Spam Sales Hit High 7 Years In A Row

From the BBC:

Sales of the canned cooked meat Spam have hit a record high for the seventh year in a row, despite pandemic-related challenges.

That helped Hormel, the company that makes the iconic brand, deliver record sales of $3.5bn (£2.65bn) in the three months to the end of October.

The firm's boss said it will start work on expanding its range of Spam products next year. Hormel's shares rose by almost 6% in New York on Thursday.

"The Spam brand delivered its seventh consecutive year of record growth," Hormel's chief executive Jim Snee said on a conference call with investors.

"We are also beginning work on another expansion for the Spam family of products scheduled to be operational in 2023," he added.​

If I have a pig parts (i.e., Spam) sandwich once or twice a year, that's enough. My father, who lived on it in the jungles of the S. Pacific in WWII, wouldn't tolerate being in the same house with it.

 

I was surprised to learn that Spam is very popular in Asia and it's been a staple in Hawaii for years. I bought a can last year during The Great Grocery Hoard of '20. We opened it and tried to eat it but it was so disgusting that I threw it out.

I recall when I was a kid my mother occasionally fried slices to have with eggs for breakfast.

 

We had it a lot when I was a kid. If it was fried a long time and the edges turned crispy, I thought it made a good sandwich. I bought a can a while back but decided to toss it after opening. I guess if someone else (mom) opens it and you only see it in a sandwich, it's OK. Actually, that's probably true of a lot of things we eat, like baloney etc.

 

Spam has been a staple in both Alaska and Hawaii for many years. It travels well and can sit on a shelf for a long time without spoilage. I think it became a mainstay when all supplies came to the 49th and 50th states by boat, so meat would be several weeks in transit, often without refrigeration. It is still used a lot in the Bush and on homesteads, but not so much on the road system. There is a lot of it still sold in the cities still, however.

 

I love spam but my wife gives me crap if I buy it.

 

We ate fried Spam with the burnt edges when we were little too. Never had it any other way that I can remember.

 

I like Spam, seared on both sides almost crispy. Tasty.

 

She does not have to eat it .. so raspberry for giving you crap about our tasty would be meat

 

Spam, About That Meat:

1. Spam was born in 1937
2. Nearly 100 million pounds of Spam were consumed by Allied troops in WWII,.
3. Hormel produces around 45,000 cans of spam every hour.
4. Hawaii alone consumes around 7 million cans of Spam per year.
5. There is a restaurant in the Phillipines that serves only Spam.
   
6. There is an official Spam museum in Austin, MN. that is staffed by "Spambassadors."
7. Hormel created a musical troupe of 60 women and an orchestra after WWII to try to keep Spam alive post-war.
8. Spam supposedly does not contain "mystery meat" such as pig butts, snouts or eyes. Contents are supposedly only ham, pork shoulder, salt, sugar and sodium nitrate as a preservative.

Based on testimony by @Von Jones and others, I am going to give fried Spam a try and see if it is more palatable than the "raw" version. Any way you slice it, Spam isn't as bad as some of the "gag-a-maggot" meat we had through the "poor years" following WWII.

 

We usually ate it fried, and it tastes to me just about like ham. I wouldn't eat it plain and cold, as it has gelatin to hold it together.
link 1

Link 2

 

I use the reduced sodium one

 

I love Hank Jr!

 

it is better cooked instead of out of the can. I rinse mine off and pat dry before cooking