Savory Tales

Some recipes should never be handed down from generation to generation. On this page we’ll share some of those dishes with you.  Please e-mail your story to us (with the recipe) for this page to savorytales@gmail.com.

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Culinary innovators like Jim, Rick and Dennis have created the first ever “Spog”.  Rick’s son videotaped them during the inaugural making of their creation and have agree to let Savory Tales launch the introduction of their invention. Before viewing the video we thought it best to share some of Jim’s quotes during this momentous occasion: “Spam is a food everybody loves!”  ” If you add ketchup, you have all of the three food groups - salt, sugar and fat.  It’s the perfect food!”  and “Everything tastes better on a stick!”   We decided to post it on the Unsavory Tales page because most likely, the only people who will pass this recipe on from generation to generation are the culinary geniuses themselves.  (Sorry guys!) Meet Jim, Rick and Dennis…

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The following story proves that some unsavory tales are linked to lovely memories. While in present day, one may not want to make the following recipe - my friend Annette certainly carries fond memories of growing up eating Pink Rice.

Annette: Many of our dinners were cereal, eaten with one hand steadying the box to read it and the other spooning mouthfuls of dribbling scoops of cereal and milk. My father worked afternoons, so we rarely had a real family dinner and cereal is exactly what we preferred to eat. But on occasion there would be the wonderful smell of Pink Rice!  This was essentially the 1950’s convenience version of Spanish Rice. It was made with 1 can of Campbell’s tomato soup and Minute Rice. My mother sautéed onions and green pepper first, then the soup, some water and Minute Rice. We loved it! If we were really lucky it had bacon in it too.

A funny note about Minute Rice is that on a field trip in 6th grade we went to Greektown and rice was served with our lunch. I was so impressed with the kind of rice they had - it was actually little separate pieces of rice! They seemed sort of slippery and really tasty compared to what I had grown up thinking rice was like.

Another favorite was Tomato Soup Cake made with 1 can Campbell’s tomato soup and Bisquick. It must have had sugar and spice added too and sometimes raisins, never frosting. Another 50’s convenience and comfort food.

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This story below comes from Linda (www.ourmushpush.com) who when she heard of our idea to share the “gross” recipes that relatives  have made over the years, immediately yelled “The Spam Burger”!  It’s a good one to kick off this “Unsavory Tales” page.

I must admit I've never eaten Spam and I don't think I ever will! Kathy

The Story of Spam Burgers
Back in the early 60’s my mom belonged to a club called “A Social Evening for Tired Housewives” or SETH for short.  It met once a month at the YWCA in Dearborn, Michigan.  She joined the club with her best friend Delia.  There were about 20 women who would get together and talk over coffee and tea.  It seems like it was just a “June Cleaver” 1960s way to escape from the kids. Every now and again they would organize little parties in which their husbands were invited to join in the fun.  These parties always included food. One party in particular included Spam Burgers.  Mom and Dad loved them and they became a regular feature in our 6 O’clock family dinner rotation.

To this day, I can’t believe I ate them.  Besides hating green peppers, the thought of ground spam is beyond disgusting.  I can still picture the giant metal grinder that Mom would pull out and attach to the kitchen counter.  She would drop chunks of spam, green peppers, onions and Velveeta into the top of the grinder out of the other end would come, a spreadable Spam concoction.  She would then spread this goop on open faced hamburger or hotdog buns (a great excuse to use up all those leftover buns in the freezer).  They were finished off with a toasting under the broiler.