June 4, 2024 • 32 mins
Ever wondered how a humble canned meat could become a cultural icon? Join us as we uncover the rich history and global legacy of Spam. We'll take you back to its origins in Austin, Minnesota, where Jay Hormel's quest for a fully cooked ham led to the creation of Spam 87 years ago. Discover how this innovative product became a vital food source for soldiers during World War II and evolved into a beloved household staple in the post-war era. Our journey will take us around the globe, highlighting Spam's immense popularity in South Korea, the Philippines, and Japan.
🐖 From Humble Origins to Global Culinary Icon 🥫
Get ready to be enthralled by the stories, traditions, and crazy recipes that surround Spam. We'll debunk some common misconceptions about Spam, delve into its 6 ingredient recipe, and explore how its formulation has evolved over the years. From unique culinary creations like Spam Musubi to the vibrant Spam Jam celebration in Hawaii, this episode is packed with delicious inspiration. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the Spam phenomenon, you'll leave with a newfound appreciation and perhaps even a few ideas for your next meal.
🧀 SPAM Species 🧄
Classic Spam
Spam Lite
Spam Less Sodium
Spam with Real Hormel Bacon
Spam Hickory Smoke
Spam Hot & Spicy
Spam Jalapeño
Spam Black Pepper
Spam Teriyaki
Spam Oven Roasted Turkey
Spam Garlic
Spam Tocino
Spam Portuguese Sausage
Spam Chorizo
Spam Cheese
Spam Single Classic
Spam Single Lite
Spam Single Hickory Smoke
Spam Single Hot & Spicy
Spam Spread
Spam Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice
🔗 Episode Links
SPAM Museum: https://www.spam.com/museum
Spam Recipies: https://tinyurl.com/yh37capm
Curator's Choice - A podcast for history nerds and museum lovers
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ayla Sparks (00:00):
Hi, I'm Ayla Sparks and this is Curator's Choice, a
podcast for history nerds andmuseum lovers.
From ancient relics to modernmarvels, each episode of this
show features a new museum and acurator's choice of some
amazing artifacts housed there.
These guardians of history willshare insights, anecdotes and
(00:21):
the often untold stories thatbreathe life into the artifacts
they protect.
Thanks for tuning in to thisMighty Oak Media production and
the often untold stories thatbreathe life into the artifacts
they protect.
Thanks for tuning in to thisMighty Oak Media production and
enjoy the show.
I'm so excited about spam.
It is my grandma's favoritething.
However, I thought a spammuseum was in Hawaii.
Savile Lord (00:38):
Well, you know what that is such a good question?
Because we get that all thetime.
Here we have two differenttypes of people.
One that come in and say, doyou know that Hawaiians love
spam?
And we're like, yeah, we do.
And then we have the othergroup who's like wait, why is
the museum here in Austin,minnesota, and not in Hawaii?
And because the Hawaiiansabsolutely adore spam.
(01:01):
And it's simply because we'rethe home of Hormel Foods.
Hormel Foods started in Austin,minnesota, 133 years ago, and
we are the ones who created Spamalmost 87 years ago, and so we
wanted it just needed to be here, because this is where it was
born and raised.
That makes a lot of sense now.
Yes, the birthplace of thewhole idea of taking a meat and
(01:24):
making a canned meat that wastotally portable and able to be
eaten by vast amounts of peopleacross the world.
Ayla Sparks (01:32):
So, speaking of that birth of Spam, why was Spam
developed in the first place?
I feel like it was made to hita certain need that we needed in
the country at the time.
Savile Lord (01:41):
Well, you are absolutely right, but you would
have to actually go back about10 years.
10 years prior there was aproduct that went out onto the
market.
The founder of the company,george Hormel, had a son whose
name was Jay, and Jay was thisamazing innovator.
He had all of these reallycreative ideas.
He just really wanted to makepeople's lives easier with the
(02:03):
products that he created, and sohe spent a number of years
following World War I developinga fully cooked ham.
It was supposed to literally.
The idea behind it was he wantedto save women time in the
kitchen because they werespending.
You know, when you were cookinga 10-pound ham from raw, it
would take massive amounts oftime eight, nine hours but if
(02:26):
you had a fully cooked ham, itwould take an hour and a half to
two hours to just reheat it andyou were saving so much time
from that woman being reallymarried to the kitchen where she
could go out and do otherthings and just have to reheat
this ham.
So he took several yearsfiguring out the process of how
to fully cook it in its can andthen took that, developed it
down and shrank it to fit a spamcan.
(02:47):
So it was definitely fitting aneed at the time.
It was developed in 19,.
It went live in 1937, and trulyfit a need.
If you look at a can of spam,it actually is the size of a
slice of bread.
And that was very, verypurposeful, because the idea was
(03:08):
you cut the Spam up, you wouldserve your family of four or
five, you would throw away thecan because you wouldn't have
the refrigeration for leftoversand you could serve it on a
slice of bread and feed yourwhole family.
Ayla Sparks (03:21):
What catapulted Spam to being as popular as it
became?
Because that sounds like agreat consumer product for women
who are looking.
But I feel like it probably hadan awakening of spam the spam
awakening.
Savile Lord (03:35):
Shortly after it came out, in 1937, we hit World
War II, and during World War II,spam is the meat of many uses.
It can be served in breakfast,for lunch, for dinner.
The variety of different waysthat you can make spam has
absolutely no limits.
So you take that, with it beinga fully cooked protein that is
(03:59):
so important to the soldiersthat are serving and helping to
fight World War II, that broughtit home for a lot of people A
that high protein level and Bthe availability of not having
to worry about it being cooked.
If you needed to, you couldopen up the can and eat it
straight out of the can.
Otherwise you could fry it up,so you had different uses and
(04:19):
then you could have it for thatbreakfast, you could have it for
that lunch, you could have itfor dinner.
There were so many differentways you could serve it.
It really made it veryversatile.
Ayla Sparks (04:27):
Was the US government purchasing spam in
mass quantities to send totroops?
Savile Lord (04:32):
Yes, by the time about 1945, about 90 percent of
what Hormel Foods was making,including spam, was going over
for the war effort.
Canned foods in general were anumber of those items.
But so yeah, absolutely thatwas a, that was a thing.
Ayla Sparks (04:51):
Well, so we know that it was really important
when we were in kind of a diresituation with the World War.
What made spam continue to bepopular?
Because even today it is stillvery popular in some places
because even today, it is stillvery popular in some places.
Savile Lord (05:08):
Well, it is.
That's.
The huge thing is that rightnow, spam is sold in over 47
different countries all over theworld.
We have such huge spam bases inSouth Korea, for example, in
the Philippines is another one,in Okinawa, japan, another huge
just people who absolutely adoreSpam, and so it is just grown.
