WEBVTT - How SPAM Works 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:13.560 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast on Josh Clark. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:18.239 I am Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:23.560 that's stuff you should know. Let's all go home. Some 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:27.240 people are probably already home. Well, go to bed. Okay 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:29.639 told me that in the email the other day. Go 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:32.920 back to sleep. I don't get that. We're just being 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:41.640 goofy okay, just lightning the mood. I got you. Yeah, Hey, buddy, Hey, Josh, 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:43.559 I have a story for you. All right, let's hear it. 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.440 So last November, not too many months ago. Stop looking, 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.560 just listen, all right. Uh, there was a Carnival cruise 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:56.600 liner that had a little fire. The Carnival Splendor was 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.520 on a seven day trip to the Mexican Riviera and 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.400 about forty four miles off the coast of Mexico, it 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.399 went adrift because of fire in the engine room just 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.480 knocked everything out so they lost power, which means it 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:13.600 was basically just like um being on an abandoned boat, 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.600 but filled with people. Ghost ship a ghost ship and 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.240 filled with not just people, filled with two hundred and 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:24.520 fifty magicians who were on a convention. Um, it sounds 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.760 like my idea of hell on Earth. Okay. In addition 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.680 to the magicians, which apologies to any magicians listening, we've 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.960 got sculptures melting. You've got magicians they can't find their 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.040 rabbits um. You've got um toilets their own flush. You've 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:43.640 got um cabins that are um stuffy. You have um 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:49.160 warm food or warm drink. Yes, So Carnival, in their 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.960 credit did um give away free beer and wine and 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.960 all that. But it was warm. So for three days 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.400 all these people were just sitting adrift right in a 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:05.360 very just They weren't very happy. The US Navy flew 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:10.960 soorties out to this um this ship and dropped off supplies. 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.200 They dropped off canned lump crab meat, they dropped off 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:18.800 pop tarts, they dropped off a little something called spam 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:24.679 canned meat. And when the ship was finally I think 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:30.320 towed back to uh Port, sadly, the people dubbed this 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.000 crazy vacation. What do you think do you think they 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.440 taught They dubbed it the pop tart cation. Do you 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.160 think they dubbed it the lump crab meat cation? No, 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.680 of course they dubbed it spam Cation two thousand ten. Yeah, 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:48.320 that's like Chad's story. Our buddy Chad was on a cruise, 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:50.280 remember when he was younger, that the power went down. 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:52.639 He never told me this one. Oh yeah. He said 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.720 it was like Sodom and Gomora for a couple of days. Really. 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.960 Oh yeah. He said that people were having a lot 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.600 of fun. I mean aging inside of me just and 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.480 go more and me having a good time, is what 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.440 he how he characterized it. That's crazy. I wonder if 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:09.600 he just didn't realize that it would have been like 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.600 that either way, with the power on or off. He 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:13.920 was just exposed to the power off part. I don't know. 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:16.080 He kind of made it seem like that with the 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.760 power down, people just it was a little nutty. It 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:20.639 was sort of like the end times are here. We're 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.440 on a cruise ship adrift, and let's just have have 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.680 fun with each other. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah, I've never been 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.320 on a cruise, you know. Yeah, I'm not a cruise guy. 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.280 My dad's he's turned into a cruise guy. He and uh, 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.960 he and my step mom are into cruises. But they, yeah, 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.080 my dad's way into him. Every time they go, they 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.680 come back with like a stomach bug or the flu 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:47.520 or just apparently they just it's like the epidemic just 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.920 goes through like crazy, like wildfire. My friend Andrew in 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.840 New York or from l A, but from the Bronx. 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:58.320 Andrew his uh, he showed me the tape of his graham. 