Let them eat SPAM!
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BeardedOverland
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Spam is a basic food group for us. Breakfast lunch and dinner!
This thread reminded me of my dad. When we were not eating Spam out camping he loved to take canned corned beef and mix it with miracle whip and make sandwiches. He always mixed it up cold. My wife was not happy the first time I made this sandwich and she banned it from the house saying the smell made her sick. I have it often when she is away.
thats always when the good stuff happens!
mine has been on a health kick again and SPAM is once again on the no-fly list.
she leaves for savannah in a few days and you know what's about to get fried up!
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I heard that Spam as found in Egyptian tombs and was still edible! LOL
BeardedOverland
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This is one of the reasons I do not take my wife camping with me often, her food tastes even while camping are hard to meet and it turns into a big production. Canned chili or ramen for example just won't fly. She wants steak and vegetables. Defeats my style of camping which is keep it simple from packing (I pack light) to cooking (quick and easy) to sleeping (back of the truck, etc.
maybe i'm about to make "SPAM History"...
i have a freeze drying food thread i started last week after getting my freeze dryer. after experimenting and getting a feel for the machine...i'm now doing a batch of meats and in the batch is SPAM. i've looked and couldn't find an MRE anywhere that has SPAM in it. i've spoken on here fondly of my SPAM experiences in Hawaii where SPAM is revered. one popular dish was the breakfast that is SPAM, rice and scrambled egg. the sub i was on was in the shipyard at pearl harbor and the roach coach would come by in the mornings and sell that. i would be first in line standing at attention with plastic spork in hand...
even the mcdonalds on o'ahu sold SPAM dishes.
so, with all that popularity, one would think that there was an MRE out there that had SPAM in it. (other than eating straight out of the can...which is perfectly acceptable...)but, no...no SPAM MREs.
looks like its up to me to fill that void...
i already have freeze dried eggs i did earlier as well as freeze dried rice (not instant rice) and now it's the SPAM's turn...if it turns out like i hope it will, all i have to do is combine it with the eggs and rice and stick it in my mylar MRE pouch and i should have the world's first SPAM, egg and rice MRE. just add hot water and enjoy...
i have a freeze drying food thread i started last week after getting my freeze dryer. after experimenting and getting a feel for the machine...i'm now doing a batch of meats and in the batch is SPAM. i've looked and couldn't find an MRE anywhere that has SPAM in it. i've spoken on here fondly of my SPAM experiences in Hawaii where SPAM is revered. one popular dish was the breakfast that is SPAM, rice and scrambled egg. the sub i was on was in the shipyard at pearl harbor and the roach coach would come by in the mornings and sell that. i would be first in line standing at attention with plastic spork in hand...
even the mcdonalds on o'ahu sold SPAM dishes.
so, with all that popularity, one would think that there was an MRE out there that had SPAM in it. (other than eating straight out of the can...which is perfectly acceptable...)but, no...no SPAM MREs.
looks like its up to me to fill that void...
i already have freeze dried eggs i did earlier as well as freeze dried rice (not instant rice) and now it's the SPAM's turn...if it turns out like i hope it will, all i have to do is combine it with the eggs and rice and stick it in my mylar MRE pouch and i should have the world's first SPAM, egg and rice MRE. just add hot water and enjoy...
Contributor II
Houston Texas to the Alpine Loop Colorado in September 2024. If you would like to join reply michaelhampton2003@yahoo.com
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Thats a lotta SPAM! I have never strayed from the original, what do you think of the other flavors? Any suck? Any standout?
Didn't read whole thread. But here is my detailed post on how to make SPAM at home, fast and excellent flavor. With correct meat/sausage proceedures, USFDA approved cooking and proper curing. Enjoy.
@grubworm
meatgistics.waltons.com
@grubworm
SPAM, Dave in AZ jalapeno version
Dave in AZ Thanks Dave! I’ll be trying this
the teriyaki is really good. we were at big bend a few years ago and i made a dish with seared teriyaki SPAM strips added to rice and crushed pineapple. really good like that...even the wife liked it and she is not a big fan of SPAM. the jalapeno is really good. i use that specifically in a camp dish where i dice up the jalapeno SPAM and sear it in a pot and then add blackeyed peas and rotel and season with garlic, salt, pepper, chili and a dash of sugar. let that simmer and then serve with rice. pretty good!
the maple SPAM is good...hard to find, but good for breakfast seared and served with egg and rice. i tried the tocino flavor and hated it...tasted like nasty chorizo. also didnt care for the hot and spicy flavored SPAM. i've eaten the turkey SPAM a few times and like it for the most part. i first bought it years back when we did a camp trip up on the buffalo river in north arkansas for thanksgiving. i thought it would be funny to have turkey SPAM, stove top stuffing and cranberry for our thanksgiving meal. actually tasted really good...it was cold and raining, so that made it even that much more enjoyable
the original is the best and i am going to see how it tastes to freeze dry a piece of SPAM and then powder it and use it as a seasoning.
very cool!Didn't read whole thread. But here is my detailed post on how to make SPAM at home, fast and excellent flavor. With correct meat/sausage proceedures, USFDA approved cooking and proper curing. Enjoy.
