Today I Learned: SPAM Is a Portmanteau of ‘Spiced Ham’

Go ahead and call me an idiot. What kind of food blogger am I. How could I have possibly have gone 22 years without knowing that SPAM wasn’t just a nifty piece of branding wordsmithery, but that it actually stood for something? Something good and real and, albeit dubiously, delicious?

Well, I didn’t. But at least now you won’t have to face the same embarrassment as me.

According to TIME Newsfeed, the 76-year-old meat product originally known as Hormel Spiced Ham changed its name to “Spam” in 1937, on the suggestion of one of the Hormel executive’s brothers. Because the canned protein contains actually little ham, however, the company instead suggested the letters stood for “Shoulder of Pork and Ham” – and not “Special Processed American Meat,” “Some Parts Are Meat” or any other of the brilliant backronyms pop culture has blessed us with over the years.

Foodbeast.com: Answering life’s questions, so you don’t have to.

H/T TIME Newsfeed + PicThx WPMU