What is in Spam? It is one of life's greatest mysteries — a true puzzlement that has plagued any person with a pantry since it was introduced in 1937. In this video, we'll reveal how Spam is really made.
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00:00Let's face it, Spam is weird stuff.
00:03It might look like a block of mystery meat and taste suspiciously delicious, but it turns
00:07out there's a lot that goes into each and every can of Spam.
00:10Here's how Spam is really made.
00:12Spam is a weird thing.
00:14A tin of long-lasting, weirdly textured, inexplicably good… meat product.
00:19Things like Spam don't just happen.
00:21Someone had to intentionally do this.
00:22The question is, why?
00:24And how?
00:25Spam has its origins in the late 20s, when Jay Hormel took over his father's meat company.
00:29Hormel was always looking for the next big thing, so when he saw a deli selling canned
00:33meat carved into slices, he latched onto the idea.
00:35The meat was originally formed into six-pound molds, and customers who wanted some had it
00:39sliced at the deli.
00:40Hormel figured he could cut out the middleman, and sell miniature canned meats directly to
00:44people who could then slice it themselves.
00:46The idea for Spam was born, though it would take a few years to be perfected, finally
00:50debuting in 1937.
00:52Hormel decided early on that Spam would primarily consist of pork shoulder, a part of the pig
00:56that, at the time, was rarely used as it was difficult to process.
01:00Spam starts looking less like pigs and more like Spam when the meat is sliced from the
01:03bone, a process done by hand, and ground into 8,000-pound batches.
01:07These days, given the worldwide popularity of Spam, the company needs a lot of piggy
01:11shoulders to meet demand, which is why their partners at Quality Pork Processors Inc. slaughter
01:15over 20,000 pigs every single day.
01:18Most domestic Spam is processed in Nebraska, but Hormel also has overseas plants in South
01:22Korea, the Philippines, and Denmark.
01:25Spam has an image of being mostly a weird, sort-of-mystery meat, but there's only six
01:29ingredients, pork with ham, salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrate.
01:34That's it.
01:35Still, you might be wondering why some of those ingredients are in your meat to begin
01:38with.
01:39The sodium nitrate is there to prevent the growth of bacteria that can cause food poisoning
01:42if it's ingested, since no one wants their Spam with a side of botulism.
01:46It's also what gives Spam that distinctive pink color, thanks to a chemical reaction
01:49that happens between the nitrates and the protein in the meat, and the potato starch
01:53helps to hold everything together while preventing the meat from drying out too much in the can.
01:57It's actually a recent addition to the recipe, as it was only added in 2009.
02:01After the meat is hand-carved from the bone, it's ground up in 8,000-pound batches.
02:05A metal detector is used to make sure nothing has gotten into the batch in any part of the
02:09process, and then it's transferred to a series of vacuum mixers that are capable of super-chilling
02:13the batch to freezing.
02:15The rest of the ingredients are dumped in, the mixer is sealed to be airtight, and it's
02:19mixed.
02:20Why the cold in the vacuum?
02:21Just to help prevent a huge amount of liquid from being released when the meat is cooked.
02:25Once the Spam is all perfectly mixed, it's funneled into the cans, which are vacuum-sealed,
02:29giving Spam its infamously long shelf life.
02:31How long?
02:32Hormel says if you store it properly, a can of Spam could last indefinitely.
02:36Usually, though, it starts to go off about five years after its Best Buy date, so if
02:40you've got some old Spam in your doomsday bunker, you should probably eat it now.
02:43I have the best stocked survival shelter in northeastern Pennsylvania, but everything
02:47has a shelf life, so I must eat and then replace everything that's about to expire.
02:52Once the Spam is canned, then it's time to cook it.
02:54Yes, it sounds backwards, but Spam is actually cooked inside the can.
02:57The cans are sent to a massive hydrostatic cooker, where the cans are cooked, sterilized,
03:02washed, and finally cooled.
03:03How big is the machine?
03:04It can actually process up to 33,000 cans every hour.
03:09And they need to make that many cans, because despite being a punchline to some, Hormel
03:12estimates they sell three cans every second, with over eight billion cans sold since Spam
03:16was first introduced.
03:18That's way more than just a mere ton of Spam, literally, as it just takes 2,666 cans of
03:23Spam to equal one ton.
03:25There's no signs that interest in Spam is going away anytime soon, either, as it shows
03:29up in an estimated one in three American households.
03:32But that doesn't hold a candle to some of the biggest Spam consumers in the world.
03:35Spam is especially popular in Hawaii and Guam, where the canned meat became a beloved dietary
03:39staple when Allied troops introduced it to locals during World War II.
03:43Hawaii and Guam both vie for the crown of the most Spam-happy place on Earth, but at
03:47last calculation, the crown was officially held by Guam, where the average citizen consumes
03:5216 cans of Spam per year.
03:53You can even get it at McDonald's!
03:56Everyone's familiar with those distinctive blue and yellow cans, right?
03:59Absolutely.
04:00And that's what makes it so surprising that there's an extra step that goes into the making
04:03of Spam in South Korea.
04:05It's often packaged up as part of a gift set.
04:07The New York Times looked at South Korea's favorite gifts for the Lunar New Year.
04:10It was a list that included things like rare tea, imported wines, fine cuts of beef, and
04:15Spam.
04:16American soldiers also brought Spam with them to South Korea during the Korean War, in the
04:201950s, which is why Spam is today considered a luxurious delicacy.
04:23In fact, it's often given as a sign of respect to important people during the Christmas season.
04:28As one saleswoman told the New York Times,
04:30Here, Spam is a classy gift you can give to people you care about during the holiday.
04:33Amen!"
04:35Oh yeah.
04:36Oof.
04:37That's the sound of quality.