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Spam (Canned Meat Product)

JamesWhitehead said:
I understand that the South American tinned-beef tradition came about when Fray Bentos found ways to market the wasted meat from what was essentially a leather industry. Concentrated meat flavourings, such as Oxo, came from the same background.
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There's one historical event I have always thought puzzling and never got around to researching - the Irish Potato Famine.

How could that happen - surely there must have been alternative sources of food?

Having taken a brief look there at the history of corned beef, astonished to read the following, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Ireland produced a significant amount of the corned beef in the Atlantic trade from local cattle and salt imported from the Iberian Peninsula and southwestern France. Coastal cities, such as Dublin, Belfast, and Cork, created vast beef curing and packing industries, with Cork producing half of Ireland's annual beef exports in 1668. Although the production and trade of corned beef as a commodity was a source of great wealth for the colonial nations of Britain and France (which were participating in the Atlantic slave trade), in the colonies themselves, the product was looked upon with disdain due to its association with poverty and slavery.

Increasing corned beef production to satisfy the rising populations of the industrialised areas of Great Britain and Atlantic trade worsened the effects of the Irish Famine and the Great Potato Famine:

The Irish grazing lands had been used to pasture cows for centuries. The Vikings , Normans, English and Scots colonised ... Ireland, transforming much of their countryside into an extended grazing land to raise cattle for a hungry consumer market at home ... The taste for beef had a devastating impact on the impoverished and disenfranchised people of ... Ireland. Pushed off the best pasture land and forced to farm smaller plots of marginal land, the Irish turned to the potato, a crop that could be grown abundantly in less favorable soil. Eventually, cows took over much of Ireland, leaving the native population virtually dependent on the potato for survival.

— Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef
[End]


Stunned... had no idea about this at all.
 
I had, myself, dismissed corned beef as a boring, old commodity; then my sister-in-law persuaded me to try it in sandwiches with raw onion. I was a convert. English Mustard gives this a further boost.

Sign of age: when I moved to Manchester back in 1991, tins of corned beef could be obtained for just 29p. Now I'm a boring, old commodity! :omr:
 
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JamesWhitehead said:
I had, myself, dismissed corned beef as a boring, old commodity; then my sister-in-law persuaded me to try it in sandwiches with raw onion.
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Perhaps for the, you know, 'lower classes', and not something you would ever find myself munching on.

Chance of that happening is about likely as...

IMG_20200925_052943_resize_69.jpg
 
Austin Popper said:
Mmmmmm... corned beef. Good stuff. Mom makes a great corned beef casserole. She used to make it with Velveeta cheese, another yummy food that has fallen out of favor.

I'm a big fan of Reuben sammiches too.
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Velveeta cheese - I think that's often called 'plastic cheese'.
 
Only a couple of weeks ago, I had a hankering for a dish much loved in childhood -corned beef, fried eggs, chips and beans, mopped up with a few slices of white buttered bread.

Unfortunately, I cut my finger quite badly when opening the tin, with that stupid key thing.

Cool tip. Before opening, put the tin a the freezer for 10 minutes, then open with a normal can opener. Once opened, simply push the contents through onto a plate with a table spoon.

Job done. :)
 
Dick Turpin said:
Only a couple of weeks ago, I had a hankering for a dish much loved in childhood -corned beef, fried eggs, chips and beans, mopped up with a few slices of white buttered bread.

Unfortunately, I cut my finger quite badly when opening the tin, with that stupid key thing.

Cool tip. Before opening, put the tin a the freezer for 10 minutes, then open with a normal can opener. Once opened, simply push the contents through onto a plate with a table spoon.

Job done. :)
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Or.... just be careful. Those key-opened can wounds are a rite of passage and all part of the thrill of Spam. Or corned beef.
 
Analogue Boy said:
Or.... just be careful. Those key-opened can wounds are a rite of passage and all part of the thrill of Spam. Or corned beef.
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Yeah, I remember cutting 3 fingers quite badly when opening a can years ago.
Liberal application of TCP was necessary.
I never made the same mistakes again.
 
JamesWhitehead said:
Corned Beef has the reputation of being a pensioners' food now. Pinch myself - I am heading that way!

Yet it is excellent in a hash. American, pan-fried versions require a different form of Corned Beef, which keeps its cubic shape a lot better, I think.

I use the layered form, like a dry-style Irish stew - potatoes, onion, optional garlic and herbs. Tonight, it got an extra layer of sauerkraut, because I had it. It promises to be delightful.

I understand that the South American tinned-beef tradition came about when Fray Bentos found ways to market the wasted meat from what was essentially a leather industry. Concentrated meat flavourings, such as Oxo, came from the same background.

Corned Beef is a great store-cupboard food! :party:
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When I first started work in 1979 a shop across the road from the office used to do real and proper crusty rolls, buttered with real and proper butter and thick slices of corned beef. I loved them and have never found a corned beef roll that could match it in the intervening years.
 
Effects of cutting one's finger on a corned beef can:

aaaacowpox.jpg

Edit: I can report that the layered hash with sauerkraut was excellent. It lacked a little in aromatics, despite a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

A sprinkle of ras al hanout at the table did the trick: the notes of caraway and coriander seed were suited to the potato base of the dish.

I would add this spice during the cooking, in future. :)
 
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JamesWhitehead said:
A sprinkle of ras al hanout at the table did the trick: the notes of caraway and coriander seed were suited to the potato base of the dish.

I would add this spice during the cooking, in future. :)
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Good call!
 
