High Sierra Topix

Who eat or eats spam while backpacking? What are your favorite recipes to make while backpacking? Fried Rice, Scalloped Potatoes and Cheese and SPAM, or maybe a soup? Do you use the freeze dried, dehydrate your own, or carry packaged SPAM?

Walmart has SPAM in small packets (on the same shelf as the waterless tuna packets). They cost $1 and weigh 2.5 oz. I have used these a few times. Really better than I expected. Good cut up in split pea soup. Also with cheese and instant potatoes. Similarly, I have taken Vienna Sausages a few times which are better than SPAM but you have to deal with the can and the water has not been taken out, so they are heavier for the same calories. I have also tried potted meat. Not my favoirite, but OK on a tortilla if really hungry.

Spam-di-spam, wonderful spam, spam-di-spam, wonderful spam.

I used to eat Dak chopped ham, which is similar to SPAM, as a kid camping with my grandfather, but the few times I've had SPAM, it's just been way to salty.

I do not think the current SPAM is as salty as it was in the past. You can also get it in a reduced fat version, which is less greasy. You may want to give it a try.

Since I cook from scratch, I do not have to deal with over-salted FD meals or "sides". Definitely, if you add SPAM to one of those, the end result would be too much salt. A little SPAM goes a long ways- I only use half a packet for each meal. SPAM and tuna packets weigh about the same. If you need more calories, SPAM is better; if you need more protein, tuna is better. I usually do not take tuna since I fish and the SPAM is a taste break from fish.

I am also of the generation that grew up on SPAM. It really was popular at that time. However, back in the day, our go-to backpacking "meat" was a huge chunk of pemican or a can of sardines.

Funny topic as when sick last week I had a desire for some comfort food. Mac and Cheese with spam with bacon in it. Really much better than plain spam. Prefried it before adding to mac and cheese to make it a little crispy and improve the texture. Unfortunately I have an aversion to carrying cans so I don't include it when backpacking. Might look at the packets as the foil can be reduced significantly by burning out if you can have a fire, but that also requires sifting thru ashes as I always do after having a campfire.

Wandering Daisy wrote:SPAM in small packets

X2
I love it with grits in the morning.

Never used it backpacking due to the weight, but in Boy Scouts we used to take it on long canoe camping trips on coastal plains rivers where we could afford the weight. We typically sliced it and fried it up with fresh scrambled eggs or bream (fish) or all three. That was some good eating for being way out in a swamp.

TahoeJeff wrote:

Wandering Daisy wrote:SPAM in small packets

X2
I love it with grits in the morning.

Holy cow, someone else out here in the west who knows what grits are!

It's good in pasta!

I take it with me often. I carry the Spam singles and split one down the middle. I put it on a tortilla with a piece of cheese and mustard. Awesome Stuff!! It's even better if I take the time to fry it a little.