Recipe: Candied Spam

Note: This post was moved over from my old cooking blog Learn2Cook.

I’m sure most of you have heard by now how much people in Hawaii love SPAM, but did you know that the people of Guam eat more than 3x the amount of SPAM each year than us crazy Hawaiians? I don’t know if it’s just because there’s less people there or what, but that’s some crazy stuff!

Anyway, since I grew up in Hawaii and worked on a farm (we grew chrysanthemums), there were some days where you just didn’t have time to cook lunch or were flat out too tired to cook dinner. Thus, some nights my mom made Candied Spam. Sometimes she let us do it because it’s actually kind of fun to prepare. This will probably earn some nostalgia points with my brother.

I tried looking this recipe up on Google, but only found one small reference to a candied spam recipe with maple syrup, which is totally different from the one I grew up with. I made this last week in an attempt to go cheap on dinner. Buddy (almost 5) loved it and ate almost two full pieces before my daughter came to the table and spit hers out, making pretend puking sounds. After that, he claimed to hate it and made the same puking noises. I should have had him finish eating before I gave her any. Mr. Pikko ate it, but wasn’t into it, mostly cause he doesn’t like mustard. You may want to try testing this as a side dish or something before making it for dinner.

Slice your SPAM. If you do it just right, you can get 9-10 slices. I messed it up, so I ended up with one weird slice with thin see-through parts. I changed this into little gingerbread SPAM men for a bento.

Mix together 2 Tbsp of brown sugar with a lump of yellow mustard to taste. It should be tangy sweet and look like this:

Once you’ve mixed the sauce, line a baking sheet or pan with foil. I used a jelly roll pan, which, funnily enough, I’ve never yet used to make a jelly roll cake.

Space the slices out on the foil and then spoon some sauce on, spreading it all over the slice.

Heat your oven for broiling, putting the oven rack on the top notch. You can use high or low, but watch it carefully if you use high. I went with low.

When you start to see dark brown bubbles, it’s just about done, so be careful you don’t burn them. I think the bubbles actually taste pretty yummy, so they’re not bad or anything.

Serve with hot rice and canned corn.  Om nom nom! It may be cheap country food, but I love this stuff. If any other locals are reading this, please let me know if you’ve had this before. I’d like to know if this is a Big Island dish or maybe a Hilo dish. Or maybe everyone eats it but never talks about it. I dunno, you tell me!

Candied Spam

Ingredients

• 1 can SPAM
• 2 heaping Tbsp brown sugar
• 1-2 Tbsp yellow mustard (to taste)

Instructions

1. Slice SPAM into 9-10 slices.
2. Line baking pan with foil and place slices on foil. Heat oven for broiling.
3. Mix brown sugar and mustard and spread on slices.
4. Cook in oven until dark brown bubbles begin to form and SPAM is heated through.