Know more about the history of SPAM
History Of SPAM – This world’s most popular canned food has been featured in different recipes around the globe.
Hormel is the creator of this canned food and its name was already an established company even before SPAM came. This company was started by former slaughterhouse worker George A. Hormel. He founded the meat processing company in Austin, Minnesota, in 1891.
Hormel was first known for its fresh pork products when it debuted, based on the article in Mental Floss. Then, it introduced its Flavor-Sealed Ham in 1926 and this became a game changer.
The company created the product by packing ham into vacuum-sealed containers and cooking the meat in the can. This process keeps the product fresh and flavorful until it is ready to consume. When it was introduced to the market, it was not like the present SPAM as it was a whole recognizable piece of meat placed inside the can.
This canned product was introduced when the American kitchen was experiencing amazing revolutions, like the coming of the refrigerator. With the product from Hormel, households can store the ham for a longer time in the pantry and it is ready to eat after opening.
From canned ham, it became SPAM in the 1920s and the reason behind this was Jay Hormel, the son of the company’s founder. The company was initially discarding the shoulder part of the pig and Jay devised a plan to make this part useful.
Through Hormel’s processor, the meat from the bone was removed and then went through the grinding process into a paste, and adding flavorings and preservatives were the next steps. Following a few processes, the mixture was then vacuum-sealed and cooked in its container, the same process the canned ham was made. Initially, this food product only featured a few ingredients like pork, water, salt, sugar, and sodium nitrate. Today, new flavors were introduced.
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