(05:28):
So you end World War II, peoplecome home and they have this
familiarity with this productand so they start making it.
And again, that versatility ofthe different ways that you can
make it.
You could make it for breakfastwith Spam and eggs.
You could make it for lunch ina casserole with a you know, mac
and cheese and spam.
You could make it for dinner asyour main meal and then, as
(05:52):
it's grown internationally, yousee how they've developed all of
these other ways that you canhave it, for example, in South
Korea.
South Korea has somethingcalled budigije, which is also
called army stew, and it becamevery popular following the
Korean War, where there was alot of spam that was left over
by the US troops and madeavailable to the Koreans to eat,
(06:15):
and it was literally thatprotein that you needed.
So you would have a family gettogether and your mother would
bring one ingredient, yourfather would bring another
ingredient, your aunt wouldbring a third ingredient,
everybody would bring stufftogether to make this budigije
stew and there would always bespam.
Now, if you take it to the sideand you think about okay, what
(06:36):
about for Hawaii?
Hawaii, if you think aboutisland nations in general,
island nations don't have a hugeamount of landmass, so they
don't have that landmass to havethat hog farm, to have those
pig farms, but they still needtheir protein.
They get a lot of that fromfish from around there in their
waterways, but to have a meatthat they can rely upon, that is
(07:00):
that high protein that's notgoing to bankrupt them for
having to eat.
It's so important.
If you're buying a pound ofbeef in, for example, hawaii, it
is extremely expensive.
You're talking $8, $10 a pound,whereas having something like
Spam much more economical butstill that high protein that
people love.
The Hawaiians call it Hawaiiansteak.
(07:22):
They just have this love affairwith it.
That's continued to grow overthe years.
But so you see, to finish upthe answer to your question and
I've gone a couple differentdirections with it, but it's
just this food that people havecome to love because they have a
relationship with it, andthey've for example, your
grandmother has a story aboutspam.
(07:43):
No other food that I've evercome across do people have that
emotional attachment to, andthat's what makes spam so
special, is I have.
We have here in Austin,minnesota, a town of 24,000
people.
We have 100,000 visitors comeevery year and they come to tell
us their story about why spammeans something to them.
(08:06):
And to be able to tell thosestories and to listen and hear
people tell us their stories issuch an honor because it truly
means something to who they areas people and who they've become
as people, because they'velearned and heard these stories
about spam over the years andthen they've tried it and
they've loved it.
We had one of my spambassadorswho's driving her granddaughter
(08:27):
home the other day and hergranddaughter turned to her and
goes you know, I just love spam.
She's six years old and justand it's something about the
product that just brings anostalgia back home.
It's so simple Most peopledon't understand.
There are only six ingredientsin classic spam Six ingredients
(08:49):
and that has made it just such aremarkable piece of the story
of Americana.
It just continues to blossomthat love.
Ayla Sparks (08:58):
So why do you think and it might not be very
prevalent, I know that it wasfor me when I was growing up,
but it was like this idea thatspam is not healthy anymore?
It's considered something thatyou know you have on occasion
and it was good back then whenyou didn't have a lot of options
, but it's not healthy.
I don't think that that'snecessarily true, but how would
you answer the question ofsomeone saying is it actually
(09:19):
healthy to eat spam?
Savile Lord (09:20):
We're not encouraging everyone to eat the
entire can.
Ayla Sparks (09:24):
Moderation spam.
Savile Lord (09:25):
We're not encouraging everyone to eat the
entire can.
We limit moderation as much aspeople want to.
We say you know absolutelylimitations and that's what
you'll find in any can.
Meat.
Is that?
It's all about how you prepareit and the ingredients in it.
There are just six of them forthe classic spam.
Obviously, when we get we have11 varieties, so when you get
into some of those othervarieties you do get a couple
(09:45):
more ingredients into it, butit's all about the moderation
and to enjoy what you have,because it is just one of those
delectable pieces.
Sometimes you just need thatthe tasty ham that Spam is.
Ayla Sparks (09:57):
And it's high protein?
Yes, easy.
What are the six ingredients?
Obviously ham, pig, so it'spork, shoulder and ham, so it's
pork shoulder and ham.
Savile Lord (10:04):
So it's two different types of the cut of
the pig.
One is the pork shoulder wasvery important during the
Depression, so it was a piece ofthe pig that you couldn't get a
direct cut off.
You weren't getting a slice ofbacon off of it, you weren't
getting a pork chop.
You weren't getting a slice ofham.
But it was very important meat.
So they knew they could grindthat portion up.
(10:25):
Then they took the rear of thehog.
That gave the pig a little bitmore of a ham flavor and the
combination of those two justmade it absolutely perfect.
Ayla Sparks (10:33):
They add then sugar , water and potato starch,
sodium nitrite and that's it Forsomeone who might not know what
is sodium nitrite, If you'veever eaten a hot dog in your
entire life.
Savile Lord (10:46):
You would know sodium nitrite gives pepperoni,
salami, any of those cured meats.
It gives it that pink color andit gives it that shelf life.
Ayla Sparks (10:55):
Well.
So I have had a lot of that inmy life.
I'm surprised I'm not turningpink myself.
So very simple ingredients.
Interesting that it's twodifferent portions of the pig,
which also as kind of a sidenote.
It just blows my mind that oneanimal can taste so different
depending on the cut.
I don't know if that's common,because I feel like even with
chicken, dark meat, light meatkind of tastes similar with a
(11:17):
cow.
I mean, you know a steaksimilar to kind of hamburger, in
my opinion at least.
But pig is vastly differentflavors 100%.
Savile Lord (11:26):
So we've learned a lot about that over the years.
And I will add the cooladdition to spam was that potato
starch.
That happened in the early2000s.
So if any of your listenersremember a can from pre-2000,
you'll remember that it had alittle gelatin on the top.
And when you opened up the canthere was a little gelatin on
(11:47):
top.
Well, what is that gelatin?
Well, spam is fully cooked.
So anytime you cook a meat inan enclosed can it has juices
and when those juices cool itactually would form that little
layer.
People didn't love that so welearned a lesson.
We learned a thing or two.
So early 2000s we ended upadding potato starch so that
(12:08):
would reabsorb that fat and keepthe meat nice and juicy without
having the gelatin on top?
Ayla Sparks (12:16):
How do you go about cooking in the can?
Is it just kind of like apressure cooker?
Does it go through a heatingprocess Like what is happening
in the spam factories?
Savile Lord (12:24):
There are two different types of ways that it
is cooked.
The majority of the spam iscooked in a six-story
high-pressure cooker.
There are two factories here inthe United States that cook
spam.
90% of it is cooked here inAustin, Minnesota, Then about
10% of it is cooked down inDubuque, Iowa, and so it is a
six-story cooker that literallycooks it with water.
(12:47):
The second one.
