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Can You Eat Raw Spam?

By: Author William Thomas

William Thomas

Editor-in-Chief & Pitmaster

I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.
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Can You Eat Raw Spam?

Food is an amazing thing. You can do so many things with it, too, like cooking, baking, grilling, smoking, and frying.

Another way people consume food, besides cooking, is by eating it raw. Some food is perfectly safe to eat raw, as long as you wash it first, but others aren’t.

One food people might eat raw is spam. In this article, we’ll first address what spam even is, if it’s possible to eat it, what are the benefits and/or risks, and how you can eat it.

By the end of the article, you’ll have all the information you need to make an informed decision.

What Is Spam?

Before we go into if you can eat raw spam, let’s go into what it is. Spam has an interesting history. It’s a canned lunchmeat that was launched in 1937 in the United States.

Now, it can be found in over 43 different countries and even has up to 15 different varieties.

Spam has six ingredients. It’s pork with ham meat, salt, water, sugar, sodium nitrite, and potato starch.

After it’s ground up, it’s then put into the cans, which are cooked to a certain temperature for about three hours.

So, now that we’ve gone into our little history lesson about spam let’s figure out if it’s possible to eat it raw. You’ll be surprised to find out the answer.

Is It Possible To Eat Raw Spam?

You may wonder if it is possible to eat spam raw. The thing is, it’s not possible to eat spam raw.

For spam to get its look and texture, it has to have a lot of preservatives and salt added to it. By the time it gets to the grocery store in that can, it’s already been cooked!

To eat it raw, you’d have to eat it before it has been ground together and put in the can.

This wouldn’t be possible because you’d be eating raw pork, and it’s never safe to eat raw pork.

Is it possible to eat it out of the can? Yes, absolutely. This is a way many people eat spam! It can also be cooked on the stove, in the oven, air fryer, or microwave.

Just depends on whatever fits your fancy.

What Are the Benefits of Eating Raw Spam?

Like with most foods, spam also has some benefits. There aren’t a lot of nutritional benefits to eating spam.

This is because of the high fat and sodium content found in spam. However, you can’t deny how easy it is to get your hands on spam.

It’s very easy to purchase spam, and it is almost always in stock. Plus, it doesn’t go bad very easily. You can stock up on it and leave it in the cabinets for a while before you even decide to touch it.

Also, remember that spam is already cooked in the can, so you can eat it right out of there. There is so little preparation involved with spam.

Unless you want there to be, of course, there are plenty of ways you can cook spam. Go wild, and don’t let the fact that it’s already cooked stop you!

What Are the Risks of Eating Raw Spam?

While spam is a useful food to get, there are a lot of risks that come with eating it. It includes:

  • Spam is cured meat, meaning it is processed with certain ingredients to make it last longer. Such meat can lead to health issues in the long term, like diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and also put you at a higher risk of certain cancers.
  • In spam, there is a lot of sodium nitrite and sodium. Sodium nitrate can increase your risk of stomach cancer, thyroid cancer, diabetes, and brain tumors. Sodium, on the other hand, is not good in large amounts for people with high blood pressure, and consuming a lot of sodium can increase your risk of stomach cancer.
  • Spam has a lot of fat, which can cause you to gain weight, so if you are on a diet, spam isn’t what you want to turn to.

How Can You Cook Spam

Despite all the risks that exist with eating spam, it’s okay to eat it in moderation.

You can cook spam in a variety of ways, and we’ve narrowed down the top four ways people love to eat spam. These include:

  • One way to prepare spam is to fry it up in a pan or skillet. All you have to do is pour some oil into the skillet, cut up the spam, and then throw it in. Cook them for 2 minutes on both sides. It doesn’t need to be cooked long because it is already pre-cooked.
  • Some people like to cook their spam in the oven. Heat the oven to 425 or so and then put the spam on a tray with parchment paper. Bake it for around 10 minutes, and you’re golden!
  • Wondering if you can grill spam? Well, you’re in luck. Preheat the grill and then grill the spam for a minute before flipping it. Then it’s done.
  • Finally, the last way you can cook spam is by putting it in the microwave. This is probably one of the quickest methods. It only takes about 30 seconds to a minute to cook it in the oven.

Final Thoughts

And there you have it all your food and possibly spam lovers out there! It’s not possible to eat spam raw because it’s cooked in a tin.

Eating it out of the tin is very safe, and many people do this. If you don’t feel like eating it out of the tin, then you can cook it up by using the four methods we listed above.

Spam isn’t the healthiest food out there, but it is easy to get your hands on and lasts a while on the shelf.

When times are tough, and you need food, spam will be there to fill your belly.

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