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.480 I think it was his grandmother, maybe it was his aunt. This, 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.160 you know, like the old Jewish lady in New York 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:06.880 talking about a cruise and she was explaining about the 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:08.640 cruise and how much it costs and how much you get, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:10.480 and she was like, it almost costs he said. She 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:12.880 said it costs more to stay at home, like she 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:14.560 thought it was cheaper to go on a cruise than 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:16.919 to just live her life at home. Huh, well, she 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.279 doesn't live in New York. It was very funny though. Yeah. 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.600 I didn't tell it right, but Andrew, if you're listening, 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.839 I still remember that. And if you're listening, Chuck, sorry 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.160 for that one. I am So that was spam cation 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.800 two thousen and of course they named it spam cation 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.400 spam the food. By the way, if you were hoping 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:39.040 to hear about spam email, sorry, we'll mention that. We'll 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:43.960 mention that briefly, but this is about the iconic potted meat, right, which, 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.680 by the way, Chuck, Next July five will be it's 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.480 seventy five birthday, July five, two twelve. It was in 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.279 truced to the public eleven, two twelve. It will have 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.839 been seventy five years since it was trademarked and technically born. Yeah, 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.160 and then you know, and twenty five years there will 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.839 be a spam tennial is what they'll probably call it, yes, 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:10.039 which will be spantastic. So, chuck, um, let's talk about spam. 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:12.320 It's shrouded in mystery. No one has a clue what's 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:14.960 in it, or in what degree, or what it's made of. 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:19.440 So Chuck, what is spam? Josh? Spam is a pinkish 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.760 brick of meat that is canned and it is We 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:25.880 actually do know what's in it. It is pretty easy. 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:31.400 It's uh, pork shoulder and ham, yeah, and hams from 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.880 the butt, right, It's from the rear hind legs and 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.800 rear end of the pig is what ham is. It's 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.880 also got a lot of salt because you need that 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.840 to help flavor and preserve the meat. And I got 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.599 a little bit of sugar for flavor and uh water 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.880 and then a tiny amount is what they say on 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.839 the Hormel site. They use the word tiny a tiny 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.720 amount of sodium nitrite, which keeps the botulism away. It's 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.760 keeps a botulism away. And it also keeps the pink 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:04.960 a shoe because if not, spam would turn gray, which 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.600 is not very appetizing. It's they're doing their best to 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.640 keep it pink. So um. I don't know that the 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.600 pinker the gray with spam specifically would make a difference. 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.200 But the grabster, for some reason who wrote this article 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.880 how spam? Um? He didn't He left out potato starts 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.159 for some reason. How was that in there? Yeah? Potato 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.239 starts in there too. I did not see that spam 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.640 has a Hormel on the website says the shelf life 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:34.200 is indefinite. No, yes, wow, they say it's indefinite. They 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.960 recommend you eat it. It It is stamped within three years 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:41.400 of the stamped because the flavor quote gradually declines. Wow, 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.280 it declines to the bottom of the can. Yeah, but 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.719 it's still edible. Shake it up. I'm sure it goes 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:50.440 right back. Yeah. That's really something. So should we do 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.080 history first or should we go into the production. Um, 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:56.000 we make sense to do history first. Well, let's do 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.080 history then. You know, before it was called spam, there 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:04.200 was a product on the market UM called Hormel spiced ham. 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:05.719 Did you know that? I did not know that? And 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.880 it wasn't selling very well well, because Hormel was in 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.880 the fresh meat biz, right, And apparently it's just it 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:14.560 was hard to make your name in the fresh meat 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.760 biz because it was just kind of all the same looking, right, like, 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:20.520 look at this turkey breast. It looks like the turkey 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.360 breast next to us. Imagine they still have the same 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.320 problem today. But they decided to get into the can 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.360 meat business. Well that was George Hormel's problem. Jay Hormel 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.360 was the one who said, well, let's just let's yeah, 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.840 get into canned meat. And he was the son of George, 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.800 the founder. And this was in the late eight hundreds 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.520 in Austin, Minnesota, Yes, which is still the home of 