There's also what's called aretort cooker and that cooks the
Spam with steam 90% comes froma single location, is cooked in
a single location.
Ayla Sparks (12:56):
That's crazy.
Savile Lord (12:57):
Yes, we have four or five lines actually of Spam
and they eat adding linesbecause we keep producing more
and more Spam because there's somuch demand for it.
Demand has not slowed down.
We are on, I believe, yearseven of year over year sales
increases for spam.
It's just one of those productsthat just it has a life of its
(13:19):
own and it continues to reallyreally be impressive in its
sales category because peopleare getting much more
comfortable with it and muchmore used to it and just really
seem to love it.
Ayla Sparks (13:30):
This is crazy.
I had just obviouslyincorrectly assumed that it was
at least staying steady, maybegoing down, because I don't see
very many people eating spam.
But also, I guess maybe I'mjust surrounding myself with
these spam haters.
That's incredible that it hasbeen increasing every year.
Savile Lord (13:49):
It is absolutely incredible and we in fact just
finished an exhibit here at themuseum on some of our spam fans,
because you know, we have trueaficionados who try to make spam
in every possible way you can,every possible way you can, and
(14:09):
their connection with it is liketheir purpose is to represent
the brand and to go out and showthe world how great spam is
because they love it so much.
So we have a little army ofpeople who are out there just
that, that, just they love theirspam.
And you get into differentparts of the United States
especially, we have differentvarieties for different
consumers.
So, for example, there's ateriyaki version and the
(14:31):
teriyaki version is very popularamongst our Asian population.
Then we have a jalapeno versionthat's very popular down in the
Texas, mississippi, alabamaarea.
So hickory smoke, tennessee,like you, got to love it.
So we really try to make surethat there's spams depending on
what your taste buds are andwhat you like.
Ayla Sparks (14:50):
So obviously spam is very important, but why a
museum?
What does the world need toknow about spam?
Savile Lord (14:58):
Why not?
No, because I mean, having afood museum is not exactly the
norm.
We have this space where we'reable to tell the story of spam
and talk about thatinternational influence, talk
about how spam has grown overthe past 86 years, and it's a
(15:18):
destination for people to come.
Because there are all thesepeople I've had.
I have to tell you my storyabout my Hawaiian couple.
It was probably about two yearsago and we had opened at 10 am,
doors open.
These two people come in.
They're taking pictures leftand right.
You know getting people in thepictures getting we have spam
ambassadors, so those are ourambassadors of the spam brand.
(15:40):
So the spam ambassadors weretaking some photos of them and
they were so excited they'retelling us about how they were
from Hawaii.
Two minutes later, anothercouple comes in and they said by
the way, you know, there's aHonda Accord out on the street.
Is anybody in here?
Is that their car?
And the gentleman yeah, that'smy vehicle and he goes.
Well, you've left your driver'sside door open.
And he did that because he wasso excited to come to the museum
(16:04):
.
He like jumped out of the car,ran into the museum with his
wife and they were like on fire.
So, and that's just so, that'swhy we have a spam museum,
because people need a place tocome to talk about their love of
spam.
Ayla Sparks (16:17):
What can people expect whenever they come into
the museum?
Savile Lord (16:20):
So it is one of the .
We call it one of the happiestplaces on earth, simply because
nobody who comes to this fanmuseum is ever disappointed or
sad, because they've come hereon purpose and sometimes they
take major detours on road tripsto make it here.
When they come here, we have14,000 square feet of square
meat, so that is our littlepunchline.
(16:42):
And you come in and it's a veryinteractive museum, so it's
meant to be.
We ask that you please don'teat the exhibits, but you can
touch them.
Lots of photo opportunities,lots of interactive screens,
lots of things to see, and wewalk people through not just the
history of Hormel Foods so theycan learn how spam came about.
But then we talk about themilitary influence of spam.
(17:04):
We hit the internationalinfluence of spam.
We have an entire play area forkids.
Minnesota is a very big state,so if you're driving through
here with little ones, it's veryimportant to get those kids out
of the car and give them achance to run around a little
bit.
And then we just have somegames.
We have recipe boards, we havedifferent ways to interact with
(17:25):
the brand that are super fun.
It is a museum that is meant tobe touched Touched not eaten.
Ayla Sparks (17:30):
I'm wondering then.
So what are some of theartifacts that you guys have at
a spam museum?
The first ever spam can on ashrine?
Savile Lord (17:39):
Yes, we do have an entire collection of cans that
date back to the 1930s so thatpeople can see all the different
ways that you've opened Spamover the years, because that's
one of the can itself has notchanged the shape, the size of
it, the label has a little bitdepending on the time period,
but how it's opened has changedfive times, and so that's been
(18:03):
important piece to kind ofshowcase to our visitors.
One piece that we have is afully restored 1945 Wiley's MB
Jeep.
Now why do you have a Jeep in aspam museum?
Well, this goes back to part ofour military section showcasing
the importance of the militaryduring the war, and it was given
to us by a spam fan.
(18:24):
Someone who had this Jeepdidn't want it to go to a
military museum, didn't want itto go to a car museum, but had a
deep relationship with spam andthey wanted to share that with
us.
So they donated this Jeep to us.
Then some of the other thingsthat we have is a full can.
So there are different waysthat you've been able to serve
(18:45):
Spam.
Obviously, everybody knows thesmall can, the 12 ounce, but
you're also able to see theseven ounce can, which is what's
served in Asia.
And then you're also able tosee our larger cans that were
originally what was produced forthe army, and they are more
like loaves of bread.
That's about the size that theyare, and that was a better way
(19:07):
to ship off spam, simply becauseyour individual cans when
you're feeding a whole platoonis too small, so we were able to
make it in larger sizes.
Ayla Sparks (19:18):
Do we know anything speaking more of like the
artwork that's on the spam?
Can do we know anything aboutthe people who might've designed
it or how the design haschanged over the years?
Savile Lord (19:30):
Besides how you open it.
So in 1941, it was actually ablack and white label, simply
because there was a ration onink during that time, so we made
sure that we adhered to that.
The font is what has changed themost in Spam, so the coloring
has always stayed classic blueand yellow.
And I should tell you how Spamgot its name at some point, so
we'll jump off to that in asecond.
(19:51):
But it literally we startedwith a can that you would
actually twist open with a key.
You can see that today in somekind of some corned beef cans.
It then moved to a side pullcan, so you would actually pull
a little loop on the side of thecan and pull it open that way.
Then back in the early mid 80swe switched to like a Coca-Cola
(20:13):
single tab, pop top.
That one wasn't having greatsuccess with the leverage
portion of the can, so wechanged it in the early 90s to a
two-finger pull that is on acorner, thereby creating much
better leverage and helpingpeople who might have some
arthritis in their hands beingable to much easier open that
(20:35):
can.
