Welcome to Daily TWiP, your daily dose of all the holidays and history we couldn’t cram into The Week in Preview.

No other meat (or perhaps more accurately, meat product) has quite attained the iconic status of SPAM. Created by Hormel Foods Corporation, this popular food item first appeared on the market today (July 5th) in 1937.

Prior to putting it on the market, Hormel Foods held a contest to name their newest product. The winning entry (as you may have already guessed) was SPAM, a name suggested by New York City actor Kenneth Daigneault. He received $100 prize money and a place in pop culture history.

Contrary to popular belief, SPAM is a word in and of itself, not a contraction of Shoulder of Pork and Ham or of Spiced Ham and Meat (or other, less appealing phrases). It’s possible Daigneault may have had those concepts in mind when he came up with the name, but SPAM has evolved considerably since then and these days, according to Hormel Foods’ official SPAM Web site (www.spam.com), SPAM simply means SPAM.

The classic version of SPAM contains pork shoulder meat, ham, salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrate (which gives SPAM its pink color). Since the debut of classic SPAM, SPAM varieties have expanded to include SPAM Hot and Spicy, SPAM with Cheese, SPAM with Bacon, and SPAM Hickory Smoked.

SPAM is popular throughout the world, thanks in part to Hormel Foods sending 100 million pounds of it overseas during World War II to help feed Allied troops. Because SPAM is precooked, it can be eaten straight out of the can, and because it’s made with preservatives, it also has a long shelf life, making it the perfect food for soldiers on the move.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that surplus SPAM found its way into the local cuisines. As a result, SPAM is popular in places like South Korea, Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, and Okinawa, Japan.

Not everyone is a fan of SPAM, however. In 1970, comedy troupe Monty Python debuted their now-famous SPAM sketch, in which a female restaurant patron attempts to order a SPAM-less meal from a menu where nearly every dish contains SPAM. Even in the credits, SPAM continues to turn up where it’s not supposed to. You can see a video of the sketch at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE.

It’s because of this sketch that unwanted e-mails have come to be known as spam. Hormel Foods wasn’t initially thrilled with the association that came their way thanks to Monty Python, but the company has come to embrace its unique relationship with the comedy troupe, even issuing a special SPAM tin to celebrate the premiere of Eric Idle’s musical “Spamalot” in 2005.

Daily TWiP SPAM appears Monday through SPAM Saturday courtesy of The Week in SPAM Preview. Read more of both at www.nashuatelegraph.com/columnists/weekinpreview.

– Teresa SPAM Santoski

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