The town of Austin, Minnesota, is considered “Spamtown” credited for creating the recipe for spam and being the origin for the family that created it. It was first dubbed “Spamtown” when George A. Hormel started a slaughterhouse and meatpacking facility there in 1891, and in 1901, George A. Hormel & Co. became officially incorporated, processing hogs, beef, and sausage casings. It wasn’t until Jay Hormel, George A. Hormel’s son, became president in 1929 that the luncheon meat was invented 8 years later. Before spam was sold in cans, deli shoppers would order their slices off of a 6-pound slab of meat. So, Jay Hormel set out to design appropriate for the consumer for home use. Eventually, the company came up with a 12 ounce can design, as well as the concept of canning the pork in a vacuum to prevent the meat from sweating.
Despite the negative comments regarding the spam’s taste, it was shipped in massive quantities to both Britain and Russia because of how easy it was to ship in large quantities as well as its extremely long shelf life. Over 100 million pounds of spam was sent to the Americans and the Allies troops during WWII. After it was first introduced at the beginning of the war, it quickly became the main source of food for these soldiers, who would eat it 3 times a day, 7 days a week. So naturally, these soldiers got sick of spam quick. Jay Hormel actually got so much hate mail from these soldiers to the point that he kept a “Scurrilous File” where he would dump all of the hate mail received from these soldiers. However, as it began to spread to other countries, people were rationing for the war and as a result, it quickly became a staple for those not participating in the war.
After the war, when the soldiers from the war came back to America, they refused to eat the luncheon meat that they were served for every meal during the war, and so spam moved from the center of the plate to a side dish, hence diminishing its popularity in the core of America. However, in places like Hawaii, where so many Japanese were transported for internment camps, spam became a core piece of their culture. Since the Japanese didn’t have an opportunity to fish (since they weren’t allowed to fish in the internment camps), spam became their main source of protein instead of fish. Spam sales continued to rise, however; by 2007, 7 billion cans of spam were sold, and in the 1990s the status of spam rose to an all-time high/low (depending on how you see it) as the term was coined to describe junk emails. Overall, this simple 6 ingredient recipe transformed American culture in a way no one would have thought: From a simple war staple one of the most trending food items in the U.S.
Cited Sources:
https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/war-won-spam-things/
https://www.eater.com/2014/7/9/6191681/a-brief-history-of-spam-an-american-meat-icon
This is quite an interesting topic to consider in perspective of the war. I was always confused as to why there was so much Spam in Hawaii, as I saw it in every grocery store with shelves and shelves full of them. It shows the power that these internment camps had, not only the immediate and more pressing issues such as their unruly treatment and losses of liberty, but also the lasting effects it had on even a more trivial thing, the lasting use of Spam as a major food source. Even now, many decades after the war, Spam consumption is still extremely high. In Hawaii, an average of 7 million cans is consumed per year, which is the equivalent weight of 17.5 blue whales.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.foodbeast.com/news/10-facts-about-spam-that-you-might-not-have-known/
It's so interesting to learn about how this meat that is still sold today originated! It's so strange to think about how food people still eat today were originally meant for the convenience of the war. I do disagree with the soldier's negative opinions of spam, however. I actually eat spam a lot in many of our Chinese dishes. These dishes include our Chinese styled burritos that my grandpa makes for family dinners, and at Mongolian hotpot restaurants where spam is boiled in seasoned soup. I think that Asian cuisines have found ways to actually make spam taste good, which Americans at the time did not succeed in.
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