Ayla Sparks (20:36):
So let's talk about spam and its name.
So I was looking online and itseems like there was kind of a.
There's a bit of a mysterybehind it.
What's the story of Spam Name?
Savile Lord (20:48):
There is a small bit of mystery.
So Jay, who we talked aboutearlier, had a product that he
wanted to put out on the market.
It had been out on the marketpreviously under the name of
Spiced Ham.
However, he was going against abunch of competition.
There were about four or fiveother products out on the market
at that time with similar names, similar types.
(21:09):
So he really, in thatinnovative, creative mind that
he had, he wanted to have a namefor this product that would
truly stick out.
So in 1936, during a New Year'sEve party that he hosted, he
offered $100 to whomever couldcome up with the name for this
new product.
And apparently it did take alittle while.
(21:30):
A couple of drinks had to bepassed before people started to
truly get creative, but they puttheir names into this hat and
at the end of the evening hepulled out the names and a
gentleman by the name of KennethDagnow he was an actor in
Hollywood came up with the nameSpam, the S-P from spiced and
the A-M from ham.
(21:51):
And during that time periodthat was not uncommon to have a
name like Spam, because names ofthat time period were very
short and punchy, so that wasvery common for the foods that
were being produced during thattime period.
So Spam just fit in with theother products of that time and
it worked out great.
Ayla Sparks (22:09):
It did.
It fits perfectly on thatlittle square, can?
Yes, it does 100%.
So what is the best way, inyour opinion, to enjoy Spam?
Savile Lord (22:20):
Now you guys have to understand for your listeners
.
I eat Spam every day, every day, because we have our Spamples
that we serve around the museum.
We just do, and we serve themon little pretzels.
So people just pick up thepretzel, eat the spam bowl and
then have the pretzel, and wetry to serve as many different
(22:41):
varieties throughout the day aswe can, and so I always get some
.
But one of the ways I love tomake spam and this is a perfect
dish for coming into summer is aspam salad.
You just take a little bit ofbow tie pasta, cook that up.
You then take some fresh onions, some fresh green pepper and a
little bit of fresh corn.
You have that on the side.
Take a little bit of honeymustard, a little bit of white
(23:01):
wine vinegar, just whisk that up.
Then obviously, you have yourspam.
I love to use the jalapeno spamfor this.
You can use the hickory smokeNone them, all of them are just
fine and you dice that up, cookit, have a nice hot spam, mix
everything together, pour in alittle bit of cheese, oh, and
it's perfect.
You can have it chilled foryour summer barbecue or you can
(23:24):
have it warm for a summernight's dinner.
Like you can do it either way,it's just, it's just a very,
very good little dish versatiledish.
Ayla Sparks (23:31):
My my favorite definitely has to be the way
that my grandma always made itfor me.
Of course, she would fry thespam in little cubes on a
skillet and then mix it in withmy blue box macaroni and cheese.
Now, that's how my husbandmakes it for me.
Savile Lord (23:46):
Yes, and we actually have musabi.
I don't know if you all haveheard of the musabi, but musabi
is one of the most popular waysthey eat it in Hawaii.
So Hawaiians take Spam.
Do you know how the Hawaiianslove sushi?
In general, you take Spam.
It kind of looks like sushi,but what they do is they take
(24:06):
the rice.
The Spam can is actually perfectfor making this.
You just put a little piece ofplastic inside, you pack in a
little bit of rice, you pack ina slice of spam maybe the
teriyaki spam, maybe one of theothers and then you wrap it in a
little nori, which is seaweed,and you have that warm and it is
(24:26):
delicious.
So in Hawaii they actually havethat in their convenience store
.
So instead of going in andgrabbing a rolling hot dog off
one of those belts, they haveheated refrigerators where you
can grab that Spam and take thatinstead.
They'll sell 200,000 to 300,000Spam Musubi every day.
(24:49):
In Hawaii Kids have that fortheir to-go high-go high protein
snack during soccer games.
So you'll not just get yourlittle slice of orange, you'll
get that and a musubi to pickyourself up to get ready for
game number two out of yourthree set games for the day.
It's amazing how they continueto utilize it in this really
friendly way.
That makes it so because it'struly portable, it's fully
(25:11):
cooked and you get it and you go, and that's the cool thing
about Spam.
So we had one of our Spamambassadors actually make some
for a meeting yesterday morning.
It's just, it's this greatlittle high-protein snack that
everybody can enjoy.
So I would encourage some ofyour listeners to do potentially
a musubi date night andeverybody just make a little bit
of musubi.
You just need a little bit ofmusubi.
You just need a little bit ofsticky rice, and a spam can is
(25:34):
the perfect container for itbecause it's just that size.
You just pack in a little bitof rice, you put that slice of
spam on top.
You use a little bit of plasticto pull it out and then you wrap
it in that nori.
Ayla Sparks (25:45):
I feel like I'm going to have to get a spam
cookbook and just try all thesedifferent types of spam recipes.
Savile Lord (25:54):
We just actually had Spam Jam in Hawaii this past
weekend.
So Spam Jam and that's wherethey showcase all of the new
ways to make spam it is aone-day celebration celebrating
spam as a product and it didn'thave anything to do with formal
foods.
It was created by a.
It was started actually as athank you lunch to all the
(26:15):
resort workers and they alwayswould serve spam at it, and then
it's grown over the past 20years to be this full day event
that has.
You know, they have bands, theyhave spam making contests, so
all the different restaurants onthe islands showcase the
different ways they make spam.
You know, in different parts ofthe world.
It has a mind of its own andreally the influence is
(26:37):
incredible.
To add to that, just quickly,in South Korea they have a gift
box that is spam.
It is 12 cans of spam is oneversion.
Another version is about ninecans of spam and two bottles of
olive oil that comesspecifically from Spain and
they'll put it in this reallypretty box and they'll give that
(26:57):
out at their Lunar New Year.
They'll give that out at theirHawaiian I'm sorry, their
Thanksgiving and it's a show ofrespect because it's actually
considered a lucrative gift Inthat country there are 10, 15
other knockoffs of people whowant to be spam.
So if you can afford the spam,that means you're doing really,
really well, and so it'sconsidered an exquisite gift to
(27:19):
be able to receive.
Ayla Sparks (27:20):
I'm just imagining, like a dowry situation where
you just end up getting spam.
Savile Lord (27:26):
Would, you like three cows, or would you like
buy stock and spam?
Ayla Sparks (27:32):
I'm assuming there has to be some pretty incredible
events that you guys do at themuseum itself.
Savile Lord (27:36):
Yes, we just hosted a wine event, actually last
night, where we hosted fivedifferent wines and then we did
an appetizer with each one.
Now, for this one, it was adifferent Hormel product for
each appetizer, but we've doneones that are specifically spam
and for Spam Musubi Day comingup in August.
