Up next in 10
SPAM sushi and Korean "army base stew" are maybe not the first dishes to pop into your head when you hear the mysterious acronym "SPAM." But people have a way of turning lemons into lemonade, and there's no better example of that then the sealed mystery meat phenomenon. Food History is a show all about... well, the history of food. Join host Justin Dodd as he brings you the stories of how your favorite meals ended up on your plate. Today, we're talking SPAM. What does SPAM stand for anyway? Don't miss a video! Subscribe NOW: https://www.youtube.com/@MentalFloss?sub_confirmation=1 About Mental Floss: Mental Floss is where curious people come for trivia-tastic information. Mental Floss produces lists of fun facts, debunks common misconceptions, and tells untold stories from history, science, culture and more. Website: http://www.mentalfloss.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mental_floss Facebook: https://facebook.com/mentalflossmagazine Copyright Notice: This video and YouTube channel contain dialog, music, and images that are property of Mental Floss. You are authorized to share the video link and channel, and embed this video in your website or others as long as a link back to this YouTube Channel is provided. 2025 Mental Floss Food History: SPAM | Mental Floss https://www.youtube.com/@MentalFloss
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
In hard times, people have been known to turn debatably undesirable ingredients into great cuisine
0:06
I mean, that's practically the thesis of this entire series. And it's exactly what Koreans did with Spam in the 1950s
0:14
Hi, I'm Justin Dodd. Welcome to Food History. Today we're diving into everyone's favorite canned meat, from army-based stew to Spam sushi
0:23
Let's get started. Food shortages plagued Korea in the aftermath of World War II and during the Korean War
0:35
and fresh meat was often impossible to find. One of the most reliable ways to get something to eat was to line up outside U.S. Army bases
0:43
and purchase their leftovers or salvage them from dumpsters. The processed foods the military was willing to throw away, which included spam, hot dogs
0:52
canned franks and beans, and American cheese singles, were far from home cooking
0:57
but they were a good source of salt, calories, and protein. Korean cooks added their own spin
1:03
to the ingredients by boiling them together in a stew along with kimchi, gochujang, a fermented
1:09
red chili paste, and whatever else they had access to, which often included some kind of noodles
1:14
The resulting recipe was distinctly Korean, despite its undeniably American DNA. Budejigae, or army-based stew, was basically an underground dish in the country until the 1980s
1:26
with many people sourcing ingredients on the black market. Despite this, Korea, like many
1:31
other countries and territories occupied by the U.S. throughout the 20th century
1:35
hasn't been able to overcome its spam obsession. So how exactly did spam go from thrifty convenience
1:42
meat to one of America's most successful culinary exports? Before we find out, let's take a look at
1:47
its humble beginnings in the Midwest. Hormel was already a household name by the time spam
1:53
ham arrived on the scene. Former slaughterhouse worker George A. Hormel founded the meat processing
1:58
company in Austin, Minnesota in 1891. Following years of success selling fresh pork products
2:05
the business debuted its flavor-sealed ham in 1926. It was a game-changer. The product was made by packing ham into vacuum-sealed containers
2:15
and cooking the meat in the can, thus keeping it fresh and flavorful until it was ready to
2:20
consume. It was deboned, but unlike Spam, it was a whole piece of recognizable meat
2:27
IN A CAN. Boy, innovation is something, huh? Its introduction coincided with the start of a quiet revolution taking place in American kitchens
2:35
Technological innovations like the refrigerator saved women time that they otherwise would have
2:39
spent shopping for fresh groceries and preserving them through laborious methods like curing and
2:45
pickling. In addition to new appliances, new types of food lightened the domestic load placed on
2:50
on home makers. Canned ham lasted months in the pantry and was ready to eat as soon as it was opened
2:56
Even if home cooks gussied it up with pineapples or sugar it was still less time consuming than picking up a fresh ham from the butcher and cooking it whole Jay Hormel became president of his dad company in the late
3:08
1920s, and he had some big ideas for the brand, one of which was turning the waste leftover from
