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SPAM vs. DAK vs. Brookdale (Aldi house brand Luncheon Meat)

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28K views 99 replies 27 participants last post by  joseph keenan2  
#1 ·
1st off, did a search both here and Google looking for Spam vs. DAK and found NADA.
In the thread I was looking for there were Spam devotees and DAK devotees. Thinking something had changed, I bought 2 each. Spam was as I remembered, Dak was good but expensive, ca. $4 a pound. Regardless of price, I preferred Spam but it too was expensive at $3.25 a pound? Stopped at Aldi the other day looking for a generic SPAM, and found the Brookdale @$1.79 a can of 12 ounces, so $2.40 a pound. A Spam lover could tell the difference but taste and texture was close enough that I sure can't. Ingredients are: Pork, Salt, Sugar and Sodium Nitrate, with a Best By of Nov 2023.
When I first started putting canned goods up I used to buy TREET as it was halr the price of SPAM, even had 99 cents as part of the design. Cold, didn't care for it but fried it was pretty good. Then it disappeared from my normal groceries. So started buying Old Colony luncheon meat. Quite a bit better cold but quite a bit more money.
These days, I'll probably start buying the Brookdale. Apparently I'll live longer than expected. Given the political clime, who knows how much food will be needed?
 
#6 ·
I currently stock Spam, hickory smoked spam, bacon spam, turkey spam, Treet & Bristol Cooked Ham. I will have to swing by Aldi to give the Brookdale a try.
 
#12 ·
I can't stand Treet either. I buy the Walmart generic. I don't much care for Spam but I can eat it in recipes. I prefer DAK but since it's no gourmet treat either, I'll just take the Walmart stuff and spend the difference on something I do like.

Since I haven't been out shopping during the recent situation, I've been tinkering with ways to use the canned meats. I don't like any of them by themselves, but diluted in a recipe they're plenty edible. Except Treet. That stuff completely ruins anything I put it in.
 
#14 · (Edited)
The bacon flavor has less sodium than the “”25% less sodium”. Having said that, I stock dry beans for protein in my shtf stores, $4 will buy several lbs of Dry beans that will last decades. I can buy pork roasts on sale for $1/lb, I keep many lbs in the freezer till the power goes off. . Small generators for short term power failure.

I vacuum pack beans and rice, instant potatoes, oatmeal, etc.
 
#15 ·
We stock 3 different versions of Spam.
We keep the Dak around.
We keep the Treet around.
The Brookdale. I picked up 2 cans the last Aldi run and we've tried one. It's ok, I'll buy more.
We keep the GV (walmart) around.

The Dollar Tree spam. Luncheon Loaf is what they call it. I wouldn't feed that stuff to our dogs. It's plum nasty.
 
#25 ·
Meet “Mama Chops”, she makes the best ham and bacon ever. Beats Spam, Dak, etc. Actually made a 14 pound boiled ham from one of her kin just this past week. Served with some mustard on homemade rye bread.....👍

View attachment 351108
I've got 2 of her very distant relatives. Mr Bacon and Ms Sausage.
Mr Bacon has a vacation planned next month.
 
#19 ·
So ham, being a preserved product by nature, should be the best non-sea meat out of a can. And yet I find I prefer beef and chicken products out of a can. I even liked a pulled pork offering I had out of a can one time better than a canned ham product. Same animal!

Mind you, I don't dislike ham. But I'd rather eat the most basic chopped glop ham sliced from the deli case. Like those big pink blocks with the FUD brand label, lol. I can't believe the can is all to blame. Otherwise other canned meats would be less edible.

I'm chalking it up to the brands trying to squeeze every nickel they can from it. I think because Spam has a baseline they won't go below is why they still rate as one of the best ham(-ish) canned choices.

Someone should try upping their canned ham game and charging for it.

Btw, I found a lot more can ham brands than I expected to find. Besides the common DAK, Bristol, and Brookdale, I've seen Swift, Goya, Iberia, Dutch Colony, Royale, Celebrity, and Hostess. No clue on taste comparison.


I think something went wrong down the line. I can remember when canned hams were big. Several pounds at least, and you had to open them with a can key. They were a whole ham cut, not this chopped and formed stuff. You opened the can and there was a big gelatinous mass that melted when heated and was some serious flavor. I can't even remember when I last saw gelatin in canned meat. If you home cook meat well and cool it in a closed container you end up with meat, broth, gelatin, and fat. Where did the meat gelatin go to? Whatever happened to the big Oscar Meyer and Rath brand multipound canned hams as well? Those were serious tasting ham. Now it's all chopped and formed, no fat or gelatin, just a few broth drops, and suffering shrinkflation where they keep making the formerly 1lb cans an ounce lighter every year. It's a race to the bottom of the barrel, I tell you. Pretty soon those tiny cans will just be enough for a sandwich.
 
#21 ·
So we went from great to nasty in a couple decades and no one made an effort? No one has even tried to put whole ham in a can since. If they told me that it has to be smashed and squeezed through a tube into a can in order to make it last longer my BS meter would peg to the right. Anyone who home cans knows you can put a decent sized slab of meat into a canning jar. These canning companies also have higher pressure gear and are working with an already preserved product from the start. So saw off a hunk of ham, trim it to fit the can, sell the trim lunchmeat makers, and zap that ham slice in those huge industrial canners. Whole ham has got to taste better than the chopped mush they shape to fit. So my idea costs more on the shelf. OK, I'll pay if it's worth the extra effort. Call it gourmet, proudly made in the USA, and all the pigs are happy until the axe falls. Marketing is easy.

I get your point. But someone has had to have learned a trick or two in the past few decades. All they've done is made the product less appealing. No one can seem to struggle past Spam's example that is almost a century old. Time for some canned ham progress.
 
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#23 ·
Sue Bee Whole Chicken. It tastes fine if you can still find it, but it is pretty nasty to see sliding out of the can. It became a bit of an internet meme for being gross to see. Then again, the kids making the memes thought that meat comes from a Hot Pockets Tree. Hand them a hatchet and a live chicken and we are talking about decades of expensive PTSD therapy for them. Unless they get rich they are going to have a rude awakening when their blushing bride complaints about the tub always clogging up and they have to clean out the pipe themselves instead of paying off a plumber to snake it. They can kill COD nazis all day, but cut their finger in the kitchen and they cry for a medivac team instead of slapping some electrical tape on it and getting back to the sandwich they wanted. Food should be both tasty and attractive on the serving plate, but the path to the plate can visit some rude stops along the way.
 
#26 ·
ok.... Below is a bunch of pics with the front of the cans and the nutrition info for each in the picture under it.
First pick is overall view of what I am posting
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Armour Treet Original (do they have any other versions?)

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Spam Classic

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Spam Bacon

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Spam Turkey

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The rest will be continued in another post because the forum only allows 10 pictures in a single post.....
 
#27 ·
Part 2 of the pictures comparing meats and nutrition info...

Spam Hickory Smoke
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Great Value Roast Beef (I know, not pork, ham or spam but I had it out and figured what the hell)

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Great Value Chunk Chicken Breast (yeah, also not pig)

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Armour Vienna Sausage (three pics to get all the info to show on the small can)

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Bristol Cooked Ham Will be in a third post (damn ten pic limit again)
 
#28 ·
And last but not least...

Bristol Cooked Ham

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#31 ·
$2.92 a can at my local walmart