Save the Whales! Or, How Tinned Meat Helped Win a War
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Tinned meat is one of the more dubious foods in our modern world, loved by many, scorned by more, and completely overlooked by some. I confess, I never thought of it until I began gathering a modest store of ingredients to make quick meals in case of an emergency—illness, inclement weather, loss of work, supply chain problems, or simply being too tired to go to the grocery store.
Emergencies are nothing new. We sometimes think of the troubles in our generation as a major shift from all that has been, but looking back through history we see that uncertainty and upheaval, strife and disaster—from both natural and human causes—have been present in every age.
Spam® advertisement
Life Magazine, 1941
Wartime Preparedness
We don’t want to be hoarders but we do want to be prepared “for a rainy day.” During World War II hoarding was illegal in some European nations. Auditors went from home to home, assessing pantry provisions. Fines or arrest were penalties for those who hid too much. Nevertheless, homemakers did need a reasonable supply of shelf-stable food to prepare meals after long, tiresome days of war work. With fresh meat limited by both rationing and supply chain interruption, whenever tinned meat was available it was quickly purchased.
Without doubt, the most famous tinned meat from the World War II era was Spam®. The Hormel product that began as Spiced Ham just prior to the Great Depression debuted its world-famous name—SPAM—in 1937. This was a product invented from a desire to stop waste from leftover pork shoulder. It turned out to be a popular budget stretcher for homemakers during the Depression. But when World War II began, Spam made its real entrance onto the world stage via US Army rations. Everywhere US troops went, Spam went, usually to a welcome reception from anyone they shared it with.
How Spam Helped Feed Europe
After the Lend-Lease agreement between Allied nations in 1941, Spam was also shipped to Europe for military and civilian use. In war-ravaged countries unable to produce or import enough food to keep populations from starving, these tins of humble meat saved many lives and provided a welcome respite from other, less savory ingredients.
Spam was the butt of countless jokes, insults and complaints from US troops who were sometimes served the tinned meat three times a day! Soldiers quipped, “Spam is a ham that failed its physical” or “Spam is meatloaf without basic training.” But British and Russian soldiers, as well as civilians in Allied nations, were most appreciative of the canned meat. Some—including future British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who grew up during the War—called Spam a wartime delicacy.
Wartime Meat Options
Consider some of the other options in Europe: Whale meat, horse meat, rabbit meat, organ meats, or vegetables with no meat. There were concoctions for mock venison (cold mutton, mushroom ketchup, and red jam with spices), mock goose and mock duck. It seems there was a mock everything. Civilians on the Home Front made do with an array of food substitutes that would turn many a modern-day stomach—but their willingness to put up with strange ingredients ended with whale meat.
Armour Treet® advertisement
Life Magazine, 1941
Whale meat was meant to make up for the lack of fish after German U-boats made fishing too great a hazard. Whale oil was used to make margarine but whale meat was loathed universally. The meat was described as dark and solid, similar to ox heart. When thawed too slowly, it became pulpy. The smell was unbearably fishy. People had to soak it, steam it, soak it again, then drown it in sauce and vegetables before it could be eaten. Even cats were rumored to have rejected it. Faced with these alternatives, one can understand how Spam became an enormous success. It has been incorporated into the cuisines of many nations and cultures ever since the War.
The BBC website WW2 People’s War has a collection of recorded memories from the 1940s. One contributor mentioned an array of food oddities from tablets added to tea to make it look stronger; the grey National Loaf of bread; sweets made from powdered milk and peppermint oil; and marzipan made from ground rice. Then, “In complete contrast, one highlight for me was the coming of Spam from America. It was an oasis in our desert of mediocrity; an elixir in our sea of austerity. It seems to me that it was meatier, juicier, and much tastier than it is now. (Tricks of memory again, no doubt.) We ate it in sandwiches; we ate it fried with chips; cold with salad; chopped in spam-and-egg pies, until, of course, it ceased to provide the variety we longed for, but I never tired of it.”
Tinned Meat Today
There were other tinned meat products during the 1940s, such as Armour Treet®, still available today along with many other tinned options—chicken, roast beef, salmon, mackerel, sardines, corned beef, meatballs, tuna—and a whopping 15 varieties of Spam!
If you would like to try your hand at a 1940s-style tinned meat recipe, check the one here for Wartime Unstuffed Peppers using Turkey Spam. You can easily adapt the recipe to whatever you have in your pantry. The peppers could be substituted for (or added to) cabbage; the seasonings could be altered or changed to fresh, depending on what you may have in the garden; other vegetables could be added…you get the idea. Adapting to whatever was on hand was the overcoming spirit that helped the Allies win World War II, and it’s the same spirit that can help you overcome that nagging question, “What’s for dinner?”
Enjoy!
Wartime Unstuffed Peppers
Ingredients
Instructions
- Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add diced turkey Spam and fry until lightly browned. Remove from skillet and set aside.
- Heat remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil in skillet. Add diced onion and bell pepper, and cook until vegetables have softened to taste. Add minced garlic and heat for one minute.
- Add diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, water and Better Than Bouillon (OR beef broth to replace water and bouillon) and heat until simmering.
- Add Worcestershire sauce, basil and cooked rice. Blend in and allow to heat through. Sprinkle dried parsley over; then, return cooked Spam to the skillet and mix in gently.
- Top all ingredients with shredded mozzarella. Turn off heat, cover skillet, and allow cheese to melt before serving.
References
Lamb Hayes, Joanne. Grandma’s Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2000, p. 131.
Armour TREET® and Hormel SPAM® advertisements. Life Magazine, Vol. 10 No. 26, June 30, 1941, pp. 14, 45.
Addison, Anne. “Strange Things on the Dinner Table.” World War 2 People’s War, Article ID A1110592, July 15, 2003.
Davies, Jennifer. The Wartime Kitchen and Garden: The Home Front 1939-45. London: BBC Books, 1993.
“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.”
Jonah 2: 1b