Dan Armstrong, two former advertising creatives who had worked on Spam ad campaigns since 2000.[20] The book details Spam's origins and contributions to World War II as well various bits of trivia, such as the Spam museum in Austin, Minnesota.
[edit] Smeat
Several films have used 'Smeat' as a prop food, including Waterworld, Children of the Corn V, Beck's 'Sexx Laws' music video, Buddy Boy, and Dawn of the Dead. A tin of 'Smeat' also features in the US drama series Millennium, in the season 1 episode "The Thin White Line"[21].
[edit] "Weird Al" Yankovic
The American parody singer "Weird Al" Yankovic often references Spam in his songs, including a song entitled "Spam" (a parody of the R.E.M. song "Stand"), the lyrics of which explore the vocalist's obsession with the product. The song is included on the soundtrack album for Yankovic's film UHF.[22]
[edit] Other references
Since its introduction in 1937, Spam has been the subject of intense advertising. Featured in the major publications of the day, Spam's spokesmen included many contemporary film and radio stars, including Burns and Allen.
The 1996 movie Muppet Treasure Island featured a character who was a chieftain islander pig named "Spa'am". Hormel Foods Corporation sued Jim Henson Productions over the name in a court case that Hormel Foods eventually lost before the film was released.[23] On Muppets Tonight, there was another pig character named "Spamela Hamderson".[24]
The television series M*A*S*H frequently made fun of the many uses of the product.[25][26]
In a suite of short songs on Chicago III called "An Hour In The Shower" (the part called a Hard Risin' Morning Without Breakfast) the singer (Terry Kath) mentions having breakfast "which consists of tasty Spam."[27]
In the 2004 movie 50 First Dates, a Spam delivery truck is shown, Nick and Sue at the diner offer Henry "Spam and Eggs", and when Henry leaves he is given a box containing Spam and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
The TV series Hey Arnold! had an episode about a fictional food called CHAM, which was derived from chicken instead of pork. (Spam was mentioned by name in the episode, when Grandpa explained the difference between the two).
Comedian Bill Engvall has jokingly referred to Spam as Stuff Posing As Meat.
In the early days of Spam, there was a photograph of a handmade knife from Randall Made Knives featured on the can's label. Such items are now sort of a campy collector's item among knife enthusiasts.
The band Save Ferris' 1996 first album, Introducing Save Ferris have a song, simply called Spam, wherein the product is referred to as "the government substitute for meat".
From 1995 until 2002, John Nagamichi Cho compiled a web archive of Spam Haiku. During this time, 19,696 Haikus about spam were submited by users from all over the world.[28]
[edit] Trivia
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
A Spammobile travels around the US.[29]
Two NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers have driven cars with Spam sponsorship: Lake Speed, #9, in 1995-1996, and Mike Wallace, #91, for several races in 1997. [30]
There is a Spam restaurant in the Philippines called Spam Jam, named after the annual festival that Hormel Foods holds in its corporate headquarters. This restaurant was approved and licensed by Hormel Foods. The only items not containing Spam are the french fries and the hotdogs, which use Hormel's "Wrangler" brand instead.[31]
[edit] References
^ Spam - The Official Spam website
^ Spam - The Official UK website
^ Hormel's Website
^ Boxcar, Ruby Ann (2004). Dear Ruby Ann: Down Home Advice about Lovin', Livin', and the Whole Shebang. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-2560-6. , p. 244
^ Nutritional Facts and Analysis for Spam
^ Boyd Huppert (May 17, 2007). Land of 10,000 Stories - Spam in Paradise. KARE11 News.
^ Spam - Hawaiian Spam Musubi
^ "The Spam That Isn't Via E-Mail", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
^ http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stori...
^ Burger King to Serve Spam in Hawaii
^ American Eats, History Channel Programme
^ a b Jaymes Song (June 11, 2007). Burger giants wage Spam war. The Star.
^ The story of Fitch Lovell Ambrose Keevil Phillimore Press 1972 ISBN 0 85033 074 2
^ http://english.tulip.dk/
^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.j...
^ Image of a ?44,800 Spam gift set
^ Spamarama website. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.
^ Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent. "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam... and garlic?", Telegraph.co.uk, October 27, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-03-17.
^ "Oxford dictionary adds Net terms" on News.com
^ http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satell...
^ Screen captures of Smeat in movies and video. Retrieved on 2007-05-27.
^ "Weird Al" Yankovic's Studio Albums
^ Appellate court decision in Hormel Foods vs. Jim Henson Productions
^ "http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Spamela_Ha... on Muppet Wiki
^ M*A*S*H episode Private Charles Lamb, December 31, 1974
^ "You know you watch too much M*A*S*H when..."
^ Lyrics, "A Hard Risin' Morning Without Breakfast" - Terry Kath, Chicago
^ To a Haiku Writer, Spam Is Poetry in a Can. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
^ Spammobile web page
^ 1996 Winston Cup results, Lake Speed driving Spam-sponsored car
^ CNN Live Sunday transcript, aired March 28, 2004 - 18:30 ET
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
SpamThe official Spam web site
The Book of Spam
Gallery of vintage graphic design featuring SPAM
Sign of the times: Who's Spam is it, anyway? According to ABC News, Hormel is involved in a multi-million dollar trademark dispute with Spam Arrest, a company which blocks obnoxious emails.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28fo...
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since September 2007 | Articles needing additional references from July 2007 | Articles with trivia sections from June 2007 | Canned food | Hawaiian cuisine | Brand name meats | Meatpacking | Hormel Foods
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i really don't know. but maybe it has ham in it
Spam stands for SPiced hAM - so ham and spices. It's actually really good. Most people who say they don't like Spam have never tried it.
Edited to add: from a website devoted to clearing up the mystery of Spam:
Ingredients:
Chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added.
Salt (for binding, flavour, and firmness)
Water (to help in mixing)
Sugar (for flavour)
Sodium Nitrite (for colour and as a preservative)
Piggy-wigs winkles and things.
spiced ham
Its l-e-a-n. Lips,ears,a--holes, and noses.
Commonly called "mystery meat" it is a tasty product made up of left over (from the slaughter house) pieces of pork and beef. It is chopped and put into a salty base which then gels. Yummy, huh?
All the things that are not in scrapple
pork, and salt and other good stuff that's mixed in. they even have a spam museum
Chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added.
Salt (for binding, flavour, and firmness)
Water (to help in mixing)
Sugar (for flavour)
Sodium Nitrite (for colour and as a preservative)
Probably all the scrap bits of meat they cant use for anything else!?
I havent ever eaten it myself so I dont know, but most processed meats seem to have lots of added water and scraps!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(food)
You should find out what you need to know there.
Spiced Pork and Ham or Shoulder of Pork and Ham. GIs loved it in WW2. Yummy! Enjoy! {:-)
1. Chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added.
2. Salt (for binding, flavour, and firmness)
3. Water (to help in mixing)
4. Sugar (for flavour)
5. Sodium Nitrite (for colour and as a preservative)
I have had it its Ham.. its disgusting...
At the end of eating it.. in the bigging its soooo good.. its just ham.. you but on bread..