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.880 UM Hormel. Yeah, right, and where it's one of two 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.040 places it's produced. No, there's a few others. Oh they 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:53.360 added some. Yeah, there's a care South Korea, Denmark, and 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.160 I can't remember where the third one is. Okay, in 0:07:56.200 --> 0:08:01.200 North America. You're right, Freemont, Nebraska is the other place. So, um, 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:04.840 Jay Hoormel is I guess the he comes into his 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.120 father's business and just revamped it and probably kept it 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.960 going today. Can meat see exactly. Um. One of the 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.960 reasons why he got into canned meat was because they 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.400 were just not able to make a name for themselves 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.440 in the fresh meat, but also because he came into 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:26.640 the business, um during the depression, and there was a 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:31.520 lot of thrifty nous, so people wanted something that um 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.720 was cheap and delicious that they could feed their family 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:39.080 but meaty, right, And Jayhormel gave him spiced ham. But 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.640 it wasn't called spam at first, Like I said, it 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.240 was called spiced ham, right. Yeah, well he had he 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.040 had problems at first, um packaging it because it took 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:49.920 a lot of trial and error because canning meat it 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.439 was a pretty new fangled thing at the time, and 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.400 apparently sell walls the heat would call. So yeah, we 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.480 need to point out that spam is cooked. Yeah, it 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.160 comes like you can eat it right out of the can. 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:06.600 It's I have already, have you man, not me? I mean, 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:08.720 I haven't eaten spam literally since college. But we used 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.400 to take it on camping trips and fried up. Well 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.240 yeah that's not right out of the can, No, but 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.199 I could also eat it out of the can circumstance. 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.640 I've never eaten it out of the can. Yeah, it's 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:20.720 you know, it's the tastes the same, but man fried 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.679 like I was remembering that taste today. I mean it's 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.520 been twenty years, though probably not fifteen. It's been a 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.040 lot less than that for me really. Oh yeah, you 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:33.200 and these families from Okinawa and Okanawa's are crazy for 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.400 spam really Oh yeah, like Hawaiians. Yeah, we'll get to 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.640 that too. Uh so, uh, the cell walls would break 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.240 down and release the water from the meat, So what 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.560 would you would have was as dry meat floating in water, 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:51.320 which is pretty gross and separate because these cells would lice. 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:54.640 That's right, It's just not good. So over time they 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.720 figured out the canning process, which meant a lot of 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:01.760 salt in the preci uh temperature that you need to 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.400 cook it at to preserve it to where it is moist. 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.640 And it also has to be mixed in cannon a vacuum, 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:10.400 which is really important. That's the key. That's the key 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.520 if you Yeah, if you mix it and can it 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.680 in a vacuum, you should be okay. And speaking of key, 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:18.440 remember when you needed a key to open it? No, 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.040 I wasn't alive then you are. It wasn't that long ago. 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:24.440 I wasn't paying attention to spam. Yeah, there was a key. 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.520 It came attached to the can, and you would take 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:29.560 off the key and insert into a little thing and 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.040 roll it back like I guess like old sardine can's 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:34.720 used to do the same thing. Okay, yeah, no, I've 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.080 seen that in like cartoons from the sixties, But I 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:42.560 didn't know spam had that. Spam keys, huh before they 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:44.040 went I guess with the poll tab Like was that 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.760 like a giveaway though, like a spam key, like you'd 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.760 send off for it? Or would they came attached to 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.080 the bottom of the can? Oh? Gotcha? Man, those are 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.720 the good old days. It was self contained and fairly explainatory. 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.640 All right. So Jay Hormel figures out how to can meet. Yes, 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.640 but he's not he He was a were in marketers. 