I still wonder if I am a complaining picky eater.
I wasn't a picky eater as a child , but I was finicky about meat. It needed to be well -done lean identifiable muscle meat. Encountering mystery meat, in a can or presented as a "lunchmeat" seemed so icky. Identifiable muscle meat is sad and unappetizing now that it was easy to become a vegetarian by the age of 20.
 
For breakfast this morning we are going Danish. :)

I haven't tried this ham before and methinks a couple of lighly toasted sandwiches.

IMG_20200929_055926_resize_44.jpg
 
The thing is. there is corned beef and corned beef, the stuff we get in tins is not the corned beef they exported from Ireland and much beloved in the delis of New York, that corned beef is more akin to Pickled Brisket or a form of salt beef, nothing like the stuff in tins which is reconstituted beef scraps, I like both versions by the way
 
Yes, this is why stove-top hash, American-style, becomes a sludgy mess, if you use the Argentine or Brazilian canned stuff. My layered, oven-cooked hash has a better structure.

Oddly, though, I saw a video fairly recently on Youtube, where older US lady made the stove-top version with the minced stuff! :dunno:
 
Comfortably Numb said:
For breakfast this morning we are going Danish. :)

I haven't tried this ham before and methinks a couple of lighly toasted sandwiches.

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As a kid, we would call this Christmas ham, as for some reason, my Mum would only buy this around Christmas time, (a bit like Tanderines :))

But the ham also goes well with fried eggs, chips, beans and a few slices of white buttered bread. :D
 
Dick Turpin said:
But the ham also goes well with fried eggs, chips, beans and a few slices of white buttered bread. :D
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Verdict this morning...

On buttered toast, no seasoning - delicious.

With a drizzle of Chipotle sauce... :bdown:

I also bought some local fresh organic eggs and your suggestion is duly noted. I think that's supper sorted. Now the can has been opened, contents need to be used soon as...

Haven't had fried eggs for ages and never with slices of buttered Danish bread - which will be the perfect 'fried egg soft yolk dippy' size. Just the thought of this is making me hungry! :dinner:

Actually, occurs that only recently family and myself were talking about the downside of holidays - that journey back, when you have typically been up since around 5 a.m., final packing which is such a chore because you have spend far too much on needless items and generally getting ready. Everyone is tired, it seems to take forever and the one thing which keeps your spirits up is knowing...

Unpacking can wait, first thing home is going to be a plate of fried eggs, chips and beans.

And at last, a proper cup of tea. :nods:
 
Comfortably Numb said:
Verdict this morning...

On buttered toast, no seasoning - delicious.

With a drizzle of Chipotle sauce... :bdown:

I also bought some local fresh organic eggs and your suggestion is duly noted. I think that's supper sorted. Now the can has been opened, contents need to be used soon as...

Haven't had fried eggs for ages and never with slices of buttered Danish bread - which will be the perfect 'fried egg soft yolk dippy' size. Just the thought of this is making me hungry! :dinner:

Actually, occurs that only recently family and myself were talking about the downside of holidays - that journey back, when you have typically been up since around 5 a.m., final packing which is such a chore because you have spend far too much on needless items and generally getting ready. Everyone is tired, it seems to take forever and the one thing which keeps your spirits up is knowing...

Unpacking can wait, first thing home is going to be a plate of fried eggs, chips and beans.

And at last, a proper cup of tea. :nods:
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Damn right. I should have mentioned to wash it down with a nice strong cuppa.
 
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Comfortably Numb said:
Some related cultural suggestions. :pig:

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This is taking me back to my primary school years.

Once a week on a Wednesday, if my brain serves me correctly – Spam fritters, chips and beans.

If I was lucky, I got seated on a table with Ayoob, who couldn’t eat Spam due to his religious beliefs, so I copped his portion :D
 
Ah.

We had that Burns night at the Cornish Inn...

The Haggis and everything went down with great enthusiasm, but the deep fried mars bars were quietly spat into napkins and binned.
 
You know how sometimes you're searching on YouTube and entirely unrelated, a new suggestion comes up from something previous...

This random one is way too awesome and can't ignore. :)

Hawaii, Gordon Ramsey... nothing could be further from...

 
I must admit that I do like Spam, even though I haven't had it in a while. No one I associate with will join me in enjoying some. Can't say I've had enough exposure to canned corned beef to have an opinion. However, there is one Ameican delicacy I can recommend to the adventurous: scrapple.

By the way, the discussion of key-opening cans of meat makes me think of a prized posession of mine: a Swiss army knife that has a phillips screwdriver perpendicular to the handle. Why? Because that screwdriver has a slot in the end that makes it useable as a key to open those cans if the original key is lost. Unfortunately that particular tool is no longer available from Victorinox.
 
Here is good video about the original and ancient Mortadella*, American Bologna and its influence on the Eastern Block.

Not so much a canned thing - by the strictest interpretation of the thread-title - but a convenient meat-product in sausage-form. Some interesting cross-cultural history here.

Delightful footage of a Russian Grannie recalling the joys of the Doctor's Sausage, back in the day. Our host then sets about recreating the best of these sausage in his own kitchen.

*Named after the myrtle seasoning, not death-by-a-thousand-fatty-chunks, as I had imagined. :buck:
 
An inadvertent discovery...

Tin of Tesco Danish ham and the dreaded, 'key spiral' disaster:

IMG_20201018_050421_resize_55.jpg


Only solution is to extract ham (carefully avoiding injury) with a knife.

The available gap is tight, so what you end up with is... pulled pork!

IMG_20201018_050349_resize_67.jpg


Just had this on lightly toasted, buttered bread for breakfast - perfect for same and absolutely delicious. :nods:
 
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