There is actually a Spam MusubiDay in August, and so we'll be
(27:59):
doing a class on how to teacheverybody how to make Spam
Musubi.
Ayla Sparks (28:03):
That's fantastic.
Well, thank you so much forsharing spam with us.
Savile Lord (28:07):
Oh, you're so welcome.
Thank you for asking.
I mean, when I grew up, I hadno idea I'd be running a spam
museum in Autzen, Minnesota, andI couldn't ask for a more fun
job.
Ayla Sparks (28:17):
Thank you so much for tuning in and supporting
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If you love a museum and wouldlike to hear it featured in an
(28:37):
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Thanks for listening toCurator's Choice, a podcast for
history nerds and museum lovers.
Hi, I'm Ayla Sparks and this is Curator's Choice, a
podcast for history nerds andmuseum lovers.
From ancient relics to modernmarvels, each episode of this
show features a new museum and acurator's choice of some
amazing artifacts housed there.
These guardians of history willshare insights, anecdotes and
(00:21):
the often untold stories thatbreathe life into the artifacts
they protect.
Thanks for tuning in to thisMighty Oak Media production and
the often untold stories thatbreathe life into the artifacts
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enjoy the show.
I'm so excited about spam.
It is my grandma's favoritething.
However, I thought a spammuseum was in Hawaii.
Savile Lord (00:38):
Well, you know what that is such a good question?
Because we get that all thetime.
Here we have two differenttypes of people.
One that come in and say, doyou know that Hawaiians love
spam?
And we're like, yeah, we do.
And then we have the othergroup who's like wait, why is
the museum here in Austin,minnesota, and not in Hawaii?
And because the Hawaiiansabsolutely adore spam.
(01:01):
And it's simply because we'rethe home of Hormel Foods.
Hormel Foods started in Austin,minnesota, 133 years ago, and
we are the ones who created Spamalmost 87 years ago, and so we
wanted it just needed to be here, because this is where it was
born and raised.
That makes a lot of sense now.
Yes, the birthplace of thewhole idea of taking a meat and
(01:24):
making a canned meat that wastotally portable and able to be
eaten by vast amounts of peopleacross the world.
Ayla Sparks (01:32):
So, speaking of that birth of Spam, why was Spam
developed in the first place?
I feel like it was made to hita certain need that we needed in
the country at the time.
Savile Lord (01:41):
Well, you are absolutely right, but you would
have to actually go back about10 years.
10 years prior there was aproduct that went out onto the
market.
The founder of the company,george Hormel, had a son whose
name was Jay, and Jay was thisamazing innovator.
He had all of these reallycreative ideas.
He just really wanted to makepeople's lives easier with the
(02:03):
products that he created, and sohe spent a number of years
following World War I developinga fully cooked ham.
It was supposed to literally.
The idea behind it was he wantedto save women time in the
kitchen because they werespending.
You know, when you were cookinga 10-pound ham from raw, it
would take massive amounts oftime eight, nine hours but if
(02:26):
you had a fully cooked ham, itwould take an hour and a half to
two hours to just reheat it andyou were saving so much time
from that woman being reallymarried to the kitchen where she
could go out and do otherthings and just have to reheat
this ham.
So he took several yearsfiguring out the process of how
to fully cook it in its can andthen took that, developed it
down and shrank it to fit a spamcan.
(02:47):
So it was definitely fitting aneed at the time.
It was developed in 19,.
It went live in 1937, and trulyfit a need.
If you look at a can of spam,it actually is the size of a
slice of bread.
And that was very, verypurposeful, because the idea was
(03:08):
you cut the Spam up, you wouldserve your family of four or
five, you would throw away thecan because you wouldn't have
the refrigeration for leftoversand you could serve it on a
slice of bread and feed yourwhole family.
Ayla Sparks (03:21):
What catapulted Spam to being as popular as it
became?
Because that sounds like agreat consumer product for women
who are looking.
But I feel like it probably hadan awakening of spam the spam
awakening.
Savile Lord (03:35):
Shortly after it came out, in 1937, we hit World
War II, and during World War II,spam is the meat of many uses.
It can be served in breakfast,for lunch, for dinner.
The variety of different waysthat you can make spam has
absolutely no limits.
So you take that, with it beinga fully cooked protein that is
(03:59):
so important to the soldiersthat are serving and helping to
fight World War II, that broughtit home for a lot of people A
that high protein level and Bthe availability of not having
to worry about it being cooked.
If you needed to, you couldopen up the can and eat it
straight out of the can.
Otherwise you could fry it up,so you had different uses and
(04:19):
then you could have it for thatbreakfast, you could have it for
that lunch, you could have itfor dinner.
There were so many differentways you could serve it.
It really made it veryversatile.
Ayla Sparks (04:27):
Was the US government purchasing spam in
mass quantities to send totroops?
Savile Lord (04:32):
Yes, by the time about 1945, about 90 percent of
what Hormel Foods was making,including spam, was going over
for the war effort.
Canned foods in general were anumber of those items.
But so yeah, absolutely thatwas a, that was a thing.
Ayla Sparks (04:51):
Well, so we know that it was really important
when we were in kind of a diresituation with the World War.
What made spam continue to bepopular?
Because even today it is stillvery popular in some places
because even today, it is stillvery popular in some places.
Savile Lord (05:08):
Well, it is.
That's.
The huge thing is that rightnow, spam is sold in over 47
different countries all over theworld.
We have such huge spam bases inSouth Korea, for example, in
the Philippines is another one,in Okinawa, japan, another huge
just people who absolutely adoreSpam, and so it is just grown.
(05:28):
So you end World War II, peoplecome home and they have this
familiarity with this productand so they start making it.
And again, that versatility ofthe different ways that you can
make it.
You could make it for breakfastwith Spam and eggs.
You could make it for lunch ina casserole with a you know, mac
and cheese and spam.
You could make it for dinner asyour main meal and then, as
(05:52):
it's grown internationally, yousee how they've developed all of
these other ways that you canhave it, for example, in South
Korea.
South Korea has somethingcalled budigije, which is also
called army stew, and it becamevery popular following the
Korean War, where there was alot of spam that was left over
by the US troops and madeavailable to the Koreans to eat,
(06:15):
and it was literally thatprotein that you needed.
So you would have a family gettogether and your mother would
bring one ingredient, yourfather would bring another
ingredient, your aunt wouldbring a third ingredient,
everybody would bring stufftogether to make this budigije
stew and there would always bespam.
Now, if you take it to the sideand you think about okay, what
(06:36):
about for Hawaii?
Hawaii, if you think aboutisland nations in general,
island nations don't have a hugeamount of landmass, so they
don't have that landmass to havethat hog farm, to have those
pig farms, but they still needtheir protein.