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.640 The guy sold um. He came up with Hormel's chili kuncarnate, 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:06.600 and he hired a twenty piece Mexican band to go 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.280 around the country like touting it's goodness. And that was 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:14.600 Los Lobos, right, um, gypsy kings, I think. And uh 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.200 so like he would come up with great publicity since 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.800 he was good at marketing, but he was he was 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:24.720 hamstrung by U by the name Hornmele spiced meat. It 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:26.800 wasn't selling well. He had he had, he had it 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.280 figured out. Uh and he later on kind of messed 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.000 a little bit with the recipe to come up with 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:32.720 spam as we know it today, but there was something 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.720 similar called Hormel spiced ham. So he was having trouble 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.160 um coming up with a name. And he had a 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.040 New Year's Eve party, right, Yeah, Well he had a 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.320 contest before the party, Yeah, and it yielded nothing. It 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.560 yielded names like brunch and Baby Grand and he was like, 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.920 we can do better than that. Um, and we should 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:55.920 probably give a shout out to Nito Rama, who had 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.560 a pretty good little blog post about it. Was that 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.959 where he saw it. Um, So, Hormels like, we need 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:03.800 to do better than that. I'm gonna have a New 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:05.840 Year's Eve party and I'm gonna tell my guests that 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.280 I will. They can get a free drink for every 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.040 name they write down on a slip of paper, and 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.560 there's a quote from him saying that along about the 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:18.439 fourth or fifth drink, people started using their imaginations, right. Uh. 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:23.240 And finally a an actor named what was his name, Chuck? 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:28.360 His name was Kenneth d A I G n e 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:35.200 a U Danielle daniel We'll go with that, Okay. He 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.760 was a Broadway actor, I believe. Um he came up 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.679 with the name spam and one bucks. He had like 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:46.120 five slow gin fizzes and then came up with spam right, 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:50.400 one hundred cash, right, and that was it. I guess 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:52.480 he had to sign away the rights. Oh, I'm sure 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:56.319 right there on the spot. Yeah, He's like, I'll sign it, yeah, spam. 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:59.520 I wonder how he came up with it, besides the 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.079 fact that he was trunk. It's introuded in mystery. It's 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.400 lost to mysteries. A lot of if you go onto 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.240 the spam official site and they're like, what what does 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.959 spam mean? And there's a lot of there's a lot 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.880 of conjecture that it means things like um uh something 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:19.000 posing is meat, like it's an acronym um or that 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:25.560 it's a it stands for um stuff, pork and meat. Okay, 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.440 it's another acronym. Apparently there's dirty ones too. Yeah. But 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:31.640 what we need to point out though, again that spam 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.360 is not some weird mystery meat with all sorts of 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.920 like disgusting parts. It's unless you think pork shoulder and 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.240 ham is disgusting, right, I mean, we know what's in it, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:47.199 that's true. UM. So, apparently it's lost to time. They 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.960 think it's just basically taking spiced and ham and put together. 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:53.480 But again, if you go on the official spam website, 0:13:53.480 --> 0:14:23.880 they're like spam meat spam. Now, that's what we're going with. UM. 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.160 So that's where the name came from. Was seven that 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.280 Hormel trademarked. It introduced it to the public, and it 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.440 started to take off pretty well. But it was actually 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:38.800 aided by UM in a an obscure act by the 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:43.000 US Congress that that was past in one called the 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.840 lend Lease Act, right, that has something to do with 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:51.120 the exportation it did so in America was neutral still 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.040 in the in what was becoming World War Two, and 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:57.800 they the Congress passed the lend Lease Act saying that 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.280 the President had the authority to send weapons, supplies and 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:03.840 food to countries that were fighting the Access power, which 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:08.200 effectively reversed the neutral neutral stance we had. Right. Yeah, 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.480 and spam is a good thing to send because it's 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.240 you can have it forever, it's in a can that 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:18.720 can get dented up, and soldiers apparently could eat a 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:20.960 lot of it, and not just soldiers, people in other 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.120 countries in restaurants. They shipped a hundred million pounds of 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.120 this stuff. Yeah, So Hormel was like, hey, we've got 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:29.120 a bunch of stuff for you, give us a contract, 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:34.160 and they did, and it became ubiquitous in World War two, 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.160 especially in the Pacific. Right, so, two things are going 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.080 on with the g i's. Well, two things are going 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.400 on with World War Two. One, the gis are eating 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.680 this stuff or what they thought was spam morning, noon 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.560 and night, and hated it because they've got so sick 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.160 of it. And secondly, it was also being shipped to 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:55.880 countries that were part of the Pacific and European theaters. 