--- title: Spam Turns 80: History and Origins of Canned Meat description: For Spam's 80th anniversary, here's a look at how the canned meat got its name, became beloved by U.S. soldiers and became a kitchen staple. canonical: https://time.com/4827451/spam-history-80th-anniversary/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-05T14:00:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:45.204Z article:section: History og:title: Spam Turns 80: History and Origins of Canned Meat og:description: Here's a look at how the canned meat got its name, became beloved by U.S. soldiers and became a kitchen staple og:url: https://time.com/4827451/spam-history-80th-anniversary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fd3332ed52f23df/6988d2e40a4a22f1479cebeb/spam.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Food Packaged og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Spam Turns 80: History and Origins of Canned Meat twitter:description: Here's a look at how the canned meat got its name, became beloved by U.S. soldiers and became a kitchen staple twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fd3332ed52f23df/6988d2e40a4a22f1479cebeb/spam.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Spam Is Turning 80\. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 5, 2017 2:00 PM UTC  Spam, photographed in 2015 Spam, photographed in 2015 Kevin Schafer—Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 5, 2017 2:00 PM UTC Before “spam” was a word that represented unwanted emails, it was a word that represented the successful repackaging of unwanted meats. Spam — the square can of pork, salt, water, sugar, potato starch and sodium nitrite that first rolled off the assembly lines 80 years ago during the Great Depression — was invented “as a way to peddle the then-unprofitable pork shoulder,” [according to](https://books.google.com/books?id=DOJMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PA343&dq=food+encyclopedia+spam&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmttTD6c%5FUAhVINSYKHUfGDisQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=food%20encyclopedia%20spam&f=false) _The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America._ It was the invention of Jay Hormel, son of George Hormel who founded the Hormel company, which pioneered canned pork products in Austin, Minn., in the late 1920s. According to the company’s Spam Museum, Ken Digneau, the brother of a Hormel executive, came up with the name — a portmanteau word for “spiced ham” — in a naming contest and got $100 as a reward. The new product was introduced on July 5, 1937. Despite the plethora of early Spam ads aimed at housewives who wanted cheap, [quick meals](https://books.google.com/books?id=9kEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA56&dq=spam&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiL9qbK4s%5FUAhWGPT4KHSAqCPkQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=spam&f=false) requiring almost no prep, some of the members of that target demographic were[ hesitant](https://books.google.com/books?id=DOJMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PA343&dq=food+encyclopedia+spam&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmttTD6c%5FUAhVINSYKHUfGDisQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=food%20encyclopedia%20spam&f=false) to eat meat that didn’t need to be refrigerated. But it didn’t take long for the U.S. military to find a use for the food innovation. Spam went global during World War II, when America shipped out over 100 million cans to the Pacific, where it made an inexpensive yet filling meal for U.S. troops. As TIME later [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1959-09-21/page/100/), “Among fed-up fighting men from Attu to Anzio, Spam became one of the most celebrated four-letter words in World War II, gave birth to a flavorsome literature of tales, odes, jokes, limericks.” It remains popular in areas where soldiers were stationed, especially in Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines. Spam also became part of aid packages to devastated Europe and Russia. As the former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev[ wrote in his memoir _Khrushchev Remembers_](https://books.google.com/books?id=35krAQAAIAAJ&dq=Khrushchev+Remembers&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=spam): “There were many jokes going around in the army, some of them off-color, about American Spam; it tasted good, nonetheless. Without Spam, we wouldn’t have been able to feed our army. We had lost our most fertile lands.” To keep up Spam sales postwar, the company hired singers to tout the product, and even had a radio show _Music With the Hormel Girls._ Whatever the reason, it worked: Hormel produced its [billionth](http://time.com/vault/issue/1959-09-21/page/100/) can in 1959, amid rising sales. And yet the [Spam-eating Vikings ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE)in the 1970s _Monty Python’s Flying Circus_ skit is the pop culture Spam reference most people will remember. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4827451/spam-history-80th-anniversary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4827451/spam-history-80th-anniversary/"},"headline":"Spam Is Turning 80. 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