They get a lot of that fromfish from around there in their
waterways, but to have a meatthat they can rely upon, that is
(07:00):
that high protein that's notgoing to bankrupt them for
having to eat.
It's so important.
If you're buying a pound ofbeef in, for example, hawaii, it
is extremely expensive.
You're talking $8, $10 a pound,whereas having something like
Spam much more economical butstill that high protein that
people love.
The Hawaiians call it Hawaiiansteak.
(07:22):
They just have this love affairwith it.
That's continued to grow overthe years.
But so you see, to finish upthe answer to your question and
I've gone a couple differentdirections with it, but it's
just this food that people havecome to love because they have a
relationship with it, andthey've for example, your
grandmother has a story aboutspam.
(07:43):
No other food that I've evercome across do people have that
emotional attachment to, andthat's what makes spam so
special, is I have.
We have here in Austin,minnesota, a town of 24,000
people.
We have 100,000 visitors comeevery year and they come to tell
us their story about why spammeans something to them.
(08:06):
And to be able to tell thosestories and to listen and hear
people tell us their stories issuch an honor because it truly
means something to who they areas people and who they've become
as people, because they'velearned and heard these stories
about spam over the years andthen they've tried it and
they've loved it.
We had one of my spambassadorswho's driving her granddaughter
(08:27):
home the other day and hergranddaughter turned to her and
goes you know, I just love spam.
She's six years old and justand it's something about the
product that just brings anostalgia back home.
It's so simple Most peopledon't understand.
There are only six ingredientsin classic spam Six ingredients
(08:49):
and that has made it just such aremarkable piece of the story
of Americana.
It just continues to blossomthat love.
Ayla Sparks (08:58):
So why do you think and it might not be very
prevalent, I know that it wasfor me when I was growing up,
but it was like this idea thatspam is not healthy anymore?
It's considered something thatyou know you have on occasion
and it was good back then whenyou didn't have a lot of options
, but it's not healthy.
I don't think that that'snecessarily true, but how would
you answer the question ofsomeone saying is it actually
(09:19):
healthy to eat spam?
Savile Lord (09:20):
We're not encouraging everyone to eat the
entire can.
Ayla Sparks (09:24):
Moderation spam.
Savile Lord (09:25):
We're not encouraging everyone to eat the
entire can.
We limit moderation as much aspeople want to.
We say you know absolutelylimitations and that's what
you'll find in any can.
Meat.
Is that?
It's all about how you prepareit and the ingredients in it.
There are just six of them forthe classic spam.
Obviously, when we get we have11 varieties, so when you get
into some of those othervarieties you do get a couple
(09:45):
more ingredients into it, butit's all about the moderation
and to enjoy what you have,because it is just one of those
delectable pieces.
Sometimes you just need thatthe tasty ham that Spam is.
Ayla Sparks (09:57):
And it's high protein?
Yes, easy.
What are the six ingredients?
Obviously ham, pig, so it'spork, shoulder and ham, so it's
pork shoulder and ham.
Savile Lord (10:04):
So it's two different types of the cut of
the pig.
One is the pork shoulder wasvery important during the
Depression, so it was a piece ofthe pig that you couldn't get a
direct cut off.
You weren't getting a slice ofbacon off of it, you weren't
getting a pork chop.
You weren't getting a slice ofham.
But it was very important meat.
So they knew they could grindthat portion up.
(10:25):
Then they took the rear of thehog.
That gave the pig a little bitmore of a ham flavor and the
combination of those two justmade it absolutely perfect.
Ayla Sparks (10:33):
They add then sugar , water and potato starch,
sodium nitrite and that's it Forsomeone who might not know what
is sodium nitrite, If you'veever eaten a hot dog in your
entire life.
Savile Lord (10:46):
You would know sodium nitrite gives pepperoni,
salami, any of those cured meats.
It gives it that pink color andit gives it that shelf life.
Ayla Sparks (10:55):
Well.
So I have had a lot of that inmy life.
I'm surprised I'm not turningpink myself.
So very simple ingredients.
Interesting that it's twodifferent portions of the pig,
which also as kind of a sidenote.
It just blows my mind that oneanimal can taste so different
depending on the cut.
I don't know if that's common,because I feel like even with
chicken, dark meat, light meatkind of tastes similar with a
(11:17):
cow.
I mean, you know a steaksimilar to kind of hamburger, in
my opinion at least.
But pig is vastly differentflavors 100%.
Savile Lord (11:26):
So we've learned a lot about that over the years.
And I will add the cooladdition to spam was that potato
starch.
That happened in the early2000s.
So if any of your listenersremember a can from pre-2000,
you'll remember that it had alittle gelatin on the top.
And when you opened up the canthere was a little gelatin on
(11:47):
top.
Well, what is that gelatin?
Well, spam is fully cooked.
So anytime you cook a meat inan enclosed can it has juices
and when those juices cool itactually would form that little
layer.
People didn't love that so welearned a lesson.
We learned a thing or two.
So early 2000s we ended upadding potato starch so that
(12:08):
would reabsorb that fat and keepthe meat nice and juicy without
having the gelatin on top?
Ayla Sparks (12:16):
How do you go about cooking in the can?
Is it just kind of like apressure cooker?
Does it go through a heatingprocess Like what is happening
in the spam factories?
Savile Lord (12:24):
There are two different types of ways that it
is cooked.
The majority of the spam iscooked in a six-story
high-pressure cooker.
There are two factories here inthe United States that cook
spam.
90% of it is cooked here inAustin, Minnesota, Then about
10% of it is cooked down inDubuque, Iowa, and so it is a
six-story cooker that literallycooks it with water.
(12:47):
The second one.
There's also what's called aretort cooker and that cooks the
Spam with steam 90% comes froma single location, is cooked in
a single location.
Ayla Sparks (12:56):
That's crazy.
Savile Lord (12:57):
Yes, we have four or five lines actually of Spam
and they eat adding linesbecause we keep producing more
and more Spam because there's somuch demand for it.
Demand has not slowed down.
We are on, I believe, yearseven of year over year sales
increases for spam.
It's just one of those productsthat just it has a life of its
(13:19):
own and it continues to reallyreally be impressive in its
sales category because peopleare getting much more
comfortable with it and muchmore used to it and just really
seem to love it.
Ayla Sparks (13:30):
This is crazy.
I had just obviouslyincorrectly assumed that it was
at least staying steady, maybegoing down, because I don't see
very many people eating spam.
But also, I guess maybe I'mjust surrounding myself with
these spam haters.
That's incredible that it hasbeen increasing every year.
Savile Lord (13:49):
It is absolutely incredible and we in fact just
finished an exhibit here at themuseum on some of our spam fans,
because you know, we have trueaficionados who try to make spam
in every possible way you can,every possible way you can, and
(14:09):
their connection with it is liketheir purpose is to represent
the brand and to go out and showthe world how great spam is
because they love it so much.
