The Symphony and the SPAM Museum

 Nope, not kidding. There really is a SPAM Museum and it's about 45 minutes from our house in Hormel's hometown - Austin, MN. I have a friend who convinced me to join the Austin Symphony (very low-key, fun and they pay you to play!). So we had a Saturday rehearsal to prepare for our concert and Kurtis took the kids to the SPAM museum while we rehearsed. I was a bit sad to miss the museum, but it turned out it wasn't too spectacular. Which is sad, because SPAM is pretty cool.

Interesting SPAM facts:

•    Date of Birth = July 5th, 1937 and was named by Kenneth Daigneau, who was the brother of a Hormel VP in response to a contest of what to name Hormel’s Spiced Ham product.  He received a $100 which is about $1500 in 2010 money

•     Hormel officials have stated that SPAM means Shoulder of Pork and Ham.

•    Ingredients:  chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, and sodium nitrite to help keep its color.

•    Other’s believe the name means…"Something Posing As Meat", "Specially Processed Artificial Meat", "Stuff, Pork and Ham", "Spare Parts Animal Meat" and "Special Product of Austin Minnesota (home of Hormel)

•    The glaze on the meat (or aspic) comes from the meat cooling

•    There are currently 13 different flavors / varieties of SPAM sold

•    3.6% of a can of SPAM is salt

•    Hormel sells SPAM hot dogs

•    Hormel hired George Burns and Gracie Allen to advertise SPAM on their radio show in the 1940s.

•    As of 2003, Hormel sells SPAM in 41 countries

•    Which state / territory in the US eats the most SPAM?  = Hawaii and the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)  with the avg. person of Guam eating 16 tins of SPAM a year & the average Hawaiian eating 12 cans.  It’s also called “the Hawaiian Steak.”

•    McDonald’s in CNMI & Burger King in Hawaii sell SPAM on their menus

•    Austin, Minnesota holds the annual SPAM JAM the weekend of July 4th each year which includes parades & fireworks.  This is also where most of the SPAM is produced for the US and where you can go to see the official SPAM museum

•    On March 22, 1994, Hormel Foods Corporation celebrated the production of its five billionth can of SPAM.  In 2007, the seven billionth can was sold.

•    Americans consume 113 million cans of SPAM a year

•    Hormel produces 44,000 cans of SPAM an HOUR.