Spam, the hunting/fishing, other (sort of ) red meat

[Dave in Maine]

I love Spam, cold or fried.  I'll usually do it in slabs like the picture above.

 

But nothing beats scrapple.  I grew up on that stuff.  I have some in my fridge now, though it doesn't compare to the homemade.  My dad would buy whole pork shoulders and we'd cut them up and make sausage.  We had one of those big cast iron sausage stuffers made circa 1890 by the Enterprise company, weighed about 50 lb and destined to survive the next Ice Age.  We'd grind and stuff 40 or so pounds of sausage.  Then the leftover bones - we didn't cut too close to the bone - would be cooked down (pretty smelly) and then he'd add a little bit of spice and a bag of buckwheat flour to the contents, pour the stuff into bread pans and wait for it to harden up.  It'd freeze well and keep.  

 

He'd also make his own souse, jellying the meat, onion and lots of garlic in an aspic.  Unlike the commercial souse, no skins or heads in his.  He was very popular with the guys at work.  He'd bring that and some good rye bread in for lunch.  Everyone knew when he had that.  

 

It's said you know you're from Pennsylvania when you can tell the time of day by what's served with your scrapple.  It's true.

[bigjohnsd]

My wife is a SPAM Aficionado, there is always a can open in the refrigerator for her breakfast.  

 

I can take it or leave it - but it does make excellent fried rice.

 

My Daughter-in-law worked for the Ad Agency that had the SPAM account for multiple years, she was the Account Manager - she knows a lot about SPAM and won't touch the stuff.

[steveziv]

My wife's grandmother would put a slice on a little burger bun, add a slice of cheese wrap in foil and warm in the oven, to serve at her old bitty card parties.

 

I don't really care for it, canned corned beef hash on the other hand...

[Sean K]

On 7/30/2020 at 8:46 AM, Cold Iron said:

 

Mike gets it 🙂 So does this Mike.

 

Shot 5 Stand Sunday near Austin, Mn. where Spam is made. 

 

 

It is actually a pretty simple food as far as ingredients go

 

 

In Hawaii it is a main staple and they access to a lot more flavors than most of us in the Mainland

 

 

Usually pan fry it but often smoke it. Scored deep with brown sugar sprinkled on top and pineapple glaze. Sitting next to the Atomic Buffalo Turds.

 

 

Spam is ALMOST as good as scrapple. Almost.

 

 

 

 

Now I love Spam, but saying it is almost as good as scrapple... that's a mighty bold statement. Mighty bold. 

[Cold Iron]

13 minutes ago, Sean K said:

Now I love Spam, but saying it is almost as good as scrapple... that's a mighty bold statement. Mighty bold. 

 

Well when it comes to going out to hunt in the morning I am not going to do Spam. Usually. It is Scrapple, eggs and coffee that is what makes a man fit to go kill birds.

 

 

Even on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Hey I have connections for home made scrapple and they ship in the cooler months 😉 

[Grifish]

Spam, scrapple and pork roll all yummy. No canned hash for me.

 

The singular culinary disappointment in my life was Vienna Sausages.  When I was a kid, I was a member of B.A.S.S. and received their magazine monthly.   Each month they had a cartoon of two good ol boys fishing, drinking beer and eating vinnie sausages. Well, I knew that I loved fishing and had a sip or two of beer and it wasn’t bad so I went to the store and bought some vinnie sausages.  A more foul tasting gray blob has never passed these lips. I never became a Bassmaster.

[Spin]

2 hours ago, Grifish said:

Spam, scrapple and pork roll all yummy. No canned hash for me.

 

The singular culinary disappointment in my life was Vienna Sausages.  When I was a kid, I was a member of B.A.S.S. and received their magazine monthly.   Each month they had a cartoon of two good ol boys fishing, drinking beer and eating vinnie sausages. Well, I knew that I loved fishing and had a sip or two of beer and it wasn’t bad so I went to the store and bought some vinnie sausages.  A more foul tasting gray blob has never passed these lips. I never became a Bassmaster.

Glad to see you showed strong principles at an early age Grif.  😄

[Spin]

2 hours ago, Cold Iron said:

 

Well when it comes to going out to hunt in the morning I am not going to do Spam. Usually. It is Scrapple, eggs and coffee that is what makes a man fit to go kill birds.

 

 

Even on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Hey I have connections for home made scrapple and they ship in the cooler months 😉 

Brother when I was in my early twenties I'd take a trip back East and fish with my Dad's youngest brother who lived on the Bushkill

in Easton PA. We'd be up pre-dawn and fish the morning hatch then drive to the Water Gap going thru Mt Bethel. There was an old style

Air Stream type diner there where we get a late breakfast to get us through to dinner. Most frequent choice Scrapple and eggs, runner up?

