The Genius Way You Should Try Cooking Spam

Whether you're someone that grew up eating Spam or whether you've simply seen the can on grocery store shelves for years and just always walked right past it, Spam is an ingredient that is surprisingly versatile. It's been around since 1937, and can be incorporated into a wide variety of dishes. You can create Spam fries, slice it atop a bowl of ramen or nestled into a breakfast sandwich, or even mixed into a bowl of fried rice. While you may be wary of cooking with canned meat, the reality is you can easily and effectively substitute Spam for other proteins in a huge variety of dishes.

Once you know what type of dish you'd like to make with your can of Spam, the next step is deciding how to cook it. Luckily, the meat is already cooked before it's packaged, so you don't need to worry about it reaching a particular internal temperature or anything like that. Instead, it's just about getting the texture you want, from something crisp and pan-fried to something a little softer, depending on what you need for your dish. There's one particular way to cook Spam that you may not have thought of before — and it requires grabbing a piece of kitchen equipment typically used for breakfast. It turns out, the response to the question "can it waffle?" in the case of Spam is a resounding yes (via Lifehacker).

If you've only been using your waffle iron to craft, well, waffles, trust us — you're missing out. The simple, relatively inexpensive kitchen tool can make delicious waffles for a weekend brunch, certainly, but you can also fill that signature mold with eggs for omelet waffles, cinnamon rolls for a sweet treat, bread and cheese for a unique textured grilled cheese sandwich, and much more. Spam joins the list as one of the many items you can use your waffle iron to cook. The reason this particular cooking method is so ideal for the canned meat is that all those little square-shaped nooks and crannies allow it to get plenty of crispy spots (via Lifehacker). 

And, this particular trick couldn't be easier. You don't need to do anything crazy like mold your Spam pieces into a waffle-shaped circle before putting it in — the waffle iron doesn't actually need to be filled to the very edges in order to work. Instead, you can take the Spam slices just as they are and place them in the iron, allowing them to get all those crispy bits. Once you've cooked the meat, you can use it in a wide variety of ways. Some simply like taking the crispy, meaty patties and dipping them in a sauce, but you could also continue the breakfast-inspired theme and place the waffle-cooked Spam patties in a breakfast sandwich or breakfast burrito.