Cookbook Entry – Spam Musubi By: Matt Ord

Spam Musubi

As a kid it’s so important what your mom packed in your lunch when you went to school. I remember at school we would all open our lunches together comparing what each of our mothers had carefully packaged in our brown paper bags for lunch. To start, if you had a lunch pail you were already winning the food comparison between friends. I used to be so ashamed because my mother and father would always write, “Matty” on the front of my lunch bag which of course in grade school was death by embarrassment, not only that but they wrote cute notes on my napkins too. After a while I was able to convince her that a Spiderman lunch pail was much needed and my lunch bag problem was solved. After we all opened our lunches we looked at what we got and oftentimes would exchange food items. Food was traded and bartered for amongst friends, for example a bag of grapes and a cheese stick could be trades for a small bag of Lay’s Potato Chips or one Oreo packet could buy you a whole sandwich and something else because the sweets always were one of the most sought after snacks. Although sweets were very popular, the number one thing everyone wanted to trade for was my mom’s Spam Musubi. Nothing hits your taste palate quite like the flavor of Spam Musubi, in my opinion its one of the best things in life. Perfectly cut Spam grilled until golden brown and slightly crunchy, with teriyaki sauce layered in between a ball of freshly cooked rice, all of which is wrapped in toasted seaweed (nori), bringing together a medley of saltiness and sweetness. For as much Spam that I ate growing up, I’m surprised I still love it just as much as the first day I tried it. Now that i think of it, I’ve ate it for so long and so early in my life that it’s impossible to remember the first time that I tried Spam. I would eat scrambled eggs, Spam, portuguese sausage and rice for breakfast, Spam and egg sandwiches or Spam Musubi for lunch, not all in one day but every other day.  My Grandpa, a Hawaiian Filipino cook and jack of all trades, grew up on the Hawaiian Islands where Spam influenced his life and what he cooked greatly. He also fought in the Korean War, during a common  staple in all military branches because it was cheap, easily canned, and had a long shelf life.

Spam Musubi Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups uncooked short-grain white rice
  • 2 cups water
  • 6 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup oyster sauce
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 (12 ounce) container of Spam
  • 5 sheets sushi nori (dry seaweed)
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preparation Time: 25 Minutes

Cook Time: 30 Minutes

Ready In: As soon as you’re done or refrigerated to served chilled

Directions:

  1. Soak uncooked rice for 4 hours; drain and rinse.
  2. In a saucepan bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in rice vinegar, and set aside to cool.
  3. In a separate bowl, stir together soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved. Slice SPAM lengthwise into 10 slices, or to desired thickness, and marinate in sauce for 5 minutes.
  4. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Cook slices for 2 minutes per side, or until lightly browned. Cut nori sheets in half and lay on a flat work surface. Place a rice press in the center of the sheet, and press rice tightly inside. Top with a slice of SPAM, and remove press. Wrap nori around rice mold, sealing edges with a small amount of water. (Rice may also be formed by hand in the shape of the meat slices, 1 inch thick.) Musubi may be served warm or chilled.

The history of Spam is really interesting for how it gained popularity and how it came about. The article The History of Spam Musubi written by Vanessa Benoit, sums up Spam’s origin well, “The history of spam began with Hormel Foods, in 1937. Jay Hormel, with plans to enhance and build on his father’s company, was not the only SPAMcompany in town. He introduced canned ham in 1926 and it was swiftly imitated. In the 30’s many companies were working on canning ham and pork products. But his competition allowed for pig ears, lips, and snouts in their meat. This gave Hormel an “in” or an advantage over what he could do better. He insisted in not using those parts and decided to instead use the shoulder meat of a pig, which was more time consuming. But now he also needed ways to make his product visibly distinct. He wanted to reduce the size of the can but kept running into an issue where the canned meat would release too much excess juice. He finally decided that the meat needed to be also mixed in a vacuum, to reduce leftover juices. No one really knows why the meat was called “spam”. Many speculate it was an amalgam of the words “spiced ham”, even though actual ham was not added to the concoction until later. Some people like to come up with comical acronyms such as “Spiced Processed Assorted Meat” or “Sciencey Pork and Meat”. The product did not take off by any means, not at first. But it was known for being economical. And in some cases, it was something housewives could throw together for an easy meal.” It started as an economical means of feeding your family, a cheap way of getting your protein, meat could get expensive and during the recession SPAM was the go to product.

