Culinary Travel: Hawaiian Spam Sandwich Recipe

Spam is a brand of canned precooked meat made by Hormel Foods Corporation. It was first introduced in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II. By 2003, Spam was sold in 41 countries on six continents and trademarked in over 100 countries (except in Middle East and North Africa). In 2007, the seven billionth can of Spam was sold.

According to its label, Spam's basic ingredients are pork shoulder meat, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, sugar, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Natural gelatin forms during cooking in its tins on the production line. Many have raised concerns over Spam's nutritional attributes, in large part due to its high content of fat, sodium, and preservatives.

By the early 1970s the name "Spam" was often misused to describe any canned meat product containing pork, such as pork luncheon meat. With expansion in communications technology, it became the subject of urban legends about mystery meat and other appearances in pop culture. Most notable was a Monty Python sketch portraying Spam as tasting horrible, ubiquitous and inescapable, characteristics which led to its name being borrowed for unsolicited electronic messages, especially spam email.

Hawaii consumes more Spam than any state in our union — in total, 7 million cans a year. According to the SPAM website, the island's love affair with Spam began in World War II, when GIs were served the salty luncheon meat because it didn't require refrigeration and had a long shelf life.

Ingredients

1 (12 ounce) can Spam, classic cut into 8 slices

1 (8 ounce) can pineapple rings, drained

4 slices American cheese

4 hamburger buns, split and toasted

8 tomato slices (optional)

Directions

 Brown SPAM slices in skillet over medium heat.

Place 2 SPAM slices on each bottom half of hamburger bun.

Top with pineapple ring and American cheese slice. Just in case you want it more mainland than tropical you can replace the pineapple rings with tomatoes.

Cover sandwich with top half of bun.

Why, yes you can, add mayonnaise

Servings 4

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