@grubworm
SPAM, Dave in AZ jalapeno version
Dave in AZ Thanks Dave! I’ll be trying this
yeah, we have a ham press and make similar stuff. the wife doesnt care for processed foods, so we generally make a lot of our own foods. i got her the ham press and she takes meat, like pork and chicken, and grinds it and then seasons it and stuffs it in the stainless can, screws on the lid with the spring loaded plunger to keep the contents compressed and then sets in in boiling water for 90 minutes. turns out great! it doesnt have the SPAM can shape, but it tastes really good
love your write up...excellent recipe and i will get the wife to do a batch going off your recipe when she gets back. i see you sous vide, so you know how good chicken and pork loin are seasoned and sous vide. i love sous vide pork loin...i cut medallions of it one time and sous vide it with some crab boil and i swear the pork tasted like shrimp.
a hair off topic, but another thing i like to take on camp trips is to get a pack or two of sausage, like hillshire farm, and cut it into 2" pieces and then boil in a pot with a splash of crab boil for 30 minutes and then drain and cool and put in a tupperware dish and throw in the ice chest. heat it for breakfast and use it for sandwiches...or just grab a piece as a snack.
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Member I
I'm eagerly awaiting the results of this research and applaud your efforts.
I've tasted just about all of the current flavors offered in the US - can't think of any that were bad.
However.... if you haven't tried the 'Figgy Pudding' I highly recommend you do. Even my mother-in-law, who HATES SPAM, like it!!!
the SPAM turned out great. i took a small piece and powdered it and it will definitely make a good seasoning. i made a beef stroganoff to freeze dry and had a few left over egg noodles. i rolled a noodle in the powdered SPAM and it was good. i could definitely see doing a pasta salad and sprinkling this on it...
it tastes pretty good eating it dry...kind of like a crunchy piece of bacon. the freeze dried SPAM is a bit salty since all the water has been taken out of it, but should taste normal after being reconstituted. the SPAM did dry very well, and it will DEFINITELY make a good MRE...
Member I
Is the freeze dried Spam still fatty and flexible or did it turn into kindof a brick that really needs water to be edible? Would love to see a re-hydrated piece next to a slice straight from the can for comparison.
no, not fatty at all. it crumbled real easily. in the pic i have above your post, you can see the tray of freeze dried SPAM and the smaller/darker pieces are the pieces i seared before drying (they shrank a little) the lighter colored pieces are the ones i boiled in a pot of water before drying. the boiled piece looks just like it did when i cut it, so you really cant tell the difference from a fresh cut piece of SPAM and freeze dried piece, except the freeze dried piece is a lot lighter and crunchy.
well, reconstituting SPAM is a bit tricky...
i did chicken, ham, pork loin and SPAM. the other meats reconstituted real quick and tasted just like fresh...even the texture was like it is when fresh.
SPAM, however...doesnt want to play nice. freeze dried SPAM takes quite a while to rehydrate. i used hot water and after 10 minutes, it was still a little crunchy, but better. 20 minutes and it tastes and feels like it did before drying. out of curiosity, i wanted to see how it would taste if rehydrated with chicken broth instead of water. been 20 minutes in broth and still a little crunchy. i also went thru the fridge looking for other liquids to use for rehydrating. i ended up using water, chicken broth, coconut milk and pickle juice. the coconut milk is too thick to sink in and the pickle juice did marginal. i thought the vinegar might help penetrate better.
so...the SPAM does freeze dry well, just a bit more time consuming getting it back. maybe its harder to rehydrate since i applied heat to both batches...searing and boiling? i'll have to experiment more, but it definitely works.
i was thinking about how the astronauts took freeze dried ice cream into space with them. i always wondered why they didnt take freeze dried SPAM. now i understand...
maybe that's why i dont see it in MREs...it takes too long to rehydrate.
i did chicken, ham, pork loin and SPAM. the other meats reconstituted real quick and tasted just like fresh...even the texture was like it is when fresh.
SPAM, however...doesnt want to play nice. freeze dried SPAM takes quite a while to rehydrate. i used hot water and after 10 minutes, it was still a little crunchy, but better. 20 minutes and it tastes and feels like it did before drying. out of curiosity, i wanted to see how it would taste if rehydrated with chicken broth instead of water. been 20 minutes in broth and still a little crunchy. i also went thru the fridge looking for other liquids to use for rehydrating. i ended up using water, chicken broth, coconut milk and pickle juice. the coconut milk is too thick to sink in and the pickle juice did marginal. i thought the vinegar might help penetrate better.
so...the SPAM does freeze dry well, just a bit more time consuming getting it back. maybe its harder to rehydrate since i applied heat to both batches...searing and boiling? i'll have to experiment more, but it definitely works.
i was thinking about how the astronauts took freeze dried ice cream into space with them. i always wondered why they didnt take freeze dried SPAM. now i understand...
maybe that's why i dont see it in MREs...it takes too long to rehydrate.
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Member I
Interesting. I understand trying to add some searing to the spam before freeze drying it, but why did you boil some of the pieces? If anything I would suspect that would render some of the fat out of it.