More specifically the history of how Spam became so popular in Hawaii (where my family is from) is very interesting. There is some great information about it in this article on Musubi Boy’s website, “In Hawaii during World War II fishing was prohibited and other meat was scarce, which prompted creativity in local recipe selections. This adaptation happily led to the creation of various forms of musubi. When fresh meat was in short supply in these remote islands, resourceful Hawaiian inhabitants were initially introduced to Spam, the lovable meat product in a can and one of the components of some musubi. During the following years, the local populace invented numerous culinary creations utilizing this canned wonder, however musubi will always be first in their hearts… When Hawaii food historian Arnold Hiura traveled to California to talk about his book, Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands (Watermark Publishing, 2009), he was surprised to find many Japanese-Americans staking ethnicity claims on the quintessential Island snack favorite: the Spam musubi. “They feel they invented the Spam musubi,” he says. “They actually trace it to the internment camps.” Following the December 1941 Japanese attack on Oahu’s Pearl Harbor, more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry living on the U.S. mainland West Coast were imprisoned in remote internment camps in multiple states for the duration of World War II. With the pink canned meat prevalent, they crafted a sort-of Spam sushi, placing seasoned slices of it on white rice in a baking pan. Says Hiura, “They’d cut it, serve it and that was the forerunner to what we know as the Spam musubi.” Served to soldiers stationed here, Spam was omnipresent in World War II-era Hawaii, too. Today, Island residents consume almost 7 million cans of Spam annually—the nation’s highest per capita consumption—much of it in musubi. The modern Spam musubi, however, is typically crafted individually, sans baking pan, its slice of salty meat further seasoned with a shoyu-sugar sauce and placed on a block of white rice with the same surface area as the Spam slice, then wrapped in nori (dry seaweed). Offered pretty much everywhere prepared foods are sold in Hawaii, they’re our perfect portable, eat-anywhere snack”. Since early 1937, Minnesota-based Hormel Foods, the home of Spam, has sold over 7 billion cans throughout the world. Annually there are about 100 million cans sold just in the US in Hawaii alone, approximately six cans per person annually are consumed or about 5 million pounds per year for the whole state combined.

During World War II there was need for a product that could be sent to troops far away on the front lines, something that didn’t need to be refrigerated, could be shipped easily, survive wet tropical conditions and was high in protein, SPAM was that product. During the war over 100 Million pounds of SPAM was sent to feed troops. Hawaii’s population was 423,000 and out of that total 158,000 were of Japanese descent, that’s over one third of the population. Since they logistically couldn’t send that many Japanese to internment camps like the government was doing along the west coast of the US, they had to put restrictions on them. It was illegal to fish if you were Japanese for fear of leaving the island and conspiring with the Japanese Imperial Army. Since they couldn’t fish their main source of protein was depleted, people turned to SPAM instead. There was even a mascot invented called Slammin’ Spammy who GI’s painted onto the sides of their Airplanes as well as the Hormel Girls that would tour the country selling the canned meat and promoting it through song and dance. SPAM can be found in McDonald’s and Burger Kings in the Hawaiian Islands and are even sold at 7/11 stores. There are 22 different flavors and types of SPAM available for consumption, and in 2007, Hormel says, it shipped off its 7 billionth can. It took 22 years to break the billion-tin mark, at which point the sales ramped up exponentially.

I’m so glad that Hawaii helped make SPAM popular through musubi’s. It’s kind of crazy that a product that was originally made for the low income families has turned into such a big deal. There’s a Spam Museum, a festival cook-off in Waikiki, National SPAM olympics and even high end SPAM dishes in famous restaurants in Los Angeles. Who would’ve thought there was so much history behind some canned meat made for the poor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited Page

Vanessa Benoit. (2016, June 26). The history of the Spam Musubi. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from http://www.tabelog.us/articles/the-history-of-the-spam-musubi

Fulton, A. (2015, April 13). How Spam helped shape Hawaii. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/13/how-spam-helped-shape-hawaii/

Lamar, E. (2015, April 1). There’s a lot more to Musubi than just Spam. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/theres-a-lot-more-to-musubi-than-just-spam

Musubi boy. Retrieved December 12, 2016, from http://maework21.wixsite.com/musubiboy/musubi-history

Onigiri (2016). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onigiri

Toth, C. (2016, August 22). The history of Five local grinds. Retrieved December 14, 2016, from http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/content/history-five-local-grinds

Hartley, M. (2016, January 27). Episode 30: Spam, Hawaii, & Japanese internment – the hidden history of business Podcast. Retrieved December 14, 2016, from Food, http://hiddenhistoryofbusiness.com/index.php/2016/01/27/episode-30-spam-hawaii-japanese-internment/

Carbone, N. (2012, July 9). How much Spam? | Spam turns 75: 10 things you didn’t know about the canned meat | TIME.Com. Retrieved December 14, 2016, from http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/10/spam-turns-75-10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-canned-meat/slide/more-than-seven-billion-cans-have-been-sold/

New York Times Magazine (2007, June 11). International Business. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/business/worldbusiness/11iht-spam.1.6089119.html?_r=0

Turner, W. (1984, September 9). MILK WAR POINTS UP HAWAIIAN INSULARITY. Week in Review. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/09/weekinreview/milk-war-points-up-hawaiian-insularity.html

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