SPAM Box - Part 1

Back in 2010, in an office in Sheffield, myself and a few lads were talking rubbish, something along the lines of Cornish pasties and foods within other foods.  Someone quietly made a comment about food being placed inside a block of SPAM, but then less quietly and for the benefit of us all, the same person announced almost triumphantly "SPAM Box!"

The combination of words alone had us all chuckling. It was brilliant. We talked a little further about SPAM Box, exchanging e-mails and generally acting like kids about an imaginary food novelty - something that would surely be forgotten before the next morning.

However, that wasn't to be.  Whilst it was funny imagining a box of SPAM (please note the upper-case spelling, it's the way it's supposed to be), I thought it might be funnier to actually make one.  I'd almost immediately decided what was going in the SPAM Box and so, on the way home from work, I stopped off at the shops and picked up a few ingredients.

I'd decided that I was going to create a full English breakfast INSIDE a box of SPAM.  Obviously I couldn't fit everything in, so went for bacon, egg, beans and ketchup.  And with my ingredients prepared I began;

These are the basic ingredients for the SPAMbox

Step one; Create your lid. Take a 6mm slice off the top

Step two; Start carving the shafts, this is the trickiest part of the process

This is what you should end up with

Step 3; In one shaft add your egg, in the other add your beans, a squirt of ketchup, and top it off with a few squares of bacon

Step 4; Replace the lid and pop into a pre-heated oven (160c) for an hour(ish)

This is what it looks like fresh from the oven.

Et voila! The celery is optional, it was just put there to add some colour

It's big enough to share, again, that's optional

And that was the birth of the SPAMbox!  I felt quite proud of what I'd achieved.  So proud in fact that I e-mailed a picture of the SPAMbox to the company in the hope that it might make a few people in the office chuckle.  The e-mail I got back wasn't the response I'd expected.  It just so happened that at the same time SPAM were holding a national competition to find the SPAM Cook Of The Year and I was asked if I'd be willing to enter - how could I refuse?!

So, competition entered I began pestering friends and family to vote for the SPAMbox to win the regional heats, all the while thinking that it was a bit of a laugh and that I'd hear no more of it.  I should have realised that people were taking this more seriously than I was when I had to do a short interview for the Sheffield Star.  Ridiculous. 

The competition results were announced on the SPAM website and it turned out that SPAMbox had made it through to the finals of the SPAM Cook Of The Year, due to take place in London and to be judged by TV chef Phil Vickery.  Not only did it win the regional heat, apparently SPAMbox had the most votes out of any other recipe!

I was slightly nervous.  I realised that this had all been a bit of a laugh, and now someone wants to send me to London, put me up in a hotel and have me unleash my culinary fumblings on Phil Vickery. 

Poor Phil. Poor, poor Phil.

Part 2 will be up soon.  It will likely be called 'The Glory. The Shame.' for reasons that will become clear.