So it has come to this. I find myself accepting, with no hesitation, an offer to review The Ultimate SPAM® Cookbook ($12.99, Fox Chapel Publishing). If you give this book a chance, you will find easy and interesting ways to SPAM up your meals.
According to Modern Survival Online, SPAM has about a 3-5-year shelf life. Not surprisingly, sales increased this spring during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But you don’t need to save SPAM for an emergency–it’s versatile enough that it can be a part of your everyday meals, as the book illustrates. It features more than 100 recipes–some from Hormel, some from famous chefs–covering breakfast, appetizers, snacks and “main courses.”
The book features mostly simple recipes that don’t take much time or require much cooking experience. For example, I made the tacos (p. 94), Sloppy Joes (p. 70) and ramen (p. 59). For the first two, I diced the SPAM and sauteed it. Then for the Sloppy Joes, I added some canned sauce. Both the tacos and Sloppy Joes took just a few minutes to prepare–it’s so much faster than browning ground beef.
The ramen dish is a realization of being able to make a hearty meal out of things you likely have in your kitchen. I sliced the SPAM, fried it, then added it, along with a hard-boiled egg, to a bowl of ramen. It was very satisfying.
A recipe that I look forward to trying is the Wisconsin SPAM pierogi (p. 128), which is a 2015 Wisconsni State Fair blue ribbon winner. Also, I want to make Martin Yan’s Crystal Wrap SPAM Classic (p. 124) and Michael Politz’s Wonton SPAM Eggroll (p. 127).
Photo from Fox Chapel Publishing