So we have a little army ofpeople who are out there just
that, that, just they love theirspam.
And you get into differentparts of the United States
especially, we have differentvarieties for different
consumers.
So, for example, there's ateriyaki version and the
(14:31):
teriyaki version is very popularamongst our Asian population.
Then we have a jalapeno versionthat's very popular down in the
Texas, mississippi, alabamaarea.
So hickory smoke, tennessee,like you, got to love it.
So we really try to make surethat there's spams depending on
what your taste buds are andwhat you like.
Ayla Sparks (14:50):
So obviously spam is very important, but why a
museum?
What does the world need toknow about spam?
Savile Lord (14:58):
Why not?
No, because I mean, having afood museum is not exactly the
norm.
We have this space where we'reable to tell the story of spam
and talk about thatinternational influence, talk
about how spam has grown overthe past 86 years, and it's a
(15:18):
destination for people to come.
Because there are all thesepeople I've had.
I have to tell you my storyabout my Hawaiian couple.
It was probably about two yearsago and we had opened at 10 am,
doors open.
These two people come in.
They're taking pictures leftand right.
You know getting people in thepictures getting we have spam
ambassadors, so those are ourambassadors of the spam brand.
(15:40):
So the spam ambassadors weretaking some photos of them and
they were so excited they'retelling us about how they were
from Hawaii.
Two minutes later, anothercouple comes in and they said by
the way, you know, there's aHonda Accord out on the street.
Is anybody in here?
Is that their car?
And the gentleman yeah, that'smy vehicle and he goes.
Well, you've left your driver'sside door open.
And he did that because he wasso excited to come to the museum
(16:04):
.
He like jumped out of the car,ran into the museum with his
wife and they were like on fire.
So, and that's just so, that'swhy we have a spam museum,
because people need a place tocome to talk about their love of
spam.
Ayla Sparks (16:17):
What can people expect whenever they come into
the museum?
Savile Lord (16:20):
So it is one of the .
We call it one of the happiestplaces on earth, simply because
nobody who comes to this fanmuseum is ever disappointed or
sad, because they've come hereon purpose and sometimes they
take major detours on road tripsto make it here.
When they come here, we have14,000 square feet of square
meat, so that is our littlepunchline.
(16:42):
And you come in and it's a veryinteractive museum, so it's
meant to be.
We ask that you please don'teat the exhibits, but you can
touch them.
Lots of photo opportunities,lots of interactive screens,
lots of things to see, and wewalk people through not just the
history of Hormel Foods so theycan learn how spam came about.
But then we talk about themilitary influence of spam.
(17:04):
We hit the internationalinfluence of spam.
We have an entire play area forkids.
Minnesota is a very big state,so if you're driving through
here with little ones, it's veryimportant to get those kids out
of the car and give them achance to run around a little
bit.
And then we just have somegames.
We have recipe boards, we havedifferent ways to interact with
(17:25):
the brand that are super fun.
It is a museum that is meant tobe touched Touched not eaten.
Ayla Sparks (17:30):
I'm wondering then.
So what are some of theartifacts that you guys have at
a spam museum?
The first ever spam can on ashrine?
Savile Lord (17:39):
Yes, we do have an entire collection of cans that
date back to the 1930s so thatpeople can see all the different
ways that you've opened Spamover the years, because that's
one of the can itself has notchanged the shape, the size of
it, the label has a little bitdepending on the time period,
but how it's opened has changedfive times, and so that's been
(18:03):
important piece to kind ofshowcase to our visitors.
One piece that we have is afully restored 1945 Wiley's MB
Jeep.
Now why do you have a Jeep in aspam museum?
Well, this goes back to part ofour military section showcasing
the importance of the militaryduring the war, and it was given
to us by a spam fan.
(18:24):
Someone who had this Jeepdidn't want it to go to a
military museum, didn't want itto go to a car museum, but had a
deep relationship with spam andthey wanted to share that with
us.
So they donated this Jeep to us.
Then some of the other thingsthat we have is a full can.
So there are different waysthat you've been able to serve
(18:45):
Spam.
Obviously, everybody knows thesmall can, the 12 ounce, but
you're also able to see theseven ounce can, which is what's
served in Asia.
And then you're also able tosee our larger cans that were
originally what was produced forthe army, and they are more
like loaves of bread.
That's about the size that theyare, and that was a better way
(19:07):
to ship off spam, simply becauseyour individual cans when
you're feeding a whole platoonis too small, so we were able to
make it in larger sizes.
Ayla Sparks (19:18):
Do we know anything speaking more of like the
artwork that's on the spam?
Can do we know anything aboutthe people who might've designed
it or how the design haschanged over the years?
Savile Lord (19:30):
Besides how you open it.
So in 1941, it was actually ablack and white label, simply
because there was a ration onink during that time, so we made
sure that we adhered to that.
The font is what has changed themost in Spam, so the coloring
has always stayed classic blueand yellow.
And I should tell you how Spamgot its name at some point, so
we'll jump off to that in asecond.
(19:51):
But it literally we startedwith a can that you would
actually twist open with a key.
You can see that today in somekind of some corned beef cans.
It then moved to a side pullcan, so you would actually pull
a little loop on the side of thecan and pull it open that way.
Then back in the early mid 80swe switched to like a Coca-Cola
(20:13):
single tab, pop top.
That one wasn't having greatsuccess with the leverage
portion of the can, so wechanged it in the early 90s to a
two-finger pull that is on acorner, thereby creating much
better leverage and helpingpeople who might have some
arthritis in their hands beingable to much easier open that
(20:35):
can.
Ayla Sparks (20:36):
So let's talk about spam and its name.
So I was looking online and itseems like there was kind of a.
There's a bit of a mysterybehind it.
What's the story of Spam Name?
Savile Lord (20:48):
There is a small bit of mystery.
So Jay, who we talked aboutearlier, had a product that he
wanted to put out on the market.
It had been out on the marketpreviously under the name of
Spiced Ham.
However, he was going against abunch of competition.
There were about four or fiveother products out on the market
at that time with similar names, similar types.
(21:09):
So he really, in thatinnovative, creative mind that
he had, he wanted to have a namefor this product that would
truly stick out.
So in 1936, during a New Year'sEve party that he hosted, he
offered $100 to whomever couldcome up with the name for this
new product.
And apparently it did take alittle while.
(21:30):
A couple of drinks had to bepassed before people started to
truly get creative, but they puttheir names into this hat and
at the end of the evening hepulled out the names and a
gentleman by the name of KennethDagnow he was an actor in
Hollywood came up with the nameSpam, the S-P from spiced and
the A-M from ham.
(21:51):
And during that time periodthat was not uncommon to have a
name like Spam, because names ofthat time period were very
short and punchy, so that wasvery common for the foods that
were being produced during thattime period.
