SPAM, Dave in AZ jalapeno version

[Dave in AZ]

Ive been reading a lot of threads about SPAM, as it is very similar to Pork Roll except unfermented and un-acidified. It us probably the simplest “formed loaf” you can make, because you just jam it into any mold and sous vide it. The texture is light and not dense, it has high moisture held in strong gel bind from potato starch. Those two mean you don’t have to pack it into a casing under pressure. Mix, mold, cook.

Additionally, there are so many flavors of SPAM that you basically can’t go wrong with whatever you like.

Deriving the Recipe
(Skip down to the RECIPE if you’re not interested in how to derive one )
From spam cans:
Ingredients: pork, ham, mech separated chicken, water, salt, modified potato starch, sugar, sodium phosphate, potassium chloride (low sodium version, replaces salt), sodium nitrite.

Looking at the nutrition label, with 56g serving we get the following:
Salt, normal spam 3.4%
Salt, low sodium spam 2.5%
Fat 28.5%
Sugar added, 1.8%

Because we can see salt >potato starch > Sugar, we can derive about 2% potato starch.

We know sodium nitrite usage is likely 2.5g per kg, the standard 0.25% giving 156ppm.

We know water is > 10%, because meat will easily hold 10% without phosphates, and this has phosphate added, so estimating 15% based on texture and prior loaf texture with 10 to 20% water.

Phosphates have a standard usage. I have them, but decided to use Waltons Sure Gel instead, a blend of >33% milk whey protein (probably hi temp NFDM), 33% phosphates, and <33% gelatin. I just had some open, and didn’t want to open a new bag of sodium phosphates (cold phosphate). Those all are good water binders which will help along with potato starch to lock in a lot of water for that light, gel kinda texture.

RECIPE
1000g pork butt, 28% fat, add as needed
15% ice water, 150 ml or grams
53g meaty smoked buckboard bacon, for a bit of “ham flavor”.
2.5g cure#1
2.5% salt total, of which 2.3g from cure1 and 22.7g kosher.
1.6% sugar, 16g
10g potato starch (NOT dried potatoes!)
15g Sure gel, (OR use 5g cold phosphate, 5g more potato starch, so total binders approx 2% or 20g)
0.5g sodium erythorbate, cure accelerator and color fixing.
÷÷÷÷That’s basic SPAM above this line!÷÷÷÷÷
Spices:
0.15% white pepper, 1.5g
0.1% black pepper, 1.0g
0.1% coriander ground, 1.0g
0.1% paprika, 1.0g
0.05% garlic granulated, 0.5g
4.5% jalapeno fresh, 45g fine dice no vein/seed

Procedure

1. Grind meat and fat to 3mm to 6mm

2. Freeze flat, thaw enough to chop ice cube size.
   

3. In food processor w sharp blade, emulsify 50% or 500g to < 1mm size, basically like hot dog or baloney.

4. Remaining 50% 1 to 3mm size, however you like your spam texture. I do 3mm -ish.

5. Blend all spices with 150ml of ice water, whisk, add to meat in mixer like Kitchenaid.

6. Mix hard for 3 to 5 min or so, good extraction. Will be more wet and gooey than normal sausage.
   

7. Stuff into a form that will hold 1.2kg. I use a polyethylene bag for bread, or a Reynolds cooking bag, inside a 4" diam stainless “bain marie” cylinder. I grease cylinder so bag will slide in, get all air out, seal up bag good.
   7a. You could pack into tupperware and vac seal that, then sous vide it. Whatever shape you like.

8. Sous vide cylinder in 150 to 155f water until center IT is 145 for 5 min, or more. Intent is to cook to FSIS lethality treatment per tables but NOT get fat out or melting, so low heat. Smaller diam equals shorter time. I greased up my 5" cylinder, had to switch to 4" that holds 1.1kg.
   After 2 hrs in 4" stainless form at 150 1hr then 155 1 hr, IT is 129 still… still cooking.
   Update: 4.5 hrs, IT was 151. Put in ice bath and into fridge. Saw zero fat out in bag. Could probably do 160f for reduced time without fat melting.

FLAVOR RESULTS
This is from a patty I pan fried on low, cylinder is still cooking main batch…

1. Less salt than spam, same as pork roll, more than fresh sausage. Good level. Good strong cure and color using S.E. and cure1, cooking 15 min after mixing.
2. Recognizably SPAMish, but this was better than normal spam, or at least the can I used for comparison. Correct sugar level.
3. Great texture and water level. My son said spam is more emulsified, but I like a bit of texture remaining. You could process more if desired.
4. Good pepper and jalapeno heat levels, not too strong bit definitely there, I won’t change, got lucky with this guess.
5. Other spices all happy with, but you could change coriander and garlic, paprika and peppers as desired. My plan is to use as is, and just replace the jalapeno with other stuff as desired.

[glen]

Dave in AZ Thanks Dave! I’ll be trying this

[cdavis]

Dave in AZ really good write up. It looks and sounds great . Thanks for taking the time to share it.

[gus4416]

Dave in AZ great write up Dave I don’t no where you find the time to do all these recipes

[HerbcoFood]

Id eat all of that! My dad used to make us fried spam with miracle whip on white bread.

[zbigjeff]

Dave in AZ Very good process explanation. You go Dave in AZ.

[Ridley Acres]

Interesting. I think one of my upcoming bday presents one of my kids got me is a mold for making packed ham which I planned to use to make deli meats. I hadn’t really considered ow similar it will be to spam.

[lkrfletcher]

Dave in AZ Cool

[Mcjagger]

Dave in AZ Great write up Dave…If you used some sort of press on top would you not get a more compact end product ?? Just y 2 cents…looks awesome and I’m going to give you recipe a try…thanks for posting !!!

[calldoctoday]

Dave in AZ Thank You, we definitely need to try this.

[Dave in AZ]

glen thx glen, it’s pretty easy, go for it!

[Dave in AZ]

gus4416 thx gus! I’m on a vacation week

[Dave in AZ]

HerbcoFood doh, miracle whip! One of the great debates of our time… I’ll try it with mayo!

[Dave in AZ]

zbigjeff thx!

[Dave in AZ]

Ridley Acres mold would make it easy, but you can do this in a tupperware too. Don’t need any pressure on this really.

[Dave in AZ]

lkrfletcher I wasn’t a big spam fan, but I like this a lot better.

[Dave in AZ]

Mcjagger Thx very much!
Yeah, A press mold would make it easy for this, just for shaping and pressing it into the mold. But you don’t really need a mold or pressure. That is because it is a pretty loose emulsification, so it all packs together easy with strong bonding. All you have to do is jiggle it a few times, like getting an air bubble out of pudding. Also, since I put it in a bag inside the mold, it’s easy to squeech it around in bag to ensure no air pockets.

The purpose of a ham press is for when you have odd shaped large chunks of meat that dont fit tight, haven’t been ground all up with liquid so they flow together. You need to smash the meat down together so those cubes all deform and the surfaces thus touch and bind, to form a solid ham.

In a moist emulsification like this, none of that really applies. I specifically processor chopped the ground meat frozen and dry, so that no air would get whipped into the emulsification, and then I mixed it all with the liquid on speed1 of Kitchenaid. One of the basic tenets of engineering is that liquid water and solids are essentially incompressable under normal pressures, and there really isn’t any air in this. Any bubbles would be trapped in the goo anyways

[Dave in AZ]

calldoctoday thx!

[Ridley Acres]

Dave in AZ I also am not much of a spam fan, but I’m interested in giving the homemade version a shot.

[Ridley Acres]

Dave in AZ I guess I’ll have to put a sous vide on this wish list also