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.720 And then after World War two stopped, these people had 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.040 developed a taste for spam. Well, even the soldiers that 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.160 hated it came back and they were kind of like 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:06.280 a boy now kind of misspam. They could really go 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.320 for some spam exactly. So World War two is like 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:15.400 this incredibly strange, perfect marketing platform for spam. Yeah. Uh. 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:17.560 And then right after World War Two, apparently J. Hormel 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.440 recognized what was going on and he um let out 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:23.760 another advertising blitz back here in the States, and that 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:25.800 was the household name. From that point on, it was 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:30.960 a perfect sporm if you will. Sorry. Uh, Now does 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.360 that explain why it's popular in Hawaii and Japan because 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.120 the Pacific thing? Yeah? Okay, and especially in Okinawa. Um, 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:42.200 there've been marines there forever and um Apparently anywhere the 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:45.680 American military goes and has like a very big open 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:49.400 presence in the local population, spam is a big thing. 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.440 But for some reason, people have Asian descent are crazy 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:54.960 for spam. Well they make it. I know in Hawaii 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.080 they have it and like sushi rolls and stuff like that. 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.240 Imagine they do in Japan too. Yeah, it's um. I 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:04.520 haven't seen it. In Pan it's called um sam spam musubi. 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:09.119 It's the slices spam on a slab of rice wrapped 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:14.120 in newry, which is a seaweed. There's yours, not even 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.400 like avocado or row or anything like that. It's spam. Man, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.080 Is it cooked or is it raw? It looked cooked 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:22.879 in the picture I saw. Well, I'm sure you can 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.800 find it anyway. You're talk cooked. But it was like 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:30.600 cooked again, right okay? Um. And in in Hawaii also 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.320 Burger King and McDonald's you can find like spam, rice 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.200 and eggs on their menu their breakfast menu. It's everywhere 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.720 it is. It is ubiquitous. And they're nearing their eight 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:44.520 billiant can of spam pushing it out there. Ye all right, 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.439 so that's the history. Oh we should also say the 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:54.160 Hormel Corporation is um often like alleged often has alleged 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.639 unfair labor practices and stuff like that these days. Um. 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.200 But J. Hormel was dubbed by I think Fortune magazine 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:06.960 the red Capitalist because he was really progressive with labor 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.199 relations in a good way. Yeah. There was like a 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.200 three day strike once and he had a platform built 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.040 so he could meet with the labor leaders, and he 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:19.119 hammered out things like, um, an annual wage, uh, a 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:24.600 fifty two weeks notice before termination for workers a year 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.080 like a year from now, you're going to be laid off, 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.119 um profit sharing, all this stuff that was unheard of. 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.719 He became like a really like and he managed to 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.879 create really good relations with his employees, which helped, you know, 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.919 get them to really work hard to turn this stuff out. 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.240 I'd say fifty two weeks is almost foolish as an employer, Yeah, 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.600 because when it nears, it's like, no, no, we need 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.080 to know. Don't worry about that. Yeah. Alright, so that's 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:51.959 the spam history. Now we should talk a little bit, 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.840 Josh about spam production because it's pretty neat. Oh, like 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:58.640 we said, Austin, Minnesota and Fremont, Nebraska's where it's made 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.320 here in the States. And it is such a highly 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:05.159 automated process that apparently it only takes thirteen workers to 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.880 run the spam factory. And imagine a lot of those 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:14.679 are shaving trimming ham because Ed says, pig pieces arrive 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:20.360 at the plantin the street. Yeah, they grow, the grow 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.040 