3:14
butchering pork into a brand new type of food. Though it's a desirable and delicious cut of meat
3:20
today, pig shoulder was widely considered garbage food at that time in America. Hormel was discarding
3:26
mountains of the scraps each year, so Jay devised the plan to turn them into something consumers
3:32
would want to eat. The processors at Hormel did this by removing the meat from the bone
3:37
grinding it into a paste, and adding flavorings and preservatives. The mixture was then vacuum
3:42
sealed and cooked in its container just like canned ham. It may have a dubious reputation today
3:48
but in the beginning, Spam contained just five ingredients—pork, water, salt, sugar
3:54
and sodium nitrate. The recipe for Spam remained the same until fairly recently when Hormel added
3:59
potato starch to the mix. The new ingredient doesn't change the flavor and is instead meant
4:04
to soak up the layer of gelatin that forms when Spam is cooked, giving it a more appetizing
4:09
appearance. If any customers miss the slimier formula they grew up with, they haven't been
4:14
very vocal. But I'll say it, bring back the goo. Spam was packaged like flavor-sealed ham and had a
4:20
similarly long shelf life, but it wasn't canned ham exactly. Hormel needed a name for the item
4:26
that would convey its culinary promise without making any false claims. So, like any sensible
4:31
businessman, J. Hormel enlisted his drunk friends. According to Life magazine, he hosted a New Year's
4:37
Eve party in which the price of each drink was a possible name for the new product, written on a
4:42
slip of paper. He offered a $100 prize to whoever could come up with the winning name. As Hormel
4:48
recalled, along about the third or fourth drink, they began showing some imagination
4:53
An actor named Ken Danu received the $100 prize for his short and sweet moniker
4:59
Ken was the brother of R.H. Danu, a Hormel Foods vice president
5:03
So we know where the name Spam comes from, but the jury's still out on what it means
5:08
Many theories have been floated over the decades, with some saying it's short for
5:12
shoulder of pork and ham. Others offer a less pleasant option, scientifically processed
5:18
animal matter. The most common belief is that Spam is a portmanteau of spiced and ham, despite the
5:24
fact that the product is neither spiced nor a ham. Hormel hasn't confirmed any of the rumors and
5:30
instead claims that the true meaning is known by only a small circle of former Hormel Foods
5:35
executives. I want to believe that the name has some cool secret meaning that I have to uncover
5:40
like a Dan Brown novel, but I'm also willing to entertain the theory that Spam was just fun to say
5:45
four cocktails into a new year's party. Hormel's creation was not the first time someone had molded pork scraps into a block
5:52
of mystery meat. For centuries, Pennsylvanians have stretched the definition of meat with
5:57
Scrapple an economical breakfast item consisting of pork ts cornmeal and spices mushed into a congealed loaf Spam was similar but its packaging made it unique Like canned ham a shelf can of Spam was a desirable option for busy home cooks
6:13
Hormel marketed the product's versatility. It could be sliced, diced, baked, fried, or eaten
6:19
cold out of the container. It appealed to the country's growing taste for processed convenience
6:24
foods. By 1940, 70% of urban Americans were purchasing canned meats, up from only 18% in
6:31
1937. Spam may have been catching on in American households, but the military is where it really
6:37
took off. During wartime, when fresh meat was scarce, canned meat was more than convenient
6:42
it was life-sustaining. In addition to being filling, tasty, and high in protein, spam was
6:48
easy to transport. It didn't need to be refrigerated or heated up. And most importantly, it was cheap
6:54
When President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act in 1941, authorizing the U.S
6:59
to ship food and other goods to allies during World War II, Hormel began shipping 15 million
7:05
cans of meat overseas per week, most of which was spam. The canned meat was certainly on the minds of American service members, some of whom were
7:13
sick of being given the stuff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Private First Class Louis B
7:18
Klosser got so fed up with the monotonous diet that he wrote a letter to Hormel asking them
7:24
to not send any spam overseas for a few weeks, even if that meant he and his fellow servicemen
7:29
would go hungry. That's where the story, outlined in the 1944 issue of Yank, the Army Weekly
