Years ago, while attending graduate school in Springfield, (the future) Mrs. HM worked in an insurance salvage store part-time. It bought railroad cars full of stuff that businesses had declared a loss. We had everything from boots to lumber to bedspreads to toys to furniture. One big deal was the Winter in July sale, where we had winter coats out on the parking lot, hung up in semi trucks, for the shoppers to peruse. To steal a line from a country song, it was hot enough to make the devil sigh, working to hang coats in that heat.
Anyhoo... my boss, the owner, was a big bald man. He kind of looked like Mr. Clean, but without the pirate-y earring. He wasn't around all the time, but when he popped in, he would tell us stories about when he was a kid.
Owner grew up on a big farm, with a big family. They had to work all the time, raising cows and pigs and chickens and crops. His mom "didn't work," what with being so busy cooking all the time to feed that hungry family. Owner said they butchered their own livestock, and his mom was a good cook. But the very best meal, that he didn't get often, was SPAM!
You know, SPAM, the canned meat that is popular in Hawaii, that was mainly used for U.S. military rations in WWII. Owner said he LOVED IT! That it was so different from the wholesome home-grown foods that he was used to. It was a real treat when his father brought home a couple of cans of SPAM.
Heh, heh. I found this entertaining, because the off-brand of SPAM, like Hydrox Cookies are to Oreos, was a canned meat product called TREET.
6 comments:
I can understand that. When I was a kid, my dad would purchase a half of a cow. Well, actually he purchased a whole cow, with half expense paid by a friend, who housed said cow on his property and dad paid for half the feed etc. After butchering, we had half put in our freezer. There wasn't a lot of hamburger but there was a lot of roasts and steaks. I actually got sick of steak and roast that I begged for tuna fish sandwiches or just peanut butter sandwiches. I feel differently about it today, with the price of beef, but it was quite monotonous. Not to say my mom wasn't a good cook. She was very good, but we rarely had chicken or pork, although I do remember them getting a quarter of a pig one time, just don't really remember eating much other than pork chops a few times, maybe. I'm sure it had to do with what they could afford and buying and butchering was a lot cheaper than store bought. I probably would have rather had Spam too; except we never had it when i was a kid. Now we do have it occasionally. I like it sliced very thin and fried a bit to give it a bit of crispiness. Ha. Ranee
Rae,
We had a variety of meats. My grandma and grandpa had a pig farm, and butchered their own out in the front yard! Imagine coming face to face with a hog's head sitting on the wall of the carport! We also chipped in with the family to have a steer butchered, so many white packets of meat in the freezer.
My dad hunted quail and squirrels and rabbits. They DO taste like chicken, heh, heh! He ate SPAM every now and then. Farmer H likes his SPAM fried, with mustard and onions on a sandwich.
When I was very young we ate the cheapest meats available at the butcher, often that meant sausages, with a leg of hoggett for the Sunday Roast with leftovers used up until the next Friday, (hoggett is that stage between lamb and mutton) or we ate rabbits hunted and caught when Dad would go out with friends at night to see what the snares had caught.
When I was married with my own children, we most often bought a half hogget with the leg and shoulder left for roasting with the rest sliced into chops and the kids used to love watching the butcher pass the meat through the whining saw, we also bought chicken, sausages and mince (ground beef) so my kids had a greater variety than I did. Very occasionally I would by a tin of ham to slice and fry, or Spam if it was cheaper, but over time the canned meats became fattier and less tasty, so I stopped buying it.
River,
I agree that the canned meats are fatty, and very salty. The SPAM does smell really good when I'm frying it for Farmer H. Every now and then I have some of it, too.
I find Spam unpalatable, my husband loves it, of course. With his health issues it is the epitome of what he should avoid! He will bring a can home occasionally and make a wretched mess of the grill on the stove, frying up his heart's desire. He is not a good cook and doesn't listen when I tell him he has the gas too high. So, it splatters everywhere and I am the cleaning crew.
Kathy,
You can't beat SPAM when you want salt and fat and spatter!
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