the pigs. They they grow and kill the pigs across 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.399 the street. The machines removed the pork from the bone, 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:30.520 but the ham is trimmed by hand. Uh. They grind 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.879 it up into eight thousand pound batches. Flash cool. It 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.080 blend it and mix it with the other stuff, and 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.080 then pipe it. Police of it. When meat is pipe 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:42.800 pipe it to a conveyor belt where it's pumped in 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:46.119 a can and sealed shut right off the bat and 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.960 then it's cooked. Right. It is cooked in these in 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:52.520 the can. It's cooked in the can in these six 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:56.480 story cookers that can hold up to like sixty six 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:59.920 thousand cans at a time, which is something because the 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:04.399 think they they all of the um the capacity for 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:10.080 all I think five spam factories is something like umto 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:14.240 thousand cans an hour, so they need this huge capacity 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.240 to cook that many cans at once. Your stomachs growling 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.760 spam right now. I almost I thought about bringing some 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.800 in because we kind of regretted with the Twinkie cast 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.560 not eating Twinkies live on the air. But um, yeah, spam, Terry, 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.320 do you have any spam? She's fresh out? Okay, nothing 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:34.840 fresh about it. So it is cooked in the can 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:39.159 that kills the bacteria and obviously cooks it, wash it 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:43.080 and cool it and then applied the plastic label used 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:45.920 to be lithographed on the can itself, which I remember, 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:48.359 and it had a different picture. It had a loaf 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.280 of spam with clothes in it, and now it's a 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.080 spam burger. I prefer the old picture. Yeah. And that 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:58.040 the lithic lithograph went away, and I think and they 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:01.480 went with probably the cheaper plastic rap on the can. 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:03.960 I imagine that's why they did it. Lithography is not 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.760 cheap um. And then it is shipped all over the 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:09.920 country and then they license it like I guess they 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:12.200 they probably dont ship it all, well, they probably should. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:14.360 You know the ones here, the two and the one 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.280 in Nebraska and the one in Minnesota supply North America, 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.639 South America, and Australia. Okay, yeah, And they sat on 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.400 the Hormet website. If you've ever wondered what spam taste like, 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.840 it is a quote wonderful combination of a savory, salty, 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.840 sweet taste that will make your taste buds dance. I 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:33.960 know they did a lot of self promotion on the 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:36.680 official website. If you ask me dance and taste. Oh yeah, 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.959 of course. It was like did you go through all 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:42.480 the questions? It was like, how should I eat spam? 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:49.920 Eat delicious spam? Anyway you deliciously spamily want to spam? Uh? 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.520 They have a museum, of course, the Spam Museum, which 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.639 is free, which is as it should be, and it 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:59.080 sounds awesome. Did you read the Roadside America article on it. Yeah, 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:00.840 and I looked at some of the pictures too. It's 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:03.920 it's cool, like it's a cool museum. There was one 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:07.959 guide on the Roadside America article named John who seemed 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:10.280 to tell it like it is. Like he talked about 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.280 the hog place across the streets, like they slaughter twenty 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:16.800 thousand head a hog across the street there every day. 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.240 It's like at the Spam meets you, that's in the 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:24.440 Spam Museum. It was one of the guides. And apparently 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:29.000 they employee retired spam factory workers as guides. And this 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:32.240 guy was just like a straight shooter, right yeah, So 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.360 if you go, you should ask for John. Really, that's 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:37.320 what I That's what I gathered. I can't wait to 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:40.000 hear from people from Minnesota about this that live near there. 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:42.520 I wonder what the oh man, the smell that gives it. 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:49.720 Uh So, let's get to the health benefits of spam. 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:54.240 It's not healthy. It's not apparently a twelve ounce camp 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:57.560 which just the standard size. There's two sets, the twelve 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:01.200 and the nine and the seven. But if you're eating spam, 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:02.920 you're you're going for the twelve. Yeah, that's the one 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:06.000