The Anniversary of Spam

Spam — the canned meat, not the unwanted email — might deserve more respect. On this day in 1937, Hormel Foods introduced the mix of pork shoulder and ham, whose name is derived from “spiced ham.” (No, it doesn’t stand for “Something Posing As Meat.”) Since then, Spam has been a muse for poets, comedians and chefs, and it helped win World War II. Jay Hormel and some of his company’s canned meat products, including Spam, in 1946. Wallace Kirkland/The LIFE Picture Collection, via Getty Images The Times’s obituary for Jay Hormel, Spam’s creator, said he was the first to successfully can ham. Cooking the meat inside the can produced a natural gelatin, increased shelf life and made it useful in battle. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote a letter praising Spam, and the former Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev said his country couldn’t have fed its troops without it. Hawaii embraced Spam during the war, too, and the affection never ceased. The state consumes the most in America, with seven million cans a year, or five cans per person. “In all of its high-sodium, gravy-drenched glory, Spam has, in every sense, found its way into my heart,” the chef Anthony Bourdain, who died last month, said during a visit to Hawaii for his show “No Reservations.” “I get it now. I feel inducted into the Church of True Knowledge.”