A near dinner plate sized round pattie of scrapple fried extra crisp and drizzled with maple syrup. Of course a large tomato juice, fruit and

english muffin toasted and buttered, OK maybe two but I was young and scrawny back then.

[A516]

Like Spam, Dinty Moore Beef Stew,  Sweet Sue Chicken and Dumplings, Corned Beef Hash, Vienna Sausage, Potted Meat, Pickled Sausage, Pickled Eggs, Canned Smoked Oysters, Sardines, Souse, BBQ Flavored Souse, etc.  As a fisheries biologist I ate a lot of these gourmet foods in the field.  When my wife and I went to PA I tried Scrapple twice in Amish cafes.  That stuff is nasty tasting.

 

One of the worst food items I ever saw was a souse meat sandwich with mayonnaise that I left on the dash of my vehicle in the hot sun while at work.  The bread was so grease soaked that you could have wrung the grease out of it.

 

[Spin]

7 hours ago, A516 said:

Like Spam, Dinty Moore Beef Stew,  Sweet Sue Chicken and Dumplings, Corned Beef Hash, Vienna Sausage, Potted Meat, Pickled Sausage, Pickled Eggs, Canned Smoked Oysters, Sardines, Souse, BBQ Flavored Souse, etc.  As a fisheries biologist I ate a lot of these gourmet foods in the field.  When my wife and I went to PA I tried Scrapple twice in Amish cafes.  That stuff is nasty tasting.

 

One of the worst food items I ever saw was a souse meat sandwich with mayonnaise that I left on the dash of my vehicle in the hot sun while at work.  The bread was so grease soaked that you could have wrung the grease out of it.

 

Wow,I didn't think it possible for a Tennessean to turn down pork in any form. Maybe you were a victim of an "Amish Hit". Don't feel like the Lone Ranger pard. I had a bowl of Czarnina -

(Duck's Blood Soup) that I swear would of dropped Sobieski in his prime. Another culinary Faux Pas I was subjected to was a helping of smoked catfish that just had to be a deliberate

attack. It went into my mouth as I was driving home with a generous gift portion, and left out the truck's window and into the ditch faster then you could blink.

The thing is I know that particular soup can be both delicious and very appealing. Ditto for the Smoked Catfish (I've made some myself and it turned out quite well). Could be your luck ran out and your number came up. I know, you feel violated don't you. 🤔

[A516]

I would be willing to try Scrapple again but not at that restaurant in PA.  Otherwise I am a "pork-a-holic" with the exception on Brains and Eggs and Pickled Pigs Feet.  Maybe I should have known something wasn't right when I noticed all of the women working there were wearing Nikes.

[sprocket]

I just booked a trip to [can't say] to hunt Spamalopes, Peperronalopes and the elusive Proccutolloes.  I'm told Baconasaurus also run wild on the property but are strictly off limits.

[Tony Moore]

I feel obligated to thank my US cousins, spam, and powdered eggs kept us war babies strong, truly grateful.

[Pudgy gopher]

Is scrapple the same as head cheese?

[Greg Hartman]

On 8/5/2020 at 12:19 AM, Cold Iron said:

 

Well when it comes to going out to hunt in the morning I am not going to do Spam. Usually. It is Scrapple, eggs and coffee that is what makes a man fit to go kill birds.

 

 

Even on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Hey I have connections for home made scrapple and they ship in the cooler months 😉 

 

Yum!

 

A scrapple story:

 

In the old rural PA Dutch culture, kids are considered small adults and are expected to participate in the family work to the extent they are physically able - kids are not considered special snowflakes who play video games and soccer like today.  So, during butchering, kids are expected to help until the work is done.  We always made scrapple when butchering hogs.  There was a huge iron pot (probably from the colonial days) kept bubbling over a fire and any scrap that could find no other possible use (it is said that when the PA Dutch butcher a hog, there is nothing left but the squeal) was tossed into the scrapple pot, the head (after the brains were out) was put in there, etc, etc.

 

One of the jobs assigned to the smallest kids when butchering hogs was to clean the $hit out of the intestines so they could be used as sausage casing.  I was assigned this task as a little kid.  Some other kids and I were hard at it, but we still were little kids who liked to play, so it didn't take too long before a $hit slinging contest began.  By twirling the intestine faster and faster, you could toss the $hit pretty far.  Well, being competitive, I was working on what should have been the winning toss of a really big glob of Sh** when I missed and a huge chunk of Pig Poo sailed over the adult's heads and plopped right in the scrapple pot with a splash.  THANK GOD none of the adults saw this or I would not be telling this story today!!  No one ever ratted me out, either.

 

I did NOT partake of any scrapple from this batch. The rest of the family devoured it with relish.

 

Good scrapple is not easy to find even around here these days.  Scrapple remains one of my favorite things.  My late wife wouldn't go near the stuff, but Nancy, being equally Dutchy, likes it as well.