In 1937 Hormel Foods in Austin, Minnesota had a warehouse problem: mountains of unpopular pork shoulder. The solution was to grind it with ham, salt, water, sugar, sodium nitrate, and modified potato starch, seal it in a can, and cook it inside the tin, creating a shelf-stable product that needed no refrigeration. A New Year's Eve naming contest won Ken Daigneau 100 dollars for the word Spam. The episode explains how World War II turned a regional oddity into a global staple as the US military bought over 150 million pounds, GIs cursed it at every meal, and hungry allies from Britain to the Soviet Union treated it as salvation, with Khrushchev later crediting it with feeding the Red Army.

After the war the rations left behind were adopted rather than discarded. Hawaii now eats seven million cans a year and calls it Hawaiian steak, Spam musu ...