Now On the Shelf in NPH Christian Book Store

"Guide Me Home" is now available at Northwestern Publishing House Christian Book Store. 

It's exciting to see it sitting among the other historical fiction choices at the store. Stop by if you're near 113th and Watertown Plank Road in Wauwatosa and pick up a copy. 

It's also available in their online catalog at "Guide Me Home"  Check it out today. 

Still time to order or purchase it for a Christmas present for your mother, sister, or daughter. 

The Mighty Mystery Meat

by Connie Cortright

Last week the story of Velveeta was explored, so this week will be the discussion of SPAM. For most of us, when the word SPAM is heard an immediate picture - and maybe even taste - pops into our heads. SPAM was a staple in my house when I was growing up on the farm - not every week, but often enough to have memories of it.

SPAM didn't show up in grocery stores until after 1937. Jay Hormel, the son of the owner of the Minnesota meat-packing plant, is credited for coming up with the SPAM recipe. A decade earlier, Hormel had introduced the canned ham to the nation, but during the Depression, only the rich could afford canned hams.

Meat packing companies tried to introduce a cheaper brand of canned pork, but made the mistake of using unappetizing parts of the pig such as lips, snouts and ears in the contents of these canned pork products. Sounds appetizing, doesn't it? For some reason, this canned meat didn't go over too well. I wonder why...

Jay Hormel wanted to improve on this product by using the meat off the pork shoulder in his canned meat product. He found a way to extract the meat out of this hard to access cut of pork, chopping it into pieces, and placing it into a can. He found a way to process the meat in a vacuum sealed tin, which reduced the amount of juices formed during the cooking procedure. It was a much improved product over his competition.

Since SPAM was produced in this manner, it had a shelf life that was almost indefinite. When the army found out about this, they became Hormel's biggest customer. Fifteen million cans of SPAM were produced weekly and shipped overseas to the US soldiers during WWII. Many soldiers have memories of eating SPAM three times a day during the war years from 1941 to 1945 - and these are not fond memories. One writer quipped:
Now Jackson had his acorns
And Grant his precious rye;
Teddy had his poisoned beef-
Worse you couldn't buy.
The doughboy had his hardtack
Without the navy's jam, 
But armies on their stomachs move-
And this one moves on Spam. (Quoted from American WWII.com - Spam Again)

Hormel had a naming contest to name this new canned meat. Kenneth Daigneau, brother-in-law to the Hormel Vice President, won the $100 contest when he suggested the name SPAM. It was a combination of the words Spiced Ham, which was the original title of this meat.

Today the meat product SPAM is spelled with all capital letters to distinguish it from the junk email that we receive on our computers daily. The Hormel company adopted this practice years ago when it won a law suit regarding its name.

I wonder if I can persuade my husband that we need to have SPAM for dinner this week after all this talk about it. Hmmm, probably not. ;)

Information taken from How SPAM is Made and How the Word Spam Came to Mean Junk Message

Smile and Say Cheese!

by Connie Cortright

With the upcoming holiday season, many wives across this country will be purchasing Velveeta Cheese in jars or packages to use in a cheese dip at a Christmas or New Year's Eve party. This processed cheese, first manufactured in the 1920s, was given the name Velveeta (for it's velvety consistency) simply because it melted so smoothly.

However, Velveeta wasn't invented for the purpose of melting. The original purpose of this product was to put cheese back together. Emil Frey, working in a cheese factory in Monroe, New York, had the task of coming up with a solution to a problem that all cheese factories faced, figuring out what to do with cheese leftovers. Up to this point, all the pieces from misshapen Swiss cheese wheels or broken bits of cheese that couldn't be sold, had to be tossed aside. In the early 1900s, the problem of cheese pieces multiplied because more cheese was produced and consumed. The value of the wasted pieces couldn't be overlooked any longer. It was decided that all the leftovers would now be shipped back to Monroe Cheese Factory for Mr. Frey to deal with.

After working over his stove, he found that by adding the liquid whey, a by-product of the cheese making process, back into the pot of melted cheese pieces, a very smooth new cheese product resulted. Since this was a manufactured cheese product, it became known as processed cheese. Frey discovered that processed cheese lasted much longer than natural cheeses.

By 1923, Frey had formed the Velveeta Cheese Company to sell his new product. Because of its ability to melt so smoothly, Velveeta became an instant hit, especially in restaurants in America and even Europe. However, the Velveeta Cheese Company didn't fair so well. By 1927 the company was sold to Kraft Foods, as we know it still today.

Kraft pushed the nutritional value of this processed cheese stating that with the addition of whey, the carbohydrates and minerals were boosted in the cheese. It became something of a "dairy wonder-product". Kraft had Velveeta tested by Rutgers University for it's nutritional benefits. In 1931 the American Medical Association gave its stamp of approval for nutritional value. It was marketed in the 30s then as nutritionally superior to natural cheeses.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Velveeta is still a very popular product today in many forms and many recipes. I'm hoping that I can taste some yummy dip made from Velveeta over the next several weeks.

Happy eating!

Information taken from Where Does Velveeta and Liederkranz Cheese Come From and There is no Shortage History.