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.When scientists discoveredhow to electroplate a neutral tin lining on to steel cans in the 1870s, and canned meats first began to appear, theywere hailed as a great innovation.The rapidly growing towns in Europe and the eastern United States were full ofpeople hungering for something other than the endless salt meats that, given the lack of refrigeration and massdistribution, were the lot of most of the populationif they had meat at all.Entrepreneurs opened up canningoperations on the distant ranges of the American West, Australia, and Argentina, where there was plenty of beef andmutton but no one to sell it to.The editors of the second edition of Mrs.Beeton's classic Household Management,published in 1888, inserted a new chapter on canned meat.4 If canned Australian beef was already on British tables,could canned wallaby and parrot be far behind? For good measure, they added recipes for roast wallaby and parrotpie to the chapter on foreign and colonial cooking.Page 68Ultimately, though, the editors' enthusiasm for the first canned meats was muted.Canned meat, they decided, wasovercooked, fibrous, and lacking in flavor.They owned, though, that it might be a useful stopgap for the workingpoor who could not afford fresh or refrigerated meat and a handy staple on board ship.Andwhat they did not say andneither knew nor cared about from their British perspectivefor the same reasons, plantation workers and PacificIslanders would welcome it as an addition to their diet.In the fishing villages and the plantations of Hawaii, cannedluncheon meat and sardines became a regular part of the diet.Meanwhile, the Hormel Company set about designing a canned meat that was neither tough nor bland.To beat thetoughness, they ground pork up finely; to give it savor, they spiced it up with salt, sugar, and a variety of otherflavorings.They held a competition for a catchy name: in 1937, a certain Keith Daugneau submitted the winningentrySPAM (spiced ham)and walked off with the $1oo prize.SPAM joined and then overtook sardines, luncheonmeat, corned beef, and Vienna sausages as a favorite.All keep well, are quick and easy to prepare, can be stretchedwith vegetables, and taste good with rice.In World War II, when offshore fishing was prohibited, SPAM helped fillthe gap.Hawaii gives SPAM (and the other canned meats) an Asian or Pacific twist.It is perhaps most commonly fried andserved with rice (and maybe eggs) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.Victor Hao Li, the urbane former president of thefederally funded East-West Center, suggested "Begin the day with thickly sliced Spam, fried crisp on the outside,served with rice and sunny-side eggs plus a streak of oyster sauce across the top.(In truth, this really is better thanjook.)" 5 Or it can be made into a musubi, as does John DeSoto, a Council member of the City and County ofHonolulu.If his name is anything to go by (and given the high intermarriage rate, this is far from an infallible guidein Hawaii), DeSoto is not Japanese, but he offers what is in effect a recipe for SPAM musubi, demonstrating hisbonds with his constituents.He explains that "When I was a kid, we always had rice and nori and SPAM around thehouse, and we would eat those things in various ways.But when there were leftovers, we put them together, creatinga kind of sandwich.Since this particular one featured SPAM and since this is a family recipe, we called it aDeSPAMwich.Besides being good to eat, the DeSPAMwich taught me a valuable lesson: To make something goodyou don't always have to use conventional things in conventional ways.Sometimes, by using what is available and alittle imagination, you can create something just as good, sometimes even better."6SPAM can be wrapped in ti leaves or foil and left roasting in the ashes while you go fishing.It is relished cooked ina little soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and ginger and served on toothpicks for cocktails.It is a common stuffing fordeepfried wonton.It can be mixed with Chinese fishcake.It can be used to stuffPage 69aburage; you can make SPAM lumpia with kamaboko, green onion, and eggs.Just as good is SPAM fried rice orchow fun or stir-fry.It is standard as a topping for saimin.If your taste runs to the Japanese, SPAM can be used tostuff lotus root or cooked with miso or daikon, and, of course, it makes excellent tempura.Or if it runs to theKorean, you can skewer squares of SPAM with squares of kim chee, dredge them in flour, dip in beaten egg, anddeep-fry to make SPAM and kim chee jun.Needless to say it also combines happily with haole foods to makeomelettes, meatballs, burgers, quiche, or macaroni and cheese.Sometimes it is even eaten on white bread as asandwich.Locals, then, understandably regard SPAM as thrifty and tasty, a food of childhood, a food of family meals andpicnics at the beach, a food of convenience [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]