So Spam just fit in with theother products of that time and
it worked out great.
Ayla Sparks (22:09):
It did.
It fits perfectly on thatlittle square, can?
Yes, it does 100%.
So what is the best way, inyour opinion, to enjoy Spam?
Savile Lord (22:20):
Now you guys have to understand for your listeners
.
I eat Spam every day, every day, because we have our Spamples
that we serve around the museum.
We just do, and we serve themon little pretzels.
So people just pick up thepretzel, eat the spam bowl and
then have the pretzel, and wetry to serve as many different
(22:41):
varieties throughout the day aswe can, and so I always get some
.
But one of the ways I love tomake spam and this is a perfect
dish for coming into summer is aspam salad.
You just take a little bit ofbow tie pasta, cook that up.
You then take some fresh onions, some fresh green pepper and a
little bit of fresh corn.
You have that on the side.
Take a little bit of honeymustard, a little bit of white
(23:01):
wine vinegar, just whisk that up.
Then obviously, you have yourspam.
I love to use the jalapeno spamfor this.
You can use the hickory smokeNone them, all of them are just
fine and you dice that up, cookit, have a nice hot spam, mix
everything together, pour in alittle bit of cheese, oh, and
it's perfect.
You can have it chilled foryour summer barbecue or you can
(23:24):
have it warm for a summernight's dinner.
Like you can do it either way,it's just, it's just a very,
very good little dish versatiledish.
Ayla Sparks (23:31):
My my favorite definitely has to be the way
that my grandma always made itfor me.
Of course, she would fry thespam in little cubes on a
skillet and then mix it in withmy blue box macaroni and cheese.
Now, that's how my husbandmakes it for me.
Savile Lord (23:46):
Yes, and we actually have musabi.
I don't know if you all haveheard of the musabi, but musabi
is one of the most popular waysthey eat it in Hawaii.
So Hawaiians take Spam.
Do you know how the Hawaiianslove sushi?
In general, you take Spam.
It kind of looks like sushi,but what they do is they take
(24:06):
the rice.
The Spam can is actually perfectfor making this.
You just put a little piece ofplastic inside, you pack in a
little bit of rice, you pack ina slice of spam maybe the
teriyaki spam, maybe one of theothers and then you wrap it in a
little nori, which is seaweed,and you have that warm and it is
(24:26):
delicious.
So in Hawaii they actually havethat in their convenience store
.
So instead of going in andgrabbing a rolling hot dog off
one of those belts, they haveheated refrigerators where you
can grab that Spam and take thatinstead.
They'll sell 200,000 to 300,000Spam Musubi every day.
(24:49):
In Hawaii Kids have that fortheir to-go high-go high protein
snack during soccer games.
So you'll not just get yourlittle slice of orange, you'll
get that and a musubi to pickyourself up to get ready for
game number two out of yourthree set games for the day.
It's amazing how they continueto utilize it in this really
friendly way.
That makes it so because it'struly portable, it's fully
(25:11):
cooked and you get it and you go, and that's the cool thing
about Spam.
So we had one of our Spamambassadors actually make some
for a meeting yesterday morning.
It's just, it's this greatlittle high-protein snack that
everybody can enjoy.
So I would encourage some ofyour listeners to do potentially
a musubi date night andeverybody just make a little bit
of musubi.
You just need a little bit ofmusubi.
You just need a little bit ofsticky rice, and a spam can is
(25:34):
the perfect container for itbecause it's just that size.
You just pack in a little bitof rice, you put that slice of
spam on top.
You use a little bit of plasticto pull it out and then you wrap
it in that nori.
Ayla Sparks (25:45):
I feel like I'm going to have to get a spam
cookbook and just try all thesedifferent types of spam recipes.
Savile Lord (25:54):
We just actually had Spam Jam in Hawaii this past
weekend.
So Spam Jam and that's wherethey showcase all of the new
ways to make spam it is aone-day celebration celebrating
spam as a product and it didn'thave anything to do with formal
foods.
It was created by a.
It was started actually as athank you lunch to all the
(26:15):
resort workers and they alwayswould serve spam at it, and then
it's grown over the past 20years to be this full day event
that has.
You know, they have bands, theyhave spam making contests, so
all the different restaurants onthe islands showcase the
different ways they make spam.
You know, in different parts ofthe world.
It has a mind of its own andreally the influence is
(26:37):
incredible.
To add to that, just quickly,in South Korea they have a gift
box that is spam.
It is 12 cans of spam is oneversion.
Another version is about ninecans of spam and two bottles of
olive oil that comesspecifically from Spain and
they'll put it in this reallypretty box and they'll give that
(26:57):
out at their Lunar New Year.
They'll give that out at theirHawaiian I'm sorry, their
Thanksgiving and it's a show ofrespect because it's actually
considered a lucrative gift Inthat country there are 10, 15
other knockoffs of people whowant to be spam.
So if you can afford the spam,that means you're doing really,
really well, and so it'sconsidered an exquisite gift to
(27:19):
be able to receive.
Ayla Sparks (27:20):
I'm just imagining, like a dowry situation where
you just end up getting spam.
Savile Lord (27:26):
Would, you like three cows, or would you like
buy stock and spam?
Ayla Sparks (27:32):
I'm assuming there has to be some pretty incredible
events that you guys do at themuseum itself.
Savile Lord (27:36):
Yes, we just hosted a wine event, actually last
night, where we hosted fivedifferent wines and then we did
an appetizer with each one.
Now, for this one, it was adifferent Hormel product for
each appetizer, but we've doneones that are specifically spam
and for Spam Musubi Day comingup in August.
There is actually a Spam MusubiDay in August, and so we'll be
(27:59):
doing a class on how to teacheverybody how to make Spam
Musubi.
Ayla Sparks (28:03):
That's fantastic.
Well, thank you so much forsharing spam with us.
Savile Lord (28:07):
Oh, you're so welcome.
Thank you for asking.
I mean, when I grew up, I hadno idea I'd be running a spam
museum in Autzen, Minnesota, andI couldn't ask for a more fun
job.
Ayla Sparks (28:17):
Thank you so much for tuning in and supporting
Curator's Choice, a Mighty OakMedia production.
If you enjoyed the show, pleaseconsider subscribing and rating
the show on Apple Podcasts,spotify, youtube or wherever you
get your podcasts YouTube orwherever you get your podcasts.
If you love a museum and wouldlike to hear it featured in an
(28:37):
episode, shoot me a message atcuratorschoicepodcast at
gmailcom.
I'll do my best to reach outand see if I can get them to be
on the show.
You can also view articles,artifacts and more by following
us on Facebook and Instagram.
Thanks for listening toCurator's Choice, a podcast for
history nerds and museum lovers.
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