7:35
takes a turn. Hormel wrote back to Klosser, claiming that, Since the war started, we have not sold a single can of spam to the US Army. The letter said that
7:44
the standard 12-ounce cans of spam weren't practical for Army use and claimed that soldiers
7:49
were eating a different luncheon meat that G.I.s were incorrectly calling spam
7:54
Can closed? Not exactly. According to the book Spam, a Biography by Carolyn Wyman
8:00
Hormel's letter kicked off a firestorm from Army cooks and soldiers swearing they had prepared and eaten the real stuff
8:07
It culminated with the picture of a G.I. standing behind a line of genuine spam tins
8:13
Wyman says that Hormel looked again and determined that in 1942, the Army had ordered a bunch of spam as a substitute for government luncheon meat. Plus
8:23
with all the spam being sent overseas as part of Lend-Lease, it's possible that some got diverted
8:28
into U.S. Army hands. Either way, wherever the U.S. military went in the mid-20th century
8:33
spam seemed to follow. That had an unintended impact on the global culinary scene. During World
8:39
War II, spam, or some other canned product people were calling spam at least, was just as popular
8:44
with G.I.s stationed in Hawaii as it was in Europe. Locals began incorporating it into their cuisine, though it was more out of necessity than love
8:53
for the salty meat slabs. In 1940, a federal statute was passed preventing owners of large fishing boats from obtaining
9:00
licenses if they were not U.S. citizens. At the same time there were laws preventing Japanese immigrants from obtaining U citizenship A year later non were banned from using various fishing nets within one mile of Hawaii shoreline
9:14
Together, these laws not only hurt Japanese Hawaiian fishermen, but other Hawaiians who
9:20
relied on their fishing businesses for food and jobs. With the hole left in their local economy
9:26
canned meat like spam became a lifeline. Spam stuck around in Hawaii following World War II
9:31
and locals have transformed it from survival food to a symbol of cultural pride
9:36
Every year, the Honolulu neighborhood of Waikiki hosts Spam Jam, a festival where restaurants get to show off dishes like Spam Musubi
9:43
a Hawaiian take on sushi featuring fried spam in place of fish wrapped around rice with nori
9:49
Take it from me, it's delicious. The people of Hawaii consume more than 7 million cans of Spam per year
9:56
more per capita than any other U.S. state. Spam has found similar success in countries throughout Asia and Polynesia
10:03
The U.S. brought the product to the Philippines during their colonization of the islands. Today, Spam sea log, consisting of fried spam served with eggs and garlic fried rice
10:12
is a popular Filipino breakfast. Budejigay may be the most popular application for spam outside of America
10:19
but it was nearly no more than a blip in Korea's culinary history
10:22
During Park Chung-hee's rule from 1961 to 1979, South Korea imposed very high meat tariffs
10:30
which basically restricted spam to the wealthiest of society. The exception? People who went to the black market where they could buy tax-free spam
10:38
taken from American bases. Thanks to its high-end and contraband status, spam had evolved from something found in dumpsters
10:45
to a prized ingredient in the eyes of many Koreans. The fact that fresh meat was still scarce in the post-war period
10:51
boosted this perception. Hormel licensed the product to a South Korean manufacturer in the 1980s, and it's been widely
10:58
available there ever since, but its luxurious reputation remains. Today, some Koreans exchange
11:04
cans of spam as gifts on holidays. According to the Korea Herald, spam gift sets account for 60
11:10
of annual sales in the country. Budaejige is still a common way to consume the food
11:15
and there are even restaurant chains dedicated to serving the decadent dish
11:19
Army-based stew is beloved across generational lines in South Korea, but some diners refuse to
11:25
separate it from its painful origins. In an article, sociologist Grace M. Cho called the
11:30
dish a culinary travesty and an iconic symbol of U.S. imperialism. But she doesn't deny the
11:36
important place it occupies in Korean culture. She also wrote that it represents the creativity
11:42
that emerged from devastation, a legacy of the complicated relationship between Koreans and
11:47
Americans. The global success of Spam proves that people have a knack for making lemonade out of
11:52
lemons, even when those lemons